Clik here to view.
Sanctions Cause PSA To Suspend Iran Khodro Shipments
Sanctions imposed on Iran by the EU and the United States have compelled PSA to delay parts shipments to Iran Khodro until September at the earliest. Iran Khodro needs parts to build cars like the 206...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Romney Would Sell GM Stock, Look For CAFE Alternatives
The Detroit News interviewed presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Tuesday, and the Republican candidate-to-be shared his thoughts on government ownership of GM stock and the future of CAFE. Romney told...
View ArticleClik here to view.
California Congressman Alleges CAFE Benefits Bailout Recipients
Bloomberg is reporting that House Republicans, led by California Congressman Darrell Issa, are set to produce a report that heavily criticizes CAFE as a politicized move designed to curry favor with...
View ArticleGM, Chrysler To Political Candidates: GTFO
Click here to view the embedded video. Auto plant visits, long a staple of election-year vote-courting for politicians, are now banned at both GM and Chrysler plants until after the votes have been...
View ArticleConsumers in Tampa and Charlotte to Miss Out on Courtesy Car Deals as GM...
Click here to view the embedded video. Overlooked in the announcements by General Motors and Chrysler that their factories will not be hosting any presidential campaign events such as photo ops or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
GM Bumps Up Q3 Results Prior To Election Day
General Motors hasn’t announced their Q3 financial results prior to November in six years, but they intend to announce them on October 31st, 2012 – just prior to the U.S. general election on November...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Never Mind The McLaren: Why The Dacia Sandero Is The Star Of The Paris Motor...
The Paris Auto Show is about to kick off tomorrow, and some of the product set to debut has me cursing myself for not maxing out my Visa on a flight and a room at the lovely hotel that’s walking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca Endorses Mitt Romney
Retired Chrysler CEO and former Ford president Lee Iacocca has endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Iacocca is a political independent with a record of endorsing both Republicans...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Did Government Meddling Cripple The Dodge Dart?
As we come to yet another hiccup in the launch of the Dodge Dart, it’s worth taking a look backwards to examine how we got to this point; the elimination of a second shift at the Dundee, Michigan...
View ArticleClik here to view.
1 Million EV Goal Absent From State Of The Union
Those who watched the State of the Union address last night and have an interest in autos may have noticed a conspicuous absence; Barack Obama failed to mention his goal of putting 1 million EVs on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Obama Nominates Anthony Foxx As Next DOT Head
President Obama announced the nomination of Anthony Foxx, the current mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, as his choice to succeed Ray LaHood as the next head of the Department of Transportation....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Analysis: Will Cars Be “The Cigarette Of The Future”?
TTAC’s forays into areas like law, politics and economics are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they do matter. The dry, dense topics like regulation and financial topics have real implications for car...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tesla Dodges A Legislative Bullet
A proposed law that would have eliminated Tesla’s ability to sell cars in New York state has died on the vine, after lawmakers adjourned their legislative session without taking any action on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
American Sanctions Forced Renault Out Of Iran
Following PSA’s exit from Iran last year, Renault is the latest French car maker to leave the Middle Eastern country, thanks to American derived sanctions. La Tribune reports that Renault will stand...
View ArticleClik here to view.
$57 Million Chicago Ford Dealership Delayed As Aldermen Play Politics
FMG Holdings, which operates a number of car dealerships in western Michigan under the name of Fox Motors, had planned on spending $57 million turning an abandoned industrial site on Chicago’s North...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Iran’s Imported Chevrolet Camaros Raise Questions About GM’s Dealings With...
