Automakers: Page 429

Skoda’s on a Whirl Czech carmaker is doing something right

Three years ago the most powerful Skoda packed a scant 75 hp. Today's top Octavia has 125 hp, with 150 hp in the pipeline, and the upward trend doesn't end there. Skoda, like parent Volkswagen AG, plans a new V-8. A 250-hp Skoda, no less.The Czech carmaker - by one interpretation, the third oldest in the world behind Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot - is now Europe's fastest-growing volume marque. Sales

By Peter Robinson • Sept. 1, 1998

Plastics Get Smart Europe’s new micro car sports plastic panels

This year's blockbuster DaimlerChrysler merger has suppliers on both sides of the Atlantic worrying. In Europe, traditional Daimler-Benz suppliers fear they'll be asked for drastic price cuts when Daimler's purchasing department finds out what Chrysler is paying for various parts. Chrysler's vendors are leery of Mercedes' hands-on approach to supplier relations.But the marriage bodes well for at least

By STEPHEN E. PLUMB • Sept. 1, 1998

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial Intelligence

Automakers and dealers alike are increasingly seeing the use case for AI within their operations. Explore some use cases in this trendline.

By WardsAuto staff

General Motors and the UAW Deserve Each Other They’re headed on a dead-endcourse

The General Motors strike is over, but a few things should be said. Imagine you are a supplier. Your best customer accounts for 30% of your business. He pays top dollar for your goods. The last few years his business hasn't been so good, so he has cut back on his orders. He complains about your prices - says you're not competitive in this global market. But he still pays top dollar for your work.

By Jerry Flint • Sept. 1, 1998

Can Jay Alix’s Tonic Cure What Ails Peregrine?

It won't be easy, and it won't be pretty. But it is possible for Peregrine Inc., the supplier founded just over a year ago through the purchase of four General Motors Delphi Automotive Systems plants, to recover from the brink of bankruptcy.In fact, Jay Alix, the turnaround specialist who bought Peregrine earlier this year, says his restructuring plan could have the company on the path to profitability

Sept. 1, 1998

Ford and Chrysler beat Wall Street hopes; GM 2nd qtr. earnings tumble

Collectively, second-quarter earnings of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. were off 22% from a year earlier - $3.8 billion vs. $4.8 billion. But that masks the underlying story: Ford and Chrysler met or exceeded analysts' expectations, while the $1.2-billion cost of two parts-plant strikes drove GM's profits down 81% from a year ago. GM's bid to prop up market share through aggressive

Aug. 1, 1998

1999 Corvette Hardtop: Chalk one up for checkbook liberation?

More bang for your buck: That's what the latest Corvette iteration promises - to the delight of drivers demanding the highest performance.General Motors Corp. revisits its muscle car roots with the '99 Hardtop, the first fixed-roof 'Vette to grace the fold since the venerable Stingray era came to a close in 1967. Conspicuously absent is much of the high-tech gadgetry and hotrod-in-suburbia comforts

By NATALIE NEFF • Aug. 1, 1998

Everybody Likes to be Stroked GM’s 3.5L Twin Cam basics are best

WARREN, MI - I walk into the headquarters of General Motors Corp.'s Powertrain Group here, and Max Freeman, Powertrain's assistant chief engineer, is in top gear.He and Allen Cline, from Powertrain product engineering, are ready to talk engines - specifically, GM's all-new 3.5L Twin Cam V-6, often dubbed Shortstar owing to its modular-type derivation from DOHC all-aluminum 4.6L Northstar and 4L Oldsmobile

By Bill Visnic • Aug. 1, 1998

Ford makes speedy purchase of Cosworth Racing

Cosworth without Ford? That appeared to be the future when Audi AG inked a deal to buy Cosworth Engineering from Vickers plc for $192.3 million. But just one day out of the starting blocks as Cosworth's new owner, Audi peddles the Cosworth Racing subsidiary to Ford Motor Co. The deal allows Cosworth Racing to continue supplying Ford with Formula One, Indy Car and Touring Car racing engines. "Cosworth

Aug. 1, 1998

Volkswagen-Volvo: The Next Big Deal?

It began with Volkswagen AG expressing interest in AB Volvo's commercial truck business, but discussions between the German and Swedish automakers have covered a broader range of possible cooperation, says Volvo CEO Leif Johansson.Mr. Johansson and VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech "talked about different areas of cooperation." Hans-Juergen Uhl, managing director of the VW works council, says the VW supervisory

Aug. 1, 1998

Strikes Delay Delphi’s Seat Biz Sale to Lear

Lear Corp. will not complete the acquisition of Delphi Automotive Systems' seating business until early in the third quarter, largely due to the two General Motors Corp. strikes in Flint. The deal originally was to be completed in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Lear has started producing seats for Ford Ranger pickups made in Thailand. The General Seating Thailand operation in Rayong is a 50-50 joint

Aug. 1, 1998

Does BMW want a slice of Subaru?

