Opinion: An early look at 2012 shows a radically new auto industry

Filed under: Car Buying , Etc. Detroit Gains Momentum As Japan Regains Its Footing The automotive world as we know it underwent plenty of shaking last year and it was the result of more than just the tragic earthquake and tsunami that rattled Japan – costing makers like Toyota and Honda perhaps a million units in lost production. While it’s certainly too early to even guess at what the big stories for 2012 will be, we can suggest, with a high level of confidence, that what had long been the industry’s established order won’t be the same going forward. The playing field has clearly shifted.

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Opinion: An early look at 2012 shows a radically new auto industry

Report: GM leads worst performing auto stocks of 2011

Filed under: GM , Earnings/Financials In spite of General Motors standing poised to retake the top sales spot, Chevrolet perhaps breaking its all-time sales record , and an anticipated Buick and two new Cadillac models coming, GM’s stock price got beat like a goat in 2011. On January 2, 2011 the stock traded at $37.06, on January 2, 2012, it hovered a few dimes above $20, making GM the worst-performing auto-industry stock of 2011: with a 46.1-percent drop, it edged out Cooper Tire (-41.7), TRW Automotive (-40) and Ford (-37.3). The Motley Fool suggests the decline could be due to the Treasury’s ownership of hundreds of millions of shares, keeping investors wary about buying.

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Report: GM leads worst performing auto stocks of 2011

Infographic: KBB looks at 2011 in the rearview mirror

Filed under: Etc. Boy, that 2011 was a doozy, no? Earthquakes, tsunamis and floods; Arab Spring uprisings; Occupy protests, or as the highly respected yet entirely fictional Dr. Peter Venkman once said , “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together..

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Infographic: KBB looks at 2011 in the rearview mirror

U.S. auto industry makes the cover of Time

Filed under: Etc. , Chrysler , Ford , GM Time magazine has given the American auto industry the honor of a cover story in the newest issue slated to hit newsstands on December 9. More specifically, the publication has taken a closer look at how Chrysler managed to go from Dead On Arrival to enjoying sales that are up 23 percent compared to the third quarter of 2010. The company is expected to see sales of $55 billion in 2011

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U.S. auto industry makes the cover of Time

German auto industry faces shortage of engineers

Major German automakers planning big expansions but lack qualified people for the task.

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German auto industry faces shortage of engineers

Report: Japenese automakers will work on weekends to protect power grid

Filed under: Government/Legal , Japan , Plants/Manufacturing Japan is still struggling to repair itself in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the country’s auto industry is looking to help out wherever it can. Automotive News reports that automakers and suppliers will work weekends and take off Thursdays and Fridays in an effort to ease pressure on the nation’s power grid. The March 11 earthquake wiped out eight percent of the country’s overall electricity capacity, which means that a lot of folks in Japan will need to cut back on consumption during peak summer months. The auto industry is looking to reduce its electricity use by 15 percent over the summer

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Report: Japenese automakers will work on weekends to protect power grid