Word: autos
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When the Detroit auto show opens this week, horsepower gains will take center stage as usual, with a parade of bulked-up cars, crossovers and light trucks. But some of the most interesting vehicles on display will be small, even tiny. Audi will showcase a model called the A3, a 200-h.p. hatchback sold in Europe and coming to U.S. dealers in May. Mercedes will unveil its smallest import, a wagonlike "sport tourer" dubbed the Baby Benz, expected to start around $25,000. And get this: DaimlerChrysler will officially launch in the U.S. the Smart brand that has been such...
...this signals a U-turn for a stalled and much maligned part of the auto business. Detroit has traditionally viewed small cars as money losers, the province of low-cost Japanese and Korean brands; retirees and budget shoppers are considered the core customers, not the most desirable clientele. Sure, you need an economy car for first-time buyers, and small cars offset the lousy mileage of SUVs and pickups, enabling automakers to meet federal regulations for corporate average fuel economy--which, thanks to industry lobbying, have barely budged in more than a decade. Given a choice, however, most Americans...
...every ride on New Year's. But NightRiders' most effective marketing tool is a poster comparing its fees--a $15 flat rate plus $2 a mile--with the price of a single DUI conviction, which can run up to $8,866 in Colorado when fines, legal fees and auto-insurance penalties are included. "The sad fact of it is," says NightRiders co-founder Brad Dickerhofe, "people are more concerned about being busted than about putting lives at risk." --By Hope Reeves and Julie Rawe
Small may be hip, but heavy metal and horsepower are what rev Detroit. Highlights from this year's auto show...
Chery has already done crazy things to China's auto market, which in turn could have a huge impact on America. The reason is overcapacity. Although executives in Detroit would drink windshield-wiper fluid through a straw for the roughly 15% growth in car sales that China saw last year, in China that increase might be too slow to keep up with production. Foreign firms like GM, Volkswagen and Ford have invested billions of dollars in China to make far more cars than the market can absorb. Last year Chinese consumers bought about 2.2 million cars, and assembly lines...