Just back from two weeks off – holiday at home in the UK’s current monsoon season, please feel free to FedEx sympathy and three months’ sunshine, especially you lot in the eastern US – and noticed that things have hardly quietened down even though what we laughingly refer to as ‘summer’ is now upon us.
General Motors’ Brazilian unit has rolled out a new seven-seat MPV called the Spin which will also be sold in Indonesia. It lacks the style of GM’s latest European minivans, and replaces the previous generation Meriva and Zafira in some markets, but recent Chevrolet South America models have tended to put function ahead of form and the new model seems a practical buy, reminding me, just a little, of the now-defunct NAFTA HHR, a few of which were sold in Europe.
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The world wide interweb has been abuzz the last few weeks about the plans announced for Saab and its likely prospects, so we’ve now weighed in too: Mark Bursa opines herein.
Speaking of opinion, this guest editorial on addressing overcapacity in France is well worth a look, the comparison with the country’s steel industry is an interesting angle.
There’s been another twist in the long-running Porsche-Volkswagen merger saga and it now looks like there is, finally, light at the end of a very lengthy tunnel.
Automakers continue to pour investment into their Russian plants which, with not a little encouragement from a man named Putin, are fast turning from kit assembly operations into full-fledged factories with stamping, welding, painting and all the other kit needed to knock out a car or two pretty much from scratch. The joint PSA-Mitsubishi factory in Kaluga is the latest to upgrade.
US auto sales for June showed what Our Man with the Spreadsheet called a ‘small but welcome uptick’ and it was interesting to note the surge in Japanese brand sales after a diastrous 2011, pegging back both Detroit and the Koreans (the latter nonetheless still saw growth).
Renault’s launch of right hand drive Dacias is starting. Plans were announced this week for the UK and, with vehicles sourced from the same Chennai plant, Duster SUV sales began in India.
Finally, a major redesign for a globally popular model. I have to, sadly, note a ‘fail’ here. I showed pix to a young woman who owns the current model. She no like the new one…
Have a nice (and ideally dry and sunny) weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
