Cars! Cars! Cars!

Saab On The Brain?

Sorry for our rants about Saab recently (No Way), but what is up with Saab? How can this niche brand still be around?

Specifics? Sure, in August and September Saab sold 19 cars a day. Two months in a row! July? 22. Come on, Saab is totally, totally over. And there is no way any sane company is going to buy it. Just for comparison's sake, in the time that Saab sold 960-some cars, Toyota sold 300-THOUSAND (cash for clunkers helped this, sure, but come on! Saab sold fewer during the cash for clunkers shenanigans).

Anyway, Saab dead. Let's move on.

Referenced articles
Autoblog: By the Numbers - August 2009: Cash for Clunkers Edition
Autoblog: By The Numbers - September 2009: Post C4C, We're All Alright Edition

During the same two months in which Saab sold 960-ish Smart sold over 2,200! And how many Smart Cars have you really seen?

No Way

There is no way that Koenigsegg is buying Saab. Really? No, there is no way. For Alison's sake, they sold 19 each day during August. That's during the cash for clunkers sale no less.

Saab is dead. GM killed it. Long live Saab!

Referenced articles
Autoblog: By the Numbers

Bigger

Toyota got some mo bigga!

Toyota Motor sold nearly 300,000 more vehicles than General Motors in the first half of 2008 and appears to be on its way to ending G.M.'s 77-year reign as the world's largest automaker.

Our guess is the rest of the year will play out the same way, regardless of how many incentives GM (and all of Detroit) offers up.

Referenced article

NY Times: Toyota Moves Ahead of G.M. in Auto Sales

More To Come?

We all know GM is about to (ed note: pick one before publication*):

1. Throw HUMMER on fire
2. Flush the toilet on HUMMER
3. Force HUMMER to walk the Purple Valley
4. Shitcan HUMMER because, after all, jaysus!

But in recent news could it be that GM is also considering axing another brand? Or brands?

We got an exclusively made-up interview with GM spokesman Tony Cervone who replied, "We are absolutely not considering canning Pontiac and Buick. Or, man, Saab. Did you see those Saab numbers? Kkkkkeeerist! And just because I dropped a bucket of pink slips a minute ago means nothing." A follow-up question yielded no movement on getting us Alison Krauss's phone number. GM's PR department is so letting us down.

Referenced articles

Automotive News (you need a subscription despite information wanting to be free): GM denies any more brands under review.
autoblog: By the numbers (June 2008 edition)

*"Publication" Ha!

Which Volvo Is Next Go?

So we're reading the blokes at autoblog who wrote: Sinking Swede? Ford devalues Volvo. First of all, way to hurt Volvo's feelings. Leave it to an airplane dude to be so cold and callous (but, nice hair). Second, eh, we'd devalue them, too.

So, what we're getting at is -- a new Friday game! That's right. This new game is What Vehicle is (manufacturer) Going To Kill Off Next?

Up this week (in alphabetical order): Volvo

Volvo's Lineup (with sales for 2007):

S40: 18,215 -26.3%
S60: 18,521 -28.2%
S80: 12,354 125.%
V50: 2,856 -31.2%
V70: 3,769 -32.7%
XC70: 12,630 -3.9%
XC90: 31,358 -5.7%
C30: 2,103 100%
C70: 4,548 15.4%

So, who is in the running? Well, maybe the S40, S60, V50 and V70. Let's boot out the V70 because it's going to be all new for 2008 (the current V70 was very long in the tooth... but the new V70 gets frakkin' horrible gas mileage... holy cow must Volvo engineers be feeling mighty low at this point). So, we have the S40, S60 and V50. Let's also boot the S60 because Volvo is rumored to be making the XC60, so maybe that means an upgrade for the regular S60 as well.

So now we're down to the wee S40/V50. We recall reading Volvo is interested in a 5-door version of the C30 (which is a horrible mistake), we think the next Volvo to get the axe will be: V50.

