Toyota, Ford lead U.S. sales gains as autos fuel growth

Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. led the four largest automakers by U.S. sales in reporting January gains that topped estimates, as buyers return to showrooms to begin a fourth consecutive year of growth.Toyota’s deliveries of cars and light trucks surged 27 percent and Ford’s climbed 22 percent, while General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC sales each rose 16 percent, the companies said Friday. Industrywide light-vehicle sales increased 14 percent, according to researcher Autodata Corp.,

Feb. 3, 2013

Mercedes takes early luxury lead after outselling BMW

Mercedes said it sold 22,501 vehicles last month, its best January, helped the C-Class sedan’s 11 percent climb to 7,214. Brand sales for BMW increased 0.7 percent to 16,513 units, boosted by a 56 percent gain for its X5 sport-utility vehicle. Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus rose 32 percent to 16,211, led by the ES sedan, which more than doubled to 5,186 deliveries. The two German automakers are vying to be the top luxury- auto brand in the U.S. after outselling Lexus the past two years. BMW vaulted

Feb. 3, 2013

Smaller carmakers bet big on compact SUVs

With the almost 80 percent market dominance of Hyundai and Kia cars still intact and foreign car brands aggressively expanding their local presence, the nation’s smaller carmakers ― GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and Ssangyong Motor ― are all pinning high hopes on a niche segment: compact sport utility vehicles. Amid the growing acceptance of small-engine, fuel-efficient vehicles, the market for smaller SUVs has been surging globally in recent years.GM Korea, whose global car sales last month

Feb. 3, 2013

GM mulls Brazil options with CEO’s global reshuffling

As General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson works on a global corporate reorganization, the decisions he faces are playing out in one of the company’s most important emerging markets: Brazil. The automaker is evaluating how it will structure management in the country after the former president of GM Brazil, Grace Lieblein, switched to head of global purchasing in December. GM is holding off on replacing her as it determines what kind of role the person will have, said Jaime Ardila,

Jan. 27, 2013

Jaguar bets on China to defray royalty payments

Jaguar Land Rover Plc, the luxury unit of India’s biggest automaker, is betting surging sales in China will help it defray royalty payments triggered by the company setting up factories outside the U.K. Jaguar is liable to pay royalties to Ford Motor Co., which sold the brands to Tata Motors Ltd. in 2008 for $2.5 billion, for use of the platform required to make its best-selling cars when manufactured outside the U.K., it said in a U.S. regulatory filing on Jan. 23. The unit of Mumbai-based Tata

Jan. 27, 2013

Camry drives Toyota toward revival

An hour before the awards ceremony was set to begin, Toyota Korea was informed that its Camry would be crowned the 2013 Korea Car of the Year. It was a stunning feat for a foreign brand ― it was unprecedented for an imported car to grab the honor ― and especially for Toyota which had stood resilient against the widespread doubt that had shrouded the release of the vehicle last January. Toyota had pretty much known that its hybrid compact Prius would win the “green car” award, but did not expect

Jan. 27, 2013

Female vice president named GM Korea CFO

GM Korea Co., the local unit of U.S. General Motors Co., said Wednesday that a female vice president has been named its chief financial officer.Minerva Matibag, currently the CFO for GM’s Brazil unit, will also be in charge of finances for the firm’s operations in Vietnam and Uzbekistan, GM Korea said in a statement. The first woman CFO of GM Korea will start her job on Feb. 1, the company added.The Filipina started her financial career at GM’s Asia Pacific office in 1997 and went on to financia

Jan. 23, 2013

The beauty within the beast

The Korea Herald, in cooperation with carmakers, offers test-driving experiences to executive officials at Korean or multinational companies here. The opinion below is the author’s own. For any inquiry into this column, please contact jylee@heraldcorp.com. ― Ed.If you perceive driving in big cities as negotiating an asphalt jungle, the BMW X5 is definitively the king of beasts.Snow, ice and subzero temperatures are weather conditions utterly foreign to my Caribbean background, where the elements

Jan. 20, 2013

Mercedes-Benz, BMW getting on front-wheel-drive path

For decades, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have made rear-wheel drive central to their definitions of performance and luxury, even as the rest of the industry embraced front-wheel drive long ago.But both German marques, among the last holdouts, are about to cave.Just before the Detroit auto show last week, Mercedes-Benz showed off the CLA 250, a compact, four-door coupe, the first front-wheel-drive car bearing the brand’s three-pointed star logo. BMW also said at the show that it plans to offer front-wh

Jan. 20, 2013

Korean recipe for smallest Chevy

General Motors, whose typical cash cows include trucks and sport utility vehicles, is profiting recently from a long-ignored segment ― the mini city car.With higher gasoline prices and growing appetite for smaller cars, the U.S. auto giant last year newly added the Spark mini car to its Chevrolet global lineup.The Spark, overcoming earlier skepticism among GM executives and dealers, sold 12,385 vehicles in the six months up to December. The researcher IHS Automotive forecasts the sales figure co

Jan. 20, 2013

Super hero-themed vehicles promote fighting hunger

Two super hero-themed vehicles at the auto show in Detroit are there for more than just their flashy looks.The Batman-decorated Kia Optima and the Green Lantern-wrapped Kia Soul are at the South Korean automaker‘s exhibit to promote an effort to fight hunger in Africa. Features include Batman symbols inside and outside on the Optima, and the Green Lantern’s symbol on the Soul‘s wheels.The vehicles were created as part of a partnership involving DC Entertainment. The ``We Can Be Heroes’‘ effort i

Jan. 16, 2013

Playing on home field

Hyundai Motor Group has recently made an unprecedented decision to cut the prices of its flagship cars that it markets on its home turf of Korea. As of Jan. 1, Hyundai Motor has begun to offer five midsize and large models, including the Sonata, Genesis and Santa Fe, at discounted prices of up to 1 million won less than their 2012 versions. Its affiliate Kia Motors on Wednesday announced price cuts for popular models, unveiling the new K9 with a lowered price tag even though high-end features su

Jan. 13, 2013