Automakers: Page

Toyota Motor Corp.

4L DOHC V-8 All right, we've finally got our arms around the gem-quality Toyota Motor Corp. Lexus 4L DOHC V-8. Here it goes:Think of some of the existing luxury/sport V-8s out there as representing various members of the Corleone family of Godfather fame. There are very telling similarities that get to the "personality" of V-8s.The Godfather himself? It has to be BMW's strong, silent and confident

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Auto Talk: Ford: ‘C’ Stands for Underachiever

Remember in school when a "C" was acceptable, a mark of an average student who lagged behind the brains but stood ahead of the truly challenged?Forget those days. At Ford Motor Co., a new evaluation system is under way to trim marginal employees from its salaried workforce (100,000 strong), and as many as 2,000 employees annually could be looking for new work because of it, Ward's has learned.The

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Explore the Trendline➔

Top 5 stories from WardsAuto

Automakers are evaluating their long-term strategies, revisiting their product mix, and approach to both retail and manufacturing approach along the way.

By WardsAuto staff

Auto Talk: Hughes Working On Daewoo Deal

Once one of General Motors Corp.'s golden boys, not much has been heard from or about Louis R. Hughes since he was sidelined during GM's reorganization a year ago. Mr. Hughes had headed International Operations (IO), which was abolished when it was combined with its North American Operations (NAO) to form a single global structure. NAO President G. Richard Wagoner moved up to corporate president in

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Automotive Insight: Jac Be Nimble, Jac Be Quick

Ever since Jac Nasser barn-stormed into the driver's seat at Ford Motor Co., he's been all action. He tore into the organization, cutting headcount, tossing out deadwood and yanking layers of bureaucracy. He re-jiggered the Ford 2000 organization, promoted non-Americans to positions of prominence, and brought in new faces from outside the industry. He also proved he knows what he's doing, providing

By John McElroy • Jan. 1, 2000

Pipeline: Fears For Tiers

After more than a decade, it appears the neat little boxes used to categorize automotive suppliers are crumbling all around us.With good reason, the industry has classified suppliers based on their position in the chain that feeds parts to the automaker's assembly plant. "Tier 4" might constitute a producer of raw materials used in components packaged neatly into a module by the "Tier 1" systems integrator.But

By Tom Murphy • Jan. 1, 2000

The 8s: Ford Motor Co.

5.4L Triton SOHC V-8 5.4L Supercharged V-8 There is a bushelful of great V-8s around these days. Unfortunately, a lot of them happen to come in vehicles that cost more than the $50,000 cap that governs the 10 Best Engines competition. So one place we didn't expect to find an excellent, affordable V-8 with honest-to-gosh refinement was in a pickup truck.Ford took a gamble with the 5.4L SOHC Triton

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Nissan

3L DOHC V-6 It's becoming a habit, this business of telling readers that Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s "VQ" 3L DOHC V-6 has won yet another 10 Best Engines Award. Securing a place on this year's list ties Nissan with BMW as the only manufacturer to place the same engine for six consecutive years.How else to describe the VQ but pre-eminent? The inherent excellence of this design absolutely stunned us - and

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

BMW

3.2L DOHC I-6 What's to say about BMW AG's "Motorsports" or M-edition, 3.2L DOHC I-6 that hasn't been said? Best Engines watchers will note that in winning a 10 Best Engines 2000 award, the BMW 3.2L I-6 is one of only two engines to win the award in each of the six years since the competition's inception.There just isn't any beating a creamy inline 6-cyl. that also happens to have power in abundance,

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

The 6s: Audi AG

2.7L Twin-turbo DOHC V-6 Audi AG engineers say they've had it with hearing the press - and more than a few customers, no doubt - whine about Audi's ostensible disdain for competitive engine performance. After all, Audis are supposed to bring technology to the fore - and in the automotive milieu, performance and technology always have been inextricably linked.We've sung past praises for Audi's 5-valve-per-cylinder

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Automaking in 2025 Japan

TOKYO - It's back to the future for the Japanese auto industry.Seventy-five years ago, in 1925, Ford Motor Co. arrived with a relief shipment of 1,000 Model-Ts, all knock-down and needing assembly, to help rebuild Tokyo's public transportation system which a year before had been severely damaged by a killer earthquake. General Motors Corp. landed the following year, and combined the two companies

By Roger Schreffler • Dec. 1, 1999

Auto Talk: ‘Th!nk’ Ford First in Norway

Ford Motor Co., which kicks off production of its Think electric car in Norway, plans to unveil a sweeping North American program for the Think brand at the Detroit auto show in January."This small car represents the beginning of something much bigger at Ford," Ford of Europe Chairman Nick Scheele said earlier this year.Capacity at the factory in Aurskog-Holand, Norway, is 5,000 a year, and the goal

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Dec. 1, 1999

LANDERS LOOKS TO LAND IN TOP SPOT

The 25th anniversary supp-lement of the Arkansas Times headlined its single dealer success story in a one-word headline, "LANDERS."The story focused on the three-dealership chain operated by Steve Landers and owned by United Auto Group since 1995. The stores are in Benton and North Little Rock, AR.The Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge-Jeep, Ford and Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealerships are top sellers in President

By Maynard M. Gordon • Dec. 1, 1999

Auto Talk: BMW Worries That Cars Aren’t ‘Involving’