With automotive companies gobbling each other up Pac Man style, Tokyo is buzzing with rumors BMW AG is poised to take over Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s small 4.5% stake in Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. Of course, speculation surrounding such mergers pop up every week now that Chrysler Corp. and Daimler-Benz AG have announced marriage plans and Volkswagen AG has gone on a buying binge. But this

Aug. 1, 1998

So Long, Bob. Hello Bob Chrysler’s Lutz isn’t ready to settle down

Chrysler Corp. Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz in July cleaned out his spacious, memento-filled office, and, at age 66, moved on to a new chapter in his varied and colorful life.Only he knows what lies ahead. He already serves on four corporate boards and a handful of civic, educational and charitable organizations. Yet despite his many accomplishments in an automotive career that has spanned 35 years

By David C. Smith • Aug. 1, 1998

Gerd Klauss Takes Over at Volkswagen of America

Despite its impressive comeback in the United States, top management of Volkswagen AG is replacing Volkswagen of America Inc. President Clive Warrilow with Gerd Klauss, effective at year's end.Mr. Klauss, currently president of Audi of America Inc., takes over a company with a healthy helping of momentum in the world's most competitive automotive market. Volkswagen's U.S. sales through the first half

Aug. 1, 1998

Crunch Time for Skilled Trades Neglect of vo-tech is making labor shortageeven worse

In an age when General Motors Corp. wants to slice 50,000 hourly workers from its rolls and plummeting Asian currencies make off-shore investment more enticing than ever, Mike Miller offers a desperately needed fresh face for American manufacturing.A 19-year-old raised in the Detroit suburb of Clinton Township, he is in the midst of a machining apprenticeship that will qualify him as a journeyman

By GREG GARDNER • Aug. 1, 1998

Report Card Time Ford shows big gains in annual ‘productivity’ gauge

Call it the paradox of profitability.In the 1998 Harbour Report, the annual industry report card on factory floor efficiency, Ford Motor Co. blew way past its domestic rivals, virtually caught up with the Japanese competition and overtook Chrysler Corp. as the most profitable automaker in North America on a profit-per-vehicle basis.Then there is the industry's perennial valedictorian, Nissan Motor

By GREG GARDNER • Aug. 1, 1998

Quantum Composites Lightens Load

Ford Motor Co.'s '98 Ford Explorers are lighter and cost less to produce thanks to a tough new thermoset composite material developed by Quantum Composites, a subsidiary of Premix Inc., in Midland, MI. Quantum engineers developed QPC-1977 structural molding compound, which combines a high-temperature hybrid thermoset resin with 50% glass. The result is a frame-mounted heat shield that can endure temperatures

Aug. 1, 1998

Ford buys Cosworth Racing from Audi

Ford Motor Co. will buy Cosworth Racing from Audi AG, which had already bought Cosworth Engineering from Vickers plc. The purchase will allow Cosworth's racing division to continue supplying Ford with Formula One, Indy car and Touring car racing engines.

Aug. 1, 1998

VW eyeing Volvo one way or another

Will Volkswagen AG buy AB Volvo or just try to put it out of the car business? VW and Volvo admit to high-level talks, but both sides insist a complete merger or takeover is not in the cards. That won't stop VW from trying to take away Volvo's market share, however - via Czech-built Skodas. Don't laugh. Thanks to an injection of VW technology, Skodas are starting to make a favorable impression on

Aug. 1, 1998

Solara Eclipse Solara coupe tries to blot out Camry’s bland reputation

CARMEL, CA - Yes, Toyota Camry was America's bestselling car in 1997. But Toyotamarketing officials won't be entirely satisfied until the "buff" magazines stop referring to their impeccably competent flagship as an appliance.Now, with the introduction of the Camry Solara coupe, Japan's largest automaker has a chance to prove it hasn't submerged styling and driving passion to the dictates of market

By GREG GARDNER • Aug. 1, 1998

Manufacturing Revolution Underway in Brazil Companies build Emerging-Markettemplates

CURITIBA, BRAZIL - Welcome to the Automotive New World Order.In the heart of South America's most populous nation, manufacturers and automotive suppliers are taking advantage of flexible labor forces and low-volume production to create a learning lab from which they hope to apply lessons to factories throughout the world.What grabs a visitor to factories like Chrysler Corp.'s new Dakota truck plant

By Jeff Green • Aug. 1, 1998

Packaging Changes Free Up Space Decorative plants replace cardboard waste

In 1995 the aisles along the assembly lines at Chrysler Corp.'s Warren Truck Assembly plant were crowded with large parts bins on unwieldy carts and often littered with discarded cardboard.In most areas of the plant today the cardboard has almost vanished, the parts are in neat, compact bins and the aisles have so much open space that employees have started to place plants the size of small trees

By Jeff Green • Aug. 1, 1998

Lincoln Mercury Sets Up Shop In California

IRVINE, CA - Lincoln Mercury opened the doors to its new world headquarters here, the first marketing division of a domestic auto company to call California home. "This move is not only physical, it is symbolic," says Mark Hutchins, the division's new general manager. "It is not only geographical, but physical. With a bold, independent point of view, we've begun a journey that will influence everything

Aug. 1, 1998

Blast From the (Not-too-Distant) Past: Infiniti G20 Makes Its Return

SNOQUALMIE FALLS, WA - Fans of quirky TV shows may recall this location as the setting for the entertainingly bizarre Twin Peaks of the early '90s. Could it be that the folks at Infiniti are waxing with a bit too much nostalgia about the re-introduction of the G20?The first G20 bowed as a 1991 - based on the well-regarded European Primera. It was retired after the 1996 season, but has returned with

By Mike Arnholt • Aug. 1, 1998

Nissan to slim down from 25 to 10 platforms

In a round of we'll-still-be-here-and-here's-why briefings for analysts and reporters, Nissan North America Inc. executives offer a peek at upcoming models, including a new as-yet-unnamed small sport/utility vehicle coming next summer and built off the same platform as the Frontier pickup. Other sneak peeks include the 2000 Maxima and Sentra and a 4-door Frontier pickup. President Minoru Nakamura

Aug. 1, 1998

Bumper Battleground--Automakers, insurers continue to fight over standards

The smooth, flowing lines of most new cars and trucks conceal bumpers so well consumers rarely give them a second thought. But back into a pole in a Wal-Mart parking lot on a busy weekend and bumper design suddenly becomes an important part of your life.If you ram the pole in a Hyundai Elantra going 5 mph (8 km/h), you're looking at more than $1,700 in damage and all the hassle that entails: dropping

By Drew Winter • July 1, 1998