Aussie Motoring

New figures show that vehicle sales remained softer in September, reflecting the broader slow down in the Australian economy.

Official VFACTS data released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show that 80,938 cars, trucks and buses were sold in September – down 3.1 per cent (2,551 vehicles) compared to the same month last year.

Year-to-date, new vehicles sales are up 0.3 per cent compared to the same period last year with a total of 784,932 vehicles being sold.

“The September figures provide further evidence that car buyers are cautious about the current economic situation and outlook,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.

“The trend in sales over recent months provides justification for further action to cut interest rates as soon as possible,” he said.

“The industry is looking to rebuild confidence in the marketplace and decisive action to take further pressure off interest rates will provide some welcome relief to motorists,” Mr McKellar said.

Sales in most passenger car and SUV segments were down, except for small cars (up 4.1 per cent), medium cars (up 1.0 per cent) and large SUVs (up 48 per cent).

Light commercial vehicle sales held up well in September with an increase of 559 vehicles or 4.0 per cent compared to the same month last year.

Sales of light buses (up 73.1 per cent), vans (up 29.1 per cent) and 4×2 pick-ups (up 5.5 per cent) were the key performers in that segment.

Toyota retained the top sales position in September with a market share of 22.4 per cent, followed by Holden with 13.1 per cent and Ford with 11.0 per cent.

Year-to-date Toyota sold 183,806 vehicles, followed by Holden with 99,600 vehicles and Fold with 81,416 vehicles.

What’s the cost of tightening 42,408 nuts? If you don’t know and I don’t know then perhaps we need to ask GM in America because they’re about to find out.

They’ve just issued a recuall for 42,408 Sturn Vue compact SUVs because there is a possibility that a nut has worked loose in the power steering assembly and that loose nut allows power steering fluid to escape and that’s a potential fire hazard.

So GM is recalling 2008 and 2009 model Vues to have the nut checked and tightened.

Earlier this month we reported on the latest car sale figures for the Australian market in May but not every country … nor every segment … was as bouyant as the Australian market was in May. In once instance the impact of falling sales has led to some serious re-thinking of future plans.

General Motors experienced a 37% drop in the sale of SUVs and vans in the United States during May and, when you consider that GM makes more money from the sale of SUVs than it does from conventional vehicles, it’s no wonder that GM is re-thinking its future strategy.

GM did have a team of engineers working on developing fuel-saving technologies for their SUVs with a view to introducing them by 2012 but no more. The team has been dispanded and re-assigned to other projects and General Motors may soon be making changing it’s focus from SUVs to more fuel efficient cars.

Volkswagen is also experiencing some problems in what it describes as “a difficult market environment”. While sales are surging in China they are falling when taken on a worldwide basis. VW reported a drop in of 0.8 percent in worldwide sales in May.

Kia on the other hand reported a 16.5% increase in worldwide sales during May with large increases in all markets. Most noteable were a 56.8 percent increase in sales to China, an 8.8 percent increase in sales to Europe and an 8.6 percent increase in sales to North America.

Earlier this week General Motors announced that it would be closing four plants in the United States and Canada in a cost-cutting exercise that see a reduction in GM’s production of trucks and SUV’s. That was probably to be expected as the cost of fuel rose and the demand for big vehicles diminished.

What was not so obvious though was that General Motors also planned to close part of its plant at Fisherman’s Bend Plant in Melbourne. Reports suggest that up to 500 jobs could be lost and Holden closes the four cyclinder engine production line.

Toyota has just released figures that indicate that in the first quarter of this year it sold 2.3 million vehicles worldwide. That figure put’s it about 900,000 vehicles ahead of General Motors.

Interestingly in Toyota’s home market - in Japan - it’s suffering just as much as Japanese manufacturers. In China - the world’s biggest expanding market - Toyota is also encountering some buyer resistance and is encountering stiff competition from Volkswagen.

General Motors made quite a splash at the Detroit Auto Show with a brand-new electric car. It’s only in the concept stage right now but maybe one day we’ll see the Chevrolet Volt sold in Australia under the Holden brand.

And don’t be fooled into thinking that this car can’t travel long distances. General Motors suggests that the Chevrolet Volt can handle 640 miles/1024 kilometres in one trip.

You can read more about the Chevrolet Volt here.

Save heaps on brand-name tools

Are you one of those really advanced techno-geek revheads that would love to be able to intergrate your iPod into the dash of your car? Well you’re not alone, it seems that there are many people around the world who would love to be able to do that and dispense with the current non-tech plug-in-cigarette lighter solution.

Ford, GM and Mazda are all working with Apple on ways to intergrate the iPod into their vehicles’ audio systems. Initially Ford is looking at simply plugging the iPod into the face plate of the radio but further down the track there will be an interface in the glove box that will allow the iPod to be operated from the audio controls on the dash.

GM will be starting with a similar system to Ford and once again it will require the iPod to be placed in the glove box.

Mazda is not saying much at all except to say that it will offering an iPod interface on all its vehicles worldwide.At the moment Ford and GM are only looking at offering the interface on US vehicles from the 2007 model onwards.

Somehow shoving the iPod in the glove box seems like a rather clumsy way of doing things to me - surely there’s a more elegant and geeky alternative they could have used.

Who am I kidding, I don’t even own an iPod or any other sort of MP3 player and even the TivX controls leave me confused

You can read the full story here

There has been some speculation around for a while now that Nissan might be interested in some form of alliance with General Motors in the US.

Unfortunately for GM that possibility is looking less and less likely every passing day. GM has reported a massive drop in sales for June when compared to this time last year. With sales down over 25% it’s unlikely that GM is looking all that attractive to Nissan right now.

Nissan is having its own problems both in the US and Japan. Sales have reportedly slumped in the US and Nissan shareholders have been warned to expect a drop in sales in Japanese sales too.

It’s been quite some time since Fiat sold anything smaller than a truck in Australia and that’s hardly surprising since Fiat almost disappeared in a cloud of financial dust back in 2003.

So bad did their future look back then that General Motors paid a cool $2 billion to buy their way out of an agreement they had with Fiat dating back to 2000. Perhaps now GM might be wishing that they had a little more faith in Fiat because, after five straight years of financial losses, the company is about to post a substantial operating profit.

Not only is Fiat about to post a profit but financial analysts are suggesting that there are even better times ahead. And those good times are, in part, due to this car:

the Fiat Punto.

If you can cast your mind back to the 1950s you’ll see that there is a certain amount of history in that small car and it’s helping Fiat back onto the road to recovery.

It may be sometime before we see Fiat back in Australia but they will certainly add interest to the local motoring scene if they do return.

That’s a title that has long been held by American giant - General Motors - but experts suggest that Toyota is about to claim the title from the ailing American giant.

In America GM continues to see sales plummet while Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Kia all continue to post improved sale figures month after month.

There seems to be an interesting parallel developing between Mitsubishi Australia and GM. Here in Australia Mitsubishi pinned their hopes of recovering from their downward spiral on the Mitsubishi 380 - a sedan that held a lot of promise but failed to inspire the motoring public.

In the US GM is pinning their hopes on the new Saturn Aura - a mid-sized sedan with European overtones

The new Saturn will come with a 252 horspower 3.6 litre V6 coupled to a 6 speed automatic transmission with gear selection available on the steering wheel.

Other features include leather upholstery, optional 4 pane sunroof, remote vehicle start, 8-way adjustable driver’s seat and 6-way adjustable passenger seat, traction control and rear seat audio controls with 2 sets of wireless headphones.

Whether or not this is the car the American motoring public want only time will tell. The vehicle goes on sale on July 24.