TURIN - BMW AG executives and engineers are worried that their cars - renowned worldwide for their impeccable driving characteristics - are becoming too good. Or too refined. Or too expensive.Or all three of the above.What has BMW thinking this way? It's owners are growing older. A decade ago, the average age of BMW buyers was almost 10 years younger than Mercedes-Benz drivers. Today, the difference

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Dec. 1, 1999

GENERAL MOTORS GOES TO (MO)TOWN WITH EXTRAVAGANT NEW AUTO SHOW EXHIBIT

General Motors Corp. is constructing the largest auto show exhibit ever built in North America.The colossal 164,456-sq.-ft., two-level showcase is under construction for the North American International Auto Show, a January event spon-sored by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association.The exhibit will be called "The GM Experience." It will house all the automaker's brands, including Saab and Saturn, plus

By Steve Finlay • Dec. 1, 1999

Auto Talk: Ford Launches ‘Mass Customization’

Coming to a Ford showroom near you - the model of your choice, with performance tires, powerful sound systems, bodyside cladding and other goodies generally reserved for the aftermarket.Ford Motor Co. has figured out that if young car buffs are eager to spend most of their paycheck to make their cars unique, why not ship the car from the factory already zooted up?With an eye on the lucrative aftermarket,

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Dec. 1, 1999

Shanghai Makes Room for a Minivan

SHANGHAI - Shanghai General Motors Co. Ltd. (SGM) in September took a great leap past what it considers a major milestone: the 10,000-unit mark.By now, some 12,000 Shanghai Buick sedans have rolled off the line at the General Motors Corp./Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. joint venture, to fill the 18,000 sales orders received since production began in April.The plant will build some 20,000 vehicles

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • Dec. 1, 1999

DC’s Bob Eaton Fighting for Respect on Wall Street

If you don't look at the stock price, DaimlerChrysler AG Co-chairmen Robert J. Eaton and Juergen E. Schrempp still look like two pretty smart guys. By most other measures, the $36 billion merger of the former Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp. is doing well. Mercedes-Benz's worldwide car sales are up 12% through the first nine months of this year, and Chrysler's car and truck sales are 6% ahead of last

By Drew Winter • Dec. 1, 1999

Latin America: Slow but Steady

For automakers in Latin America, the next five years may feel like 20.The region that initially held so much promise has seen a year of plummeting sales and production. But experts agree that South America has not lost its potential. Twenty years down the road the region could be awash in boom times again.Meanwhile, there's reason for worry in the short term. Latin America's vehicle sales in 1999

By Andrea Wielgat • Dec. 1, 1999

‘New Domestics’ Pegged for Growth

Another record year is in store for North America's so-called transplant automakers as their 18 plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico roll toward a 3.5 million-plus unit year. That's more than 13 times bigger than the numbers posted in 1979 when the first Volkswagen Rabbits rolled off the line at Westmoreland, PA.Car and light-truck production by the non-U.S.-based automakers will make up a little

By Michael Arnholt • Dec. 1, 1999

Ford is getting closer to buyers but tells dealers not to worry

Ford Motor Co. had a year to remember in 1999. Like most of the world's vehicle manu-facturers, it sold more cars and trucks than ever before.Add to that the following highlights:Its giant corporate display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which upstaged GM.The trials and tribulations of the Ford Collections, Ford's foray into automotive retailing.Its Internet joint venture

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 1999

Playing the Population Odds

13 billion people. That's billion with a "B."1.3 billion people who - for the most part - have not discovered the wonders of the personal automobile.Not yet, at any rate. That single fact, China's mind-boggling population, has caused automakers to go headlong into world's most foreign (to the West, anyway) foreign country.Never mind the country's lack of infrastructure. Never mind the communist/socialist

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • Dec. 1, 1999

Does BMW’s ‘X’ Mark the Spot?

ATLANTA, GA - Here we go again. This month's interpretation of the sport/utility vehicle (SUV).BMW AG's been telling us for a couple of years that its SUV wouldn't be an SUV. The company's backing up the assertion with its chosen moniker for the 2000-model X5: SAV, or Sports Activity Vehicle.And, to its credit, BMW also is not ashamed to say that the new X5 makes no pretense about offering any sort

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 1, 1999

PLYMOUTH DEALERS FRET ABOUT THE END OF THE LINE AFTER 71 YEARS

DaimlerChrysler Corp.'s three stand-alone Plymouth dealers aren't the only retailers unsure about their future in the wake of the announ-cement that the Plymouth brand will be dropped at the end of 2001.Two Plymouth stores in Pennsylvania and one in Nebraska will lose their only line of vehicles. DaimlerChrysler President James P. Holden promises to "take care" of those dealers.A published report

Dec. 1, 1999

Tech & Trends: Nissan Producing Amazing New CVT

TOKYO. - The hot acronym here - and all over the world - is CVT. Automakers suddenly have jumped feet-first into continuously variable transmission development, and now the race is on to see who can make the most of this fascinating, though hardly new, technology.Nissan is the world's first automaker to bring the unique, "toroidal" CVT to production, although other automakers appear to have imminent

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 1, 1999

At Large with Dave Smith: A Marriage Made in Heaven

Pete Pestillo and Steve Yokich outwardly would seem to have little in common.Mr. Pestillo is an easterner with a law degree from Georgetown University and a long career in corporate labor relations - at the B.F. Goodrich Co., General Electric Co. and, since 1980, at the Ford Motor Co.Mr. Yokich was born in Detroit, where both of his parents and his grandfathers were active in union affairs. He proudly

By David C. Smith • Dec. 1, 1999