Endgame: Saab ﬁles for bankruptcy

19.12.2011/11.17

If you’re a car nut, then you won’t be mourning, too much, the passing of former Czech president Vaclev Hável. Or, for that matter, Kim Jong Il. It’s Saab that has ﬁnally died as it ﬁles for bankruptcy after GM, which still licenses key technologies to the Swedish ﬁrm, vetoed its sale to Zhejiang Youngman […]

Dodge revives the Dart, while UK Delta owners revive Lancia

07.12.2011/11.54

Fiat has announced that it’s going to bring back the Dodge Dart nameplate on a compact sedan based on a stretched Alfa Romeo Giulietta platform for the 2013 model year. This was actually mentioned when Chrysler was going cap-in-hand to the US Government, so it’s not a total surprise. The nameplate, however, is. […]

Saab to get €245 million if Pang Da and Youngman deal approved

04.07.2011/14.01

Today, from Saab: Swedish Automobile N.V. (SWAN) and Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile) today announced the signing of ﬁnal agreements with Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Ltd. (Pang Da) and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co., Ltd. (Youngman), thereby converting the non-binding memorandum of understanding relating to the equity investment of Pang Da and Youngman … […]

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 […]

Chevrolet’s new Malibu might still look like a Daewoo

01.04.2011/00.54

I took a few digs at the forthcoming Chevrolet Malibu on my Facebook yesterday. First: a few things GM got right. It’s right to put this on a global platform—in this case, the Opel Insignia‘s. It’s also right to make it a world car of sorts, where it can be sold globally with […]

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 […]

How will Chevrolet go down in Korea?

25.01.2011/01.59

Last week, GM announced it would drop the Daewoo marque, as it has done through Europe, in its native Korea, in favour of Chevrolet. The company will also be renamed GM Korea, a name it once had nearly four decades ago. While most will think this makes sense, so GM can concentrate on […]

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 […]

Johnny Foreigner might be better at running a car company in Shanghai

12.12.2010/00.26

As I made links for the last post, I noticed there were a lot of comments on AROnline about the replacement for the Roewe 750, the Chinese car that is based on the old Rover 75. The replacement will be on the Opel Insignia platform, owned by GM. It’s been followed by a lot […]

An ideal surﬁng camera, and why we love the Saab 9-4X more

20.11.2010/00.30

My friend Gareth Rowson is now review editor for WideWorldMag.com (alongside his design practice). Here is his test of the waterproof Oregon Scientiﬁc ATC9K Action Camera, ﬁlmed while surﬁng at Vazon in Guernsey. I thought this was very nicely shot. Less well shot, but signiﬁcant, is the ofﬁcial video from Saab USA about its […]