– Volkswagen Admits To Equipping Audis, Porsches With Second Illegal Defeat Device
Audi
Study: Audi, BMW And VW ‘Among Worst For Engine Failures’
Hmmh.
Audi, BMW and VW ranked in the bottom 10 of a study into engine reliability
– German cars ‘among worst for engine failures’ (Auto Express, Jan 18, 2013):
German-made cars are not as reliable as many believe, according to new research. Warranty Direct has studied its claims data to compile a list of the manufacturers with the most reliable engines – and Audi, BMW and Volkswagen all finished in the bottom 10 out of a total 36 makers.
In fact, the only firm whose cars had a worse engine failure rate than Audi was MG Rover. MINI wasn’t much better, finishing third from bottom, while its parent company BMW came seventh from bottom. And, despite its reputation for rock-solid reliability, Volkswagen came ninth from bottom.
Read moreStudy: Audi, BMW And VW ‘Among Worst For Engine Failures’
Audi Says Murderous Cravings Of Some Chinese Employees Do Not Necessarily Reflect Company Views
– Audi Says Murderous Cravings Of Some Chinese Employees Do Not Necessarily Reflect Company Views (ZeroHedge, Sep 19, 2012):
Just two days ago we tweeted the rather stunning ‘slogan’ that a happy-smiley joy-joy bunch of Audi-China staff ‘celebrated’ at their dealership. The somewhat subtle translation of the banner: “We will kill every single Japanese person, even if it means deaths for our own; even poverty will not deter us from reclaiming the Diaoyu Islands” has now been addressed by Audi management:
- *AUDI CHINA JV SAYS ANTI-JAPAN BANNER INCIDENT AN ISOLATED CASE
- *AUDI CHINA JV ASKED DEALERSHIP TO REMOVE BANNER, LU SAYS’
- *AUDI CHINA JV URGES `REASONABLE’ EXPRESSION OF PATRIOTISM
Our tweet:
Perky slogan at Chinese Audi dealership “WE WILL KILL EVERY JAPANESE PERSON EVEN IF IT MEANS DEATHS FOR OUR OWN” bit.ly/Pkb8lJ
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 17, 2012
The stunning image (they do seem oddly amused by it all):
The clip explaining it:
German carmakers: Sales collapse
Car sales in the US collapse:
November Auto Sales: Porsche sales drop by half (Source: Forbes)
November Auto Sales: Daimler AG’s sales decline (Source: Forbes):
Total sales at Daimler’s U.S. operations fell 29.9 percent to 15,991 from 22,819 in November 2007
Sales of Mercedes-Benz brand vehicles last month declined 38.2 percent to 14,102 while the company sold 1,889 of its two-seater Smart models. Smart was introduced to the North American market in mid-January of this year.
Mercedes-Benz USA said its best-selling model family, the C-Class, had a 36.1 percent drop-off in sales, and E-Class sales fell by 49.3 percent.
November Auto Sales: BMW sales fall 26.8 percent (Source: Forbes)
Volkswagen November U.S. Sales Fall 19% on Economy (Source: Bloomberg)
Audi U.S. November sales fall 25.4% (Source: Market Watch)
_________________________________________________________________________
Berlin under fire as German car sales collapse
German car sales have plunged to the lowest level since reunification almost twenty years ago, increasing pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to abandon budget restraint and back plans for an EU-wide rescue package.
Registrations fell 18pc in November, led by a drop of 36pc in Opel sales. “The crisis has again worsened dramatically,” said Volker Lange, of the VDIK motor vehicle association.
Volkswagen is to suspend production at its Wolfsburg headquarters this month. BMW has cut output in Leipsig to one day a week and Porsche is shuttering its Stuttgart plant for a week. It is just as bad in France where PSA Peugeot Citroen is halting production for a month at Sochaux, the country’s biggest industrial site.
The slump in Germany’s core industry has led to vocal criticism of the Left-Right coalition government. The Handelsbatt newspaper warned this week that the coalition faces a “rebellion” unless it faces up to the gravity of the crisis.
Germany’s Car Industry Crashes
For years, Germany Inc.’s best promotional vehicles have been the world-class luxury cars the country produces. Shiny Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars are like mobile billboards for excellence, from New York to Moscow, Buenos Aires to Shanghai.
But as the global financial crisis begins to take its toll on the real economy, Germany’s export machine has hit a wall. German exports fell 2.5% in August, the sharpest fall since 2003, as consumers and companies around the world cancel orders for everything from high-end industrial equipment to chemicals.
The car industry, still Germany’s biggest employer, is the worst hit. High gas prices in key markets such as the U.S. have slowed sales for months. Some consumers have been waiting for more fuel-efficient models, while many more are now delaying new purchases because of uncertainty over their jobs. Thanks to the credit crunch, even people who want to buy are finding finance has dried up.
All that spells trouble for the likes of BMW, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Volkswagen, Ford Europe and General Motors’ Europe arm, Opel. Ferdinand Dudenhoffer, a respected industry analyst, predicts that the number of new German cars delivered to customers in 2008 will fall by at least 100,000 units to around 3.1 million, and will likely slip below three million next year. As a result, he says, German car companies will have to cut up to 20,000 jobs over the coming year.