An obscure story in the Azerbaijani press this past summer may be the tip of a much larger iceberg involving General Motors, PSA Peugeot Citroen and the Western World’s current bete noir: the Iranian...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scrambling the Politics of Mass Transit in San Francisco
Image from Twitter @craigsfrost Positively or negatively, mass transit is often viewed as a social leveler. Rich and poor alike ride the subway in New York, London and Berlin. Atlantans of all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
UAW, VW Works Council Regrouping Under Voting Fallout
Following the 712 – 629 decision against representation by the United Auto Workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., the union may be forced to throw in the towel on foreign-owned auto...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Foxx, Obama Administration Urge Congress To Act On Funding Highway Trust
With 112,000 infrastructure projects and 700,000 jobs at stake, the Obama administration and Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx are both urging Congress find a way to provide funding to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Republican Presidential Hopefuls Discuss Ethanol In Iowa
A handful of Republican presidential hopefuls converged upon Iowa last weekend to discuss the pros and cons of ethanol. Autoblog reports U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, former governors Mike Huckabee of...
View ArticleNews Round-up: Jag Going Racing, Saab Has a Plan, Teslas Are Expensive
This is the new News Round-up where we cover all the things you should know that may or may not deserve a headline on their own (or we may have simply run out of time to cover them). It’s similar to...
View ArticleAudi Capitalizes on Presidential Debate Viewership with Action-packed Ad
To disenfranchised voters, sitting through the first of the presidential debates tonight will be akin to laying back in a 19th century dentist’s chair. Open wide. Politics (mostly) aside, Audi saw the...
View ArticleWhy Is Trump Bashing Ford, Praising Caterpillar as Both Send Jobs to Mexico?
So, there’s an election on, and a certain candidate has made some high-profile, sometimes inflammatory comments about American manufacturing and jobs being sent south of the Rio Grande. That person’s...
View ArticleWikileaks: GM CEO Mary Barra Was Shortlisted by Clinton for VP Nomination
General Motors CEO Mary Barra was under consideration to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate. Barra’s name, along with the names of 39 other candidates for the vice presidency, were found in a hacked...
View ArticleWould You Buy a Car from This Politician?
It’s morning in America. Just before noon Eastern Time, actually. If decades of Gallup polling is correct, and we’re inclined to believe it is, car salespeople and members of Congress have among the...
View ArticleAsk The Best And Brightest: What Are The Most Important Car-Related Political...
As I noted yesterday, the intersection of automobiles and politics is a difficult area of analysis. In the United States, where motorists don’t face the daily challenges they do in Russia, discussions...
View ArticlePolitics Intrude On UAW, Detroit Auto Show
Thanks to the unionization of the US auto industry, its politics (and accordingly, those of the state of Michigan) tend to be of the center-left persuasion. This tendency was doubtless aggravated over...
View ArticleTrade War Watch 13: Pedal Politics
Yesterday, a strange love-fest between U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos and Japan’s transport minister Seiji Maehara ensued. After their meeting in Tokyo, as reported by the Nikkei, the ambassador...
View ArticleKorea: Washington Is Picking On Toyota
According to popular wisdom, the Koreans have no love lost for the Japanese. And likewise. What’s more, Koreans and Japanese car makers are bitter competitors for foreign market share. So wouldn’t it...
View ArticleFlorida Representative Fights Back Against Red Light Cameras
A Florida state representative is standing athwart the legislative juggernaut that seeks to expand the use of red light cameras throughout the state. Representative Rob Schenck (R-Spring Hill) last...
View ArticleAuto Bailout “Progress” Defined: “Only” $28b in TARP Losses
Last week’s announcement that had Chrysler turned a Q1 profit and GM had “repaid” taxpayer loans brought a flurry of political posturing about the success or lack thereof of the auto bailout. With...
View ArticleFlorida Governor Urged To Veto Red Light Camera Bill
A surprisingly vigorous effort is being made to urge Florida Governor Charlie Crist to veto the red light camera authorization bill passed by the legislature last month (view bill). The normally...
View ArticleCorn Ethanol Advocates Trash Dems
At least one of the institutions financing ads damning Democratic candidates this election season wants to put ethanol in your gas tank. The American Future Fund was founded by one Bruce Rastetter, the...
View ArticleThe Politics Of Car: Has Mike Jackson Defined The Car Guy Consensus?
AutoNation boss Mike Jackson has long been the front runner to inherit Bob Lutz’s mantle as the most opinionated guy in the car business, and recently he’s been moving to lock up the distinction....
