“Volkswagen AG Predicts the Automotive Market Recovery Will Not Happen ... - Transworld News” plus 4 more

Volkswagen AG Predicts the Automotive Market Recovery Will Not Happen ... - Transworld News
Renewable energy lab coming to Kokomo - Kokomo Tribune
Collecting: A Market for Cars Born to Run - New York Times
Kennedy: Saturn’s demise brings an end to an American dream - Chattanooga Times Free Press
Zeus opening advanced materials lab - Times and Democrat

Volkswagen AG Predicts the Automotive Market Recovery Will Not Happen ... - Transworld News

Posted: 10 Oct 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Boca Raton, FL 10/10/2009 07:05 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)

Volkswagen AG (ETR: VOW) made a prediction for the worldwide automotive market. Volkswagen AG predicts the market won't match the pre recession levels until at least 2013. Industry sales in 2009 may decline for a second consecutive year to 49 million vehicles. The number is down 17% from the peak of the crisis in 2007. The company's CEO, Martin Winterkorn has set a goal for Volkswagen of beating Toyota Motor Corp. in deliveries and profit margins by 2018.

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About Volkswagen AG

Volkswagen AG is a Germany-based automobile manufacturer. The Company consists of two divisions: Automotive and Financial Services. The activities of the Automotive Division engages in the development of vehicles and engines, the production and sale of passenger cars, commercial vehicles, trucks and buses, and the genuine parts business. The Financial Services Division's portfolio of services includes the Company's dealer and customer financing, leasing, banking and insurance activities and fleet management. The Company brands include Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, Skoda, Scania and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

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Renewable energy lab coming to Kokomo - Kokomo Tribune

Posted: 10 Oct 2009 07:31 PM PDT

Published: October 10, 2009 10:51 pm

Renewable energy lab coming to Kokomo

City grant funds equipment purchase.

By Ken de la Bastide
Tribune enterprise editor

Plans are moving forward for an Advanced and Renewable Energy Lab at the Purdue College of Technology in Kokomo.

Purdue was provided with a $5,000 grant through the Kokomo One Step Grant program to purchase a key piece of equipment for the lab — the Solar/Wind Training System created by Lab-Volt Systems of Michigan.

The lab will provide crucial skills to students seeking jobs in advanced and renewable energy. It will also assist workers in transitioning to the emerging green economy, according to a press release.

Purdue plans to work with local work force development agencies to determine the needs of local employers and update its curriculum.

Debbie Cook, Kokomo's director of development, said the grant, funded by the County Economic Development Income Tax, is not tied to job creation. Rather, it raises the educational opportunities in the community.

"Students will learn to create and work in energy-field jobs with the testing equipment," she said. "It is creating a different kind of work force."

Cook said the lab, located on the Indiana University Kokomo campus, is the first one of its kind in the state.

"There is a need for this training," she said.

Cook said the Purdue campus will work with Ivy Tech Community College on the creation of a degree program in the future.

Michael O'Hair, professor of electrical computer engineering for Purdue, said eventually the equipment will be used in other labs operated by the university.

"Students are interested in advanced and renewable energy," O'Hair said. "This is starting a focus in new areas."

Previously, O'Hair said, Purdue focused on automotive electronics in Kokomo and is currently working with Delphi on electronic controls for electric vehicles.

Despite the new emphasis on the renewable energy sources of wind and solar power, the state's reliance on coal to generate electricity is not likely to change. O'Hair said studies will be conducted to make coal-fired generators more efficient.

"It is a powerful statement that the community was involved," O'Hair said of possible future federal grants.

Purdue is providing $8,000 toward the purchase of the Lab-Volt Systems equipment.

"A tremendous opportunity exists in transforming our already skilled automotive work force into an energy efficient, green work force," said Christy Bozic, director of the Purdue College of Technology in Kokomo. "This lab will provide educational and research opportunities that are not available in other areas of the state or Midwest."

Collecting: A Market for Cars Born to Run - New York Times

Posted: 10 Oct 2009 08:50 PM PDT

CAN the white-glove world of classic car collecting extend a welcoming hand to a juvenile delinquent with a ducktail haircut and a penchant for straight-line speed? Do recent high-dollar sales of retired drag-racing cars suggest a sustainable trend or a passing fancy?

