Unusual story of the week – ‘fire at Ford HQ’ slows sales data reporting’. Conjured up visions of people throwing computers out the window of Dearborn HQ and jumping out after them. No, nothing as dramatic, merely a fire in a substation cutting the electricity for a bit and slowing dealer reporting and HQ collation. Hence our Man in the US sending a two-part report on (still slowing) US sales. Instalment one here; two here.
We also had some sad news connected with Ford – the death of a former Europe chief, after a battle with cancer, was announced this week.
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There was a follow-up to last week’s Tata boardroom battle with a letter sent out to reassure employees. I wonder how the employees at Volvo are reacting to the news that more cars will be built in China, including the premium new S90.
Our analysts have been hard at work this week, putting Suzuki under the microscope and looking into Audi‘s crystal ball for future models. Let me also remind you we keep a running tally of what’s coming out at various motor shows worldwide – Guangzhou and Los Angeles are currently live and we even have some advance debut news for Geneva next March. And Detroit in January.
Results season continued with news that Honda’s doing well in China and generally good news from Delphi, Magna and AAM. American Axle & Manufacturing and Metaldyne Performance Group have entered into a definitive merger agreement and Adient has started operations ‘demerged’ from Johnson Controls.
Finally, some news from Brazil – VW has introduced an all-turbo Golf line with a new one-litre engine optimised for the local ethanol and GM’s local chief has controversially suggested government ‘hands-off’ would improve industry competitiveness.
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By GlobalDataHave a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
