Ford's Struggle To Stay #1 In The UK

Ford has been number one in the UK for decades. It stopped making cars in England in 2001 but makes millions of engines and does extensive design and research there so supports the UK economy well. 

The brand it has had to keep at bay for many years is GM's Vauxhall, which cannot quite do enough to dethrone it. Vauxhall makes the Astra and Astra van as well as the Vivaro/Trafic vans but that's about within Britain as design and engineering work is done in Germany. 

Tata's New Electric Vehicle

A Tata Indica Vista EVX an electric vehicle from a team of engineers at the Tata Motors European Technical Centre based at Warwick University, UK. Apparently it will be produced in Coventry, a city known as the centre of UK car manufacturing in times past. Tata already make the car in India as a petrol powered vehicle. It goes on sale in the UK and Europe next year, in the first quarter of 2011.

Tata's Now Profitable JLR

Just after Tata bought Jaguar - Land Rover off Ford in 2008, a world economic crisis struck. Ford had sold largely unprofitable brands and with the downturn, just in time. Ford has gone on to do well so they are happy. How about Tata though? Mr Tata seemed unfazed by it all, saying he was looking to the long term benefits. Well he didn't have to wait long as JLR have quickly and consistently been getting more profitable. What has been the reasons:

German Brands Talk It Up

They say that it is all about perception. It is certainly true when it comes to the masses, who are prone to manipulation. Once people perceive that a car brand is respected, has status and not outrageously priced, then it will sell well. No one seems to understand this better than German car makers. Especially in the premium sector, they realise the need to nurture a marque, to promote it, to convince people that it is desired and sought after. 

Jeeps To Be Made In Italy

When Fiat took control of Chysler, they saw potential synergies between them. One of them it transpires involves plans to build a Jeep SUV at a plant in Turin, Italy. This will be of great benefit to Fiat as it has under utilised plants at home,

Number Ones Americas: 2009

A bit slow off the mark on this one, but better late than never. Of the countries that I know car sales of in the Americas, most are led by one of two brands, GM or Toyota. GM is the main brand on the continent but it will need to work hard to maintain that. It lost Mexico and Paraguay in 2009 and will lose at least another in 2010.

The Best 4 x 4 In NZ For 2010

New Zealand 4WD magazine’s 4WD of the Year award has gone to the Land Rover Discovery, due to its all round abilities. In NZ, it comes with either a 3 litre turbo diesel V6 engine or five litre V8 petrol motor, both connected to a six speed automatic.