Those questions were answered in part at a recent sale organized by RM Auctions, a respected auction house that typically sells investment-grade classics in conjunction with concours events at upscale locales like Pebble Beach, Calif., and Amelia Island, Fla. On Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, RM ventured outside the bounds of the classic-car world to sell 80 cars from the edge of the automotive universe in its Icons of Speed & Style auction.

Among this group, the most extreme were 16 drag-racing cars — machines that many consider the black sheep of the automotive world.

There are clearly some shepherds out there with deep pockets; about half of the quarter-mile sprinters sold for amounts that exceeded RM's estimates. Some came in below estimate, but the group as a whole performed well. Given today's economic climate, the results suggest that there is a market for veterans of the dragstrip.

Among the drag cars that failed to sell for their estimated value was a 1970 Chevelle convertible that once dominated the Super Stock category of the National Hot Rod Association. The car had brought $1.2 million in fevered bidding at a 2006 Barrett-Jackson auction; RM estimated its price at the Petersen sale at $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $264,000, including a 10 percent buyer's premium.

Two funny cars that were once raced by a colorful competitor, Jungle Jim Lieberman, sold for about half of their six-figure estimates. Funny cars are specialized machines that carry replica body shells on steel-tube frames and are powered by supercharged, nitromethane-burning engines. These cars were nicely restored and well documented, but one was lacking an engine.

Among the cars that exceeded RM's estimates was the Wagon-Master, an insanely designed dragster with four (yes, four) Buick engines and bodywork that conveyed a touch of the Buick Riviera. The tire-smoking Wagon-Master was once owned and driven by Tom Ivo, who had been an early television personality and was known as TV Tommy Ivo at the track. It sold for $209,000, well above the estimate of $125,000 to $175,000.

A 1929 Ford Roadster powered by a supercharged Ford flathead V-8, built by a drag-racing pioneer, Tony Nancy, was estimated at $125,000 to $175,000. It sold for $210,000.

But the car that outscored them all was the outrageous, wheelstanding Little Red Wagon pickup, which went for more than half a million dollars.

Neither the buyer of this offbeat vehicle nor the others who bought drag cars in Los Angeles were typical collectors. Ian Kelleher, president of RM, said the vast majority were new customers, compared with a new-buyer share of less than 40 percent at RM's usual auctions. In almost every way, the drag-car buyers are a different breed.

"I think drag cars will always be a niche segment," Mr. Kelleher said. "They go to guys who are really involved in the sport."

Greg Mosley, who dug the deepest at the Petersen Museum auction and went home with the Little Red Wagon, is definitely a niche collector. Mr. Mosley, who heads a large distribution business for trailer parts, and his wife, Kathy, own a stable of 30 American performance cars with an emphasis on Chrysler products and drag cars. The collection is housed in a spacious private museum they built a few years ago in tiny Coal Valley, Ill.

Two days after the RM event, I called to get Mr. Mosley's take, not knowing he had bought a car at the auction.

"We own the Little Red Wagon," he said. "I didn't know I was going to get that stupid, but I did. It's a fascinating part of the sport I love."

The nature of the sport makes drag-car collecting problematic. Built for maximum acceleration in a 1,320-foot sprint, the vehicles have more in common with skyrockets than passenger cars. Many successful cars from the early years were lost when their day was done, either cannibalized for parts or sold for use in lower-level competition. But today, with a new breed of collectors willing to pay for the old warriors, finding the parts and pieces of historic drag cars has become a specialty.

Mike Guffey of Muncie, Ind., is among the nation's pre-eminent locators of lost drag-racing cars. Mr. Guffey knows how to authenticate a find and has an uncanny ability to follow a trail.

He said he thought that origin confusion and the disappearance of some well-known cars might have led to the counterfeiting of older funny cars and rail-type dragsters — one reason, he said, that some of these vehicles sell for less than expected. It's also why many drag-car collectors are attracted to factory-backed Super Stock and factory-experimental racecars of the late 1960s and early '70s. These cars were well documented and usually carry a VIN or serial number.

Both the problems involved in generating a provenance for some historic drag cars and the bare-knuckle imagery of the sport suggest that most traditional collectors won't soon be parking a funny car next to the Ferrari. But the instinct for preservation is a powerful motivator.