Long live the Volvo V50.

Screw the V50. It's cool, but for $36k? Frak that.

Tundra Movin' On Up

We've been thinking a little more about Toyota becoming number two after we re-read these posts :

Kicking Tires reports: How Ford Lost The #2 Spot to Toyota.

Edmunds reports: 2007 Toyota Tundra: Best Year Ever.

We've speculated the Tundra was going to be Toyota's albatross and that still remains to be seen. According to that Edmunds link, Toyota was hoping to move 200k units of the Tundra (they sold 196k of 'em). That's a pretty significant number since these buyers had to come from the big three. In fact, let's take a look at the sales of trucks for 2007:

Ford F-series: 690,589 -13.2% over 2006
Chevy Fullsize pickups: 673,807 -2.8% over 2006
Dodge Ram: 358,295 -2% over 2006
Nissan Titan: 65,746 -9.2% over 2006
Toyota Tundra: 196,555 +54%

It looks like (with really no additional research) that Tundra sales are coming from Ford and Nissan folks. So, while Toyota has knocked Ford from the number two position, it sure seems like all big three should pretty concerned about the Tundra's movement upward.

GM Number One!

And, now, Toyota is number two. Autoblog reports: By the Numbers: 2007.

So, let's see here. Add up the BMW with the Ford, carry the, hey, where's the VW dealie? Anyway, we're looking at roughly: 14,092,314 vehicles sold. That's more than we'da guessed... But we're willing to make another stupid prediction.

Thanks to the housing market collapse, we bet we see no more than 13,500,000 sold in 2008. Too many mortgages are coming due and too many people are going to be booted out of their homes. And if the recession gets into full swing (it will), there'll be no money for a roof, let alone a ride.

Jaguar only sold 15,683 cars in '07? We're surprised they sold that many based on the models they have for sale. We know they are coming out with a new model called... the... what was it? Oh, right, the Who Cares. Good luck, Jaguar.

Two Roads: GM Takes The One Often Traveled

We liked the contrast of these two articles (even though they weren't written to be contrasty or anything):

AutoWeek reports: 2008 GMC Yukon hybrid: Welcome, alien.

The Detroit News reports: Subcompact sales boom.

So in one article we have GM making a big ol' SUV use less fuel and the other we see how, for non-US makers, subcompact sales are booming.

We wonder which strategy will work.

GMC Yukon hybrid: $50k, 21 city/22 highway (2WD)
Subcompacts: $13k+ over 30mpg in every scenario

Speaking of subcompacts, we find it interesting that Nissan seems to be the sales leader with the Versa, yet it takes 69* days to sell one compared to just 22 days for the Honda Fit. According to the article, Honda would sell more if it could make more -- you'd think Honda would make it a priority. Oh, it's also interesting that Honda claims the Fit is not eating into the sales of the Civic. We have to bet that one of Honda's models is suffering (since Honda's sales aren't up that much -- 4.6% for 2007). Wow, the Element is off by 33% this year? Sounds like Honda's gonna have to move them suckas off the lot right quick -- deal time! Sorry this turned into a Honda post.

Anyway, it's interesting to us that GM is pushing a huge hybrid SUV (for $50k!) and many others are doing well with subcompacts.

*Alison, call us.

Think 2008 Will Be Bad? Wait Until 2009 -- Mercy!

Autoblog reports: 2008 will be another long year for automakers: Dealers cutting back on orders.

For sure 2008 will be less than 2007. And as U.S. economic woes continue (they're going to get a lot worse, watch), auto sales will continue to decline. We predict 2009 will see one million fewer cars sold than in 2007.

Ford Accidently Sells Several Edges

The Detroit News reports: Ford's sales down 21 percent in September despite crossover success. So, Ford makes two vehicles that folks want. Nice.

In other news, our, um, er, market penetration into Alison Krauss territory has not lived up to expectation despite skillful comb-over and pimple-popping success.