The Week That Was

By: Graeme Roberts

Deputy/news editor Graeme Roberts' Friday wrap on the important automotive news from the week just ending.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Once more to the toy shop, brothers!

3 May 2013

Those three of you who peruse every bit of just-auto's home page every day will probably already know The Editorial Team had our annual Fun Day Out this week, courtesy of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Test Day. I've been going, on and off, sice 1987 and the agenda follows a refreshingly familar, welll-proven and immensely popular programme which I believe is unique to the UK auto industry. After earlier using other venues, the SMMT nowadays books Millbrook, the former Vauxhall Proving Ground (founded 1968), almost every importer/manufacturer shows up with the allocated six cars, caterers lay out a fine breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea - and we show up and go nuts.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: The numbers are in

26 April 2013

Results season - Q1 2013, Q4/fiscal year 2012/3, etc. We disappear under a mountain of figures and you get it all neatly sliced, diced and packaged here. Enjoy.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Renaissance at Opel

19 April 2013

Off over to Opel's tech centre at Dudenhofen (in the forest south east of Frankfurt) to see and try some of the new engines and gearboxes in the works.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Nordic volts

12 April 2013

A first time visit to Oslo this week, to discover a country where winter seems to last 48 weeks of the year. But they grow lots of electricity by dropping water from great heights which must explain the number of electric cars and charge points everywhere.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: US stays on the up

5 April 2013

Some good sales numbers out of the US this week as new models get favourable reactions and a degree of cautious optimism prevails. Soon we'll get a reality check in the form of the first quarter financial results.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Showtime in New York

28 March 2013

Award for the most cleverly orchestrated hype this week has gotta go to Tata Motors' Land Rover which unveiled its long-awaited Range Rover Sport in New York this week, a superb case study of how much the method of launching new cars has changed in the digital age.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Once more to Munchen...

22 March 2013

Groundhog Day. Once more to Munchen, same day, same flight, same seat even; different venues and host. This time, it was BMW's annual accounts conference, a week after Audi's.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Live from Ingolstadt...

15 March 2013

Most of the good news this week emanated from Germany where yours truly was reporting and tweeting live, for the first time ever, ladies and gentlemen, from the annual results press conference at Ingolstadt, Hauptstadt der Audi.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Geneva, Toyota reshuffle, Fords from India

8 March 2013

The week's industry highlight undoubtedly was the Geneva show. I wasn't there so, without further ado, let me refer you to our cleverly packaged coverage here and especially the comprehensive reviews just published. Mine's a BMW 3GT, if you're asking.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Strong results and a new Leaf

1 March 2013

Full year 2012 results continued rolling in this week with another set of read-em-and-weep figures (if you're at, say Ford of Europe, GME or PSA) from Volkswagen Group. There was a note of caution about 2013 before, a day or two later, came the news of EUR7,200 in annual bonus for each of the worker bees. Nice, if you can get it.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: High tech trickles down

22 February 2013

The steady migration downwards of driver assistance systems took a big leap this week with the announcement of Nissan's new Note for Europe which will come with a whole heap of, probably optional but nonetheless available, kit. We took a closer look at this key development.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Financial results: the good, the bad and the ugly

15 February 2013

There were more financial results out this week and it was another mixed bag. General Motors' latest black ink was, overall, good. It's still making big profits, mainly based on healthy North American business and continued progress in Asia (especially China where it sold, with its JVs, over 300,000 units in January). Europe's a problem for GM, but that's been the case for a while now, no easy solutions. Also in the good pile was Jaguar Land Rover.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Cold winds blowing for some

8 February 2013

There have been some cold winds blowing this week, literally and metaphorically. The metaphorical blasts are all too familiar and can be summed up in three words: problems in Europe.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Ford nets billions, Toyota recalls another million...

1 February 2013

A mixed week of mostly good news, industry niggle in France and financial woes at PSA excepted. Ford booked a healthy US$5.7bn full year net profit for 2012 - our resident commentator weighed in on that here - and Toyota announced yet more recalls totalling about 1.3m units - mostly Corollas but also some Lexus IS. Airbag control modules and wiper bolt tightness.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: The South of France - in the rain

25 January 2013

"Come to the South of France and try our updated Verso," said Toyota. "Nice," I said. "Yes," they said, "Nice airport for Cannes and we'll show you our ED2 design studio which did the updates." A little southern Europe winter sun after British snow, I thought, you can guess the rest.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Detroit and more

18 January 2013

The prime event of the week was, of course, the 2013 Detroit auto show and, just in case you haven't yet had enough, all our coverage is handily packaged here.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Good news, bad news

11 January 2013

This time last week I contrasted the generally lousy car sales news coming out of Europe with the generally good news from elsewhere on this mortal orb, with the exception of India, perhaps. This week's been much the same - a lot of good news, still some bad.