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.
More rumours of an Alfa Romeo sale, this time to Audi, surfaced. Would it be a good fit in that Volkswagen Group premium unit’s portfolio? Well, they recently acquired motrocycle maker Ducati. Cynic here asks if any Italian plant in the deal could be brought up to Audi standards, facility and worker-wise? Probably. After all, the French have been taught to make a decent job of the Toyota Yaris. And few will now recall what Alfa did to a Nissan.
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Speaking of, want an insight into the future of the Japanese brand and its lesser-spotted (round here, anyway) premium brand Infiniti? We’ve an interview with product planning supremo Keno Kato but he was pretty reluctant to spill too many beans.
Our Man in Brazil reported on how new models like the Peugeot 208 are reaching ’emerging markets’ a lot quicker than they used to (Brazil did not get the 207 as west Europeans know it; just a reworked 206).
An intriguing development in the southern US, home to numerous Japanese, German and Korean ‘transplants’; VW is considering a German-style labour council for its Passat plant in (toot-toot) Chattanooga, Tennessee. That’d be a first for the US, I believe.
Australia’s motor industry doesn’t rate much coverage on the world stage but it’s a 1m market with Toyota, GM and Ford plants, all propped up by local taxpayers, as we learned this week. The Ford unit in particular, becoming eclipsed by the newer plants in Thailand, is struggling but there was some milestone news from Toyota this week – a manufacturing 50th anniversary and tv stardom and export volume.
Finally, it’s looking like a Toyota-like quality alarm bell might have started ringing at Hyundai-Kia HQ in South Korea this week (which is all they need given what’s going on north of the 37th parallel at the moment). 1.9m recalls in the US alone is not chickenfeed (nor is talk of rusty cars good), and possibly suggests a review of procedures and policies along the lines of its Japanese rival’s recent shake-up may be in order. Hyundai has a chequered career in North America – quality issues scuppered an initial foray there which also involved a short-lived Canadian plant.
Have a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
