It can’t get any worse for Ford Motor Company - or can it? The American automaker today announced a third quarter net loss of $129 million which is actually smaller than the same period a year ago when FoMoCo lost $390 million. However, the company also posted a third quarter pre-tax operating loss from continuing operations (excluding special items) of $2.7 billion, down from a $194 million profit a year ago.
What’s even more worrying is the fact that FoMoCo burnt $7.7 billion of its $26.6 billion cash reserves during the July - September period, or about $2.6 billion a month from an average of $1 billion a month over the prior 6 months. If Ford continues to burn its reserves at the same rate, it will be out of cash in about 7 months or until April 2009…
Following in suite with Ford Motor Company that reported a $7,2 billion operating loss for the third quarter of the year, General Motors posted a $4.2 billion third- quarter operating loss and said its available cash fell to $16.2 billion on Sept. 30 from $21 billion at the end of June. GM said that while it will try to boost liquidity, it might fall below the minimum amount of cash (estimated to be around $11 billion to $14 billion) needed to keep the company operating by the end of the year and asked for federal aid.
As well as reporting its gloomy financial results for the third quarter of 2008, General Motors today also announced that its ending at talks with Cerberus Capital Management LP for the possible acquisition of the Chrysler Group. While the American automaker did not refer specifically to Chrysler LLC, it’s no secret that the two companies had been in talks for quite a while now. And while this decision may be all for the better for GM as it allows the company’s leadership to focus on its own problems, we can’t help but wonder where this leaves Chrysler…
GM plans to present an all-new compact SUV/Crossover based on an extended Opel Corsa platform in 2009/2010, offered both, in Opel and Chevrolet flavours and built in GM’s Antwerp site in Belgium. According to German newspaper, Automobilwoche, the compact SUV/Crossover will be available in FWD and 4WD versions and placed under the Antara and Captiva in Opel’s and Chevrolet’s line-up respectively. Although a long shot, Chevy’s version could be inspired from the New York Show Trax concept featured in the photo.
The news comes about month after GM announced that the next generation Opel Astra, due in 2010, wouldn’t be built at the Antwerp site in Belgium, thus raising several questions about the plant’s future that currently employs 4.500 people. Even though GM plans to cut 1.400 jobs by the end of the year, the decision to build the compact SUV/Crossovers in Antwerp means the plant will continue to operate until 2016. In this case, something is better than nothing.
At the Paris Motor Show Peugeot took the wraps off the Prologue Concept which is in effect a pre-production version of the 3008, a compact crossover expected in late 2009 that combines elements from SUV and MPV (minivan) vehicles. While it is common sense that Peugeot will manufacture the Prologue / 3008 at one of its French sites, according to a report from Automotive News citing unnamed company sources, the compact crossover will also be produced in a new plant that the group PSA is building in cooperation with Mitsubishi in Russia.
Badge engineering is a term used to describe the rebadging of one vehicle to another with minimum aesthetic changes. One example is the Korean Daewoo Gentra that has been morphed into the Chevy Aveo and quite recently, into the Pontiac G3. Another example is the SEAT Exeo sedan that premiered in Paris which is basically a previous-gen Audi A4 with a new fascia and tail lamps. But while no one actually cares if the Aveo is a rebadged Gentra (or the other way around), we reckon that VW Group’s decision to remask the B7 Audi A4 will have a negative effect on both brands and especially on Audi.
No thanks to the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market, Toyota lost its place today as the world’s largest automaker by stock value to the VW Group. While the closing of the Tokyo Stock Market saw Toyota declining nearly 5 percent to 3,710 yen, which translates to a market capitalization of $124.3 billion U.S., the German automaker’s stocks were up 6%, having earlier surged as much as 55% in the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index.
How many times have you been stuck in traffic at a red light for no apparent reason? Most probably, all of you. This summer the Boston Transportation Department decided to take action by performing a series of timing adjustments to traffic signals at 60 intersections in the Back Bay and now the results are in. According to officials, before and after studies showed that the red light adjustments resulted in a reduction in traffic delays of up to 29%. Understandably, less traffic also means less fuel wasted and less C02 emissions.
Ford-owned Volvo Cars said on Wednesday that due to the rapidly deteriorating market situation in the global car industry, it will have to cut around 2,000 blue collar and 700 white collar jobs in Sweden. An additional 600 jobs as well as some 700 contracts with consultants will be terminated outside Sweden. Combined with earlier announced job cuts, the total layoffs now planned to be initiated account for 6,000 people worldwide from Volvo Cars’ 25,000-strong workforce.
Despite the puny U.S. dollar which is flirting with the 144 mark against the euro (Mon. Oct. 29, 2007), Opel has announced that it will raise production of the American Astras (badged as Saturn) by 33 percent. According to German news agency dpa-AFX, Opel had initially planned to export 30,000 Saturn Astras in 2008, but now the German carmaker expects to dispatch 40,000 units from its Antwerp plant in Belgium which starts production of the 3door and 5door compact mdodel this week. The first batch of Saturn Astras will reach American shores in December with sales starting in early January 2008.