Trucks & Cars

Whatever You Do With A Tesla, Don’t Wrap It Around a Lamppost

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Whatever You Do With A Tesla, Don’t Wrap It Around a Lamppost

The nightmare for Tesla started when a stolen S, as it crashed, split into two, with one half bursting into flames. This just isn’t supposed to happen with modern cars.

Federal Regulator Details Crazy Risk-Taking By Banks, Blames Fed

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Federal Regulator Details Crazy Risk-Taking By Banks, Blames Fed

Banks are again taking the same risks that triggered the financial crisis, and they’re understating these risks. It wasn’t an edgy blogger that issued this warning but the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. And it blamed the Fed’s monetary policy.

The Wrath of Abenomics: Sales Collapse, Inflation Soars

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on The Wrath of Abenomics: Sales Collapse, Inflation Soars

Even the soothsayers and spin doctors expected a downdraft after Japan’s consumption tax was jacked up to 8% from 5%, effective April 1. But not this.

Tesla’s Sales Stall, Don’t Even Amount To A Rounding Error

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Tesla’s Sales Stall, Don’t Even Amount To A Rounding Error

March auto sales trickled out today. Beneath the wondrous hype about how they’d finally exceeded expectations, after they’d been perfectly awful for five of the prior six months, was a doozie. And the media, which normally fawns all over Tesla, covered it with a blackout.

Goldman Goes Bonkers Over Tesla

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Goldman Goes Bonkers Over Tesla

Wall Street once again stands out as history’s most glorious, most efficient, sophisticated, prolific “gigafactory,” to use Tesla’s newfangled term, for the production of self-serving BS. Investors beware!

The Next Tire To Drop On The US Economy

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on The Next Tire To Drop On The US Economy

Auto sales in the US have been hopping for the last few years, and production has soared, and exuberance along with it, and there were even hopes that sales would soon be where they’d been before the crisis, before the bankruptcies, the plant closures, the bailouts.

China CLOBBERS The US In Auto Sales, Becomes GM’s Nirvana (Unless You Have To Breathe)

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on China CLOBBERS The US In Auto Sales, Becomes GM’s Nirvana (Unless You Have To Breathe)

The air in China can get so bad that the whole world talks about it. Though the government is taking the issue seriously and is doing a million things to get the fiasco under control, it remains unclear what exactly people will breathe ten years from now.

How Crazy Is The Auto Financing Frenzy?

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on How Crazy Is The Auto Financing Frenzy?

A “positive spiral effect?” Lenders are closing their eyes, sales are soaring, risks are piling up, auto loan balances jumped 15% in 12 months to an all-time high, and repossessions in the subprime segment more than doubled.

Young Woman in China Buy Maseratis

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Young Woman in China Buy Maseratis

In the US and Europe, 95% of the buyers are male. Average age is 55. What’s different in China?

Extortion Over Minimum Wage In Germany: BMW, Daimler, VW Threaten to Offshore Production

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Extortion Over Minimum Wage In Germany: BMW, Daimler, VW Threaten to Offshore Production

Germany has neither a minimum wage nor a government. Someday it might. If not, there will be new elections, and Chancellor Merkel might get pummeled because she’d be blamed for them. So she’s trying to form a coalition with the left-leaning SPD on whose list of campaign promises was a decent minimum wage.