"Kathy and I are trying to keep the heritage of mother Chrysler and drag racing alive," said Mr. Mosley, the buyer of the Little Red Wagon. "That's what we do. We're caretakers, and this vehicle is deserving of special care."

Kennedy: Saturn’s demise brings an end to an American dream - Chattanooga Times Free Press

Posted: 10 Oct 2009 08:50 PM PDT

The Saturn car brand died last month of natural causes. It was 19.

Saturn's 350 dealers may continue to operate for much of 2010, but after that the network will be phased out.

The brand is survived by four siblings: Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC. It was preceded in death by Oldsmobile and Pontiac.

Saturn's parent company, General Motors, is convalescing in government intensive care.

For car guys like me, reading the obituary of a car brand is always disappointing. Saturn's passing last month, after a deal fell apart to sell the brand to Penske Automotive Group Inc., felt especially personal.

I grew up near Spring Hill, Tenn., the birthplace of Saturn. When I was a boy, Maury County's biggest claim to fame was our annual Mule Day Parade, a throwback to the early 20th century when nearby Columbia, Tenn., was the mule-trading capital of the mid-South.

New acclaim arrived in 1990, when GM's revolutionary new Saturn division began producing quirky, plastic-body cars at a sprawling new plant nestled in the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee.

I remember visiting the Spring Hill plant soon after it opened. An assembly-line worker dropped a plastic door panel on the plant floor. Then, he jumped on top of it with both steel-toed boots to prove its durability. I thought to myself, "This will come in handy if an Army brigade ever marches across the hood of your car."

It was amazing to see the transformation of a farm into a modern car plant. The Saturn property is ringed by a white fence that my buddies used to paint in high-school summers.

The first sedans off the assembly line — the so-called S-series cars — were fuel-sippers that quickly caught on with the American buying public. By 1992, Saturn dealers, using an innovative "no-haggle" sales strategy, were moving more cars per store than any other brand.

The Saturn concept got its start in the early 1980s, when Japanese car makers were gobbling up market share in the United States with durable, fuel-efficient vehicles. American car buyers, burned by the oil shocks of the 1970s and shoddy American econoboxes, were turning to thrifty imports.

Panicked by the way things were heading, GM announced in 1983 that it was embarking on a new venture that would change the way American cars were made and sold. Coincidentally, it was the same year that Nissan began production of small trucks in Smyrna, Tenn., another hamlet in the far suburbs of Nashville.

Later in the decade, GM announced that Spring Hill, about 30 miles south of Nashville, had won the worldwide lottery for the Saturn plant. The challenge was clear: GM was trying to distance its new company from the gravitational force of its Detroit bureaucracy and go toe-to-toe with the Japanese — namely Nissan — on neutral turf in middle Tennessee.

The early 1990s were a heady time for Saturn. About 38,000 Saturn owners gathered in Spring Hill in 1994 to celebrate the brand and its durable — if unremarkable — small sedans. At its peak, the plant employed about 7,000 workers.

But the euphoria of the early years soon waned. Saturn was slow to change its product line, and the S-series cars grew long in the tooth. By 1999, when Saturn began production of larger L-series cars, Americans had begun their infatuation with SUVs. Saturn unveiled its Vue SUV in 2000, but it was late to the party.

As recently at 2005, the Spring Hill plant had 5,700 employees. Over time, though, Saturn lost much of its independence inside GM. The last Spring Hill Saturn was produced in 2007, and the plant was retooled to produce the Chevrolet Traverse SUV. We all know what happened to the SUV market in 2008 when gas prices hit $4 per gallon.

GM has announced that the Spring Hill plant will be idled in November. Because it's a state-of-the-art assembly plant, hope remains that it might reopen if demand for GM products picks up. (There is speculation on automotive Web sites that the Spring Hill plant might build a small truck down the line.)

Car folks have told me privately it was inevitable that GM would emerge from the Great Recession as a leaner company with fewer nameplates.

The irony is that today's Saturns are wonderful cars. The Aura sedan, which I recently reviewed for the Times Free Press, is one of the best cars I've driven this year.

But in the auto business, as in life, timing is everything. And sometimes our best efforts are ultimately too little too late.

Zeus opening advanced materials lab - Times and Democrat

Posted: 10 Oct 2009 09:04 PM PDT

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