Just two weeks ago, Ford said it was putting down the Mercury brand by year’s end and consolidating its luxury lines under the Lincoln nameplate. We thought, “Another one bites the dust.” And what a surprise, since the

After our last post on the dying nameplates in the auto industry, alert reader AJ Murphy of Just Saab of Cincinnati (www.justsaab.com) pointed out that the Spyker Cars NV acquisition of Saab was consummated on February 23. Quite so, and this week’s Automotive News (www.autonews.com/) carries additional details. Mike Colleran of Saab Cars North America agrees [...]

The recently announced demise of the Hummer  (which may not be a “done deal”, as the Wall Street Journal has reported this morning that General Motors is revisiting two other offers) is only one more in what is rapidly becoming a rather long list of disappearing “name-plates”. Of course, the shock wave began several years ago, [...]

Despite all the carping by media and polticians of both stripes, our clients affirm that Cash For Clunkers was a qualified success, in that it provided a needed shot in the arm for the entire industry. Although there was an anticipated drop off after the conclusion of the program, it did allow for needed cash [...]

The Virginia Automobile Dealers Association (VADA) reported yesterday that it heard on a call with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) that in the “Cash for Clunkers” program 80% of transactions are being rejected.

Yesterday, the Senate agreed with the House of Representatives that the successful “Cash for Clunkers” would get $2 billion extra (which was in the original request by the House, but cut by the Senate before the program was originally implemented), enough — most say — to keep the program going through August. This is great [...]

I noticed back to back stories in the Wall Street Journal Thursday and Friday on the “Cash for Clunkers” program that Congress approved as part of the set of legislative initiatives that have come to be known as the economic stimulus package. John McEleney, chair of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) kicked up concern [...]

According to the Detroit News, General Motors reversed the closing of 41 of the 2,100 dealerships originally targeted to be closed as part of GM’s bankruptcy and restructuring. GM has listened to appeals from hundreds of dealers, and has allowed 41 so far to remain open. This is in stark contrast to Chrysler, which received [...]

061458 Manassas Autocars v. Couch 06/08/2007 (We updated this posting on August 5, 2009.) The Supreme Court of Virginia said, in deciding a suit concerning the advertisement and sale of a new automobile, that the trial court correctly ruled that a statute governing the permissible means of advertising the sale of new automobiles, Code § 46.2-1581(12)(a), prevails [...]