View ArticleQuote Of The Day: Who Wants To See Gas Under $2 Per Gallon? Edition
Who’s ready for some politics? With the presidential election still over 14 months away, recent Iowa straw poll winner Michelle Bachmann is upping the campaign promise ante by telling a Greenville, SC...
View ArticleTexas: Top State Senator Says Red Light Cameras About Money
The most senior Texas state lawmaker admitted last week that he voted to save red light camera programs even though he knew they had no effect on public safety. State Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston),...
View ArticleCanadian Condo Won’t Let Chevrolet Volt Owner Charge His Car
A Chevrolet Volt owner in Ottawa, Ontario has been blocked by his condominium board from charging his Chevrolet Volt – even though he has offered to reimburse the board for the $1 (approximately) in...
View ArticleUAW: Romney Trying To “Rewrite History” Over Bailout
Days after Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney penned an op-ed in the Detroit News over his thoughts on the bailout, UAW President Bob King is firing back. In a statement released to the...
View ArticleBlind Spot: Electric Cars And “The Freedom Thing”
Editor’s note: While our erstwhile Editor-in-Chief, Edward Niedermeyer, is on sabbatical, he will continue to weigh in on automotive issues in a (hopefully) weekly column entitled Blind Spot. This is...
View ArticleGeneral Motors CEO Mary Barra Chosen for Trump Advisory Panel
President-elect Donald Trump has named General Motors CEO Mary Barra to his advisory board on economic issues and jobs growth. While this could also be a coincidental slight against Mark Fields for...
View ArticleA Loyalty Oath Moment At Dodge
It’s the stuff of which public relations nightmares are made. For the past couple of years Dodge has sponsored Motor Trend‘s “Roadkill” show, which can be thought of as a generic white-label take on...
View ArticleJunkyard Find: 1977 Ford Econoline 150 Campaign Van
During the 2016 American presidential election, those voters who loathed both Trump and Clinton had the option of voting for one of a couple of long-shot third-party candidates, or perhaps the far more...
View ArticleDaimler’s Works Council Claims Company Is Being ‘Infiltrated by Nazis’
On Wednesday, Daimler’s German workers union publicly expressed concerns that neo-Nazis are trying to organize within the automaker’s ranks. While it did not specify which political groups were...
View ArticleEveryone Who’s Not a Shareholder Is Reportedly Angry Over GM’s Decision to...
The big news this week is General Motors’ decision to cull its lineup, closing plants and sacking about 15 percent of its North American workforce in the process. According to Chief Executive Officer...
View ArticleRare Rides: The 1971 Tatra 2-603 II, East Germany’s Stasi Transport
Today’s Rare Ride has a checkered history, as it served as quiet shuttle for secret police and terrorist spies alike. Let’s find out more about this rear-engine Czechoslovakian V8 luxury car. Tatra is...
View ArticleAutomotive Politics: A Tale of Two Industries?
Politics have corrupted just about everything under the sun over the last few years. Practically everything is political in 2020 and if you have an opinion about that, it had better be the correct one...
View ArticlePardon Me, Did I Do Something Wrong?
Among those receiving a Presidential pardon included Anthony Levandowski and Elliott Broidy. Trump’s largesse was noted in a story on Autoblog that appeared earlier today. Levandowski, a former Google...
View ArticleRare Rides: The 2012 Maybach 57 S Coupe by Xenatec, as Ordered by Muammar...
Today’s Rare Ride is a custom-built version of an already-exclusive car. Originally a large sedan, Xenatec’s 57 S coupe was built only in the single digits. And this particular example was ordered by a...
View ArticleOpinion: Toyota’s Political Giving Encourages the Big Lie
A report from Axios shows that Toyota has given $55,000 to 37 Republican politicians who objected to the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States. That’s about a quarter...
View ArticleCrypto Meme Not Yet Confirmed as NASCAR Sponsor
NASCAR driver Brandon Brown — he of the “Let’s Go Brandon” fame — has secured sponsorship from cryptocurrency meme coin LGB.coin.io for his 2022 Xfinity Series ride. However, there’s one problem —...
View Article