No surprises from Ford Australia, but it sends the wrong message for manufacturing

23.05.2013/00.05

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Calculating 2012’s top selling car: Focus or Corolla?

20.04.2013/03.23

I see that Toyota is upset that R. L. Polk named the Ford Focus the top-selling car in the world for 2012. Motor Trend has since reported the story as Polk naming the Focus as the top selling ‘nameplate’, but that hasn’t stopped Toyota from throwing a wobbly. I can’t locate the Polk report […]

Another milestone: Autocade reaches 2,000 models

30.12.2012/13.22

The last few times Autocade reached a milestone, I blogged about it, and since this one is a bit of a Duesy, it deserves to be recorded. The car cyclopædia has reached 2,000 models, with the Opel Kadett D getting us there. It also passed 2½ million page views during December—I noticed it […]

Autocade turns four, and it’s about to get its two millionth page view

10.03.2012/02.45

It’s hard to believe but Autocade is four years old this month. In fact, its actual birthday was some time last week. It’s been busy at work, so Autocade has received a little less attention in the last 12 months, though things were buoyed when Keith Adams (of AROnline) added a whole bunch of […]

Autocade hits 1,500-model milestone

08.05.2011/13.27

Thanks most recently to the work of Keith Adams, who added numerous important models into Autocade, we now have reached 1,500 models. The 1,500th is a bit mainstream, but after all the odd cars we’ve put in over the last three years, it’s nice to have something almost everyone knows. Audi TT (8J). 2006 to […]

Cortina, outdoors

31.03.2011/03.46

I was peering through Ford’s archive as it celebrates 100 years in Great Britain. This brought back a few memories: the Araldite glue campaign. Right next to it is an outdoor ad for the 1982 Cortina—Taunus 80 to those outside the Empah. The Araldite ad showed how commonplace the Cortina had become. And back […]

Chloé chief sees China moving to more understated luxury—or is it?

28.02.2011/09.17

Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye of Chloé believes the mainland Chinese market is moving toward more understated luxury. I believe there’ll always be a mixture. The understated buyer is emerging probably because of saturation by more extrovert brands—and often, buyers want to get something different, rather than conform. And the top-end luxury brands have […]

Volvo unveils its China strategy

26.02.2011/03.04

Volvo has announced that it will build a plant in China, and seeks approval for a second, in what it calls its second home market. It was inevitable, though for the long-term survival of the brand, it’s not a bad idea. Through Geely’s acquisition, it can potentially leapfrog other foreign car brands inside […]

Opel is not a snob brand

19.01.2011/13.32

Arthur Daley, Opel’s last New Zealand spokesman: ‘Never mind the Capri, Tel: I sell Opels now.’ In the Fairfax Press, General Motors has apparently conﬁrmed it will bring in Opel-branded cars to sell alongside Holden-branded ones. It’s an obvious move. For years, a good part of Holden’s range was Opel-designed. Like Vauxhall, the model […]

Slowly but surely, Autocade gets to 1,250 models

07.01.2011/10.34

Autocade hit 1,250 models today, with a car that’s slightly unusual to non-antipodean eyes: Ford LTD (FE). 1984–8 (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan. F/R, 4089 cm³ (6 cyl. OHV). First LTD series with no V8s, with EFI six as standard, delivering 120 kW. Alloy head as with Falcon; electronic engine management, called EEC IV, delivering more […]