Like Great Britain, Sweden never switched over to the Euro – they still deal in kroners. Therefor, In order to keep Saab afloat after being jettisoned by General Motors, new owner Koenigsegg Group has determined that it needs a loan of about 415 billion kroners to keep the flood waters back. That's about €400 million Euros, or $599 million good old US Ameripesos. A little while back we reported that the country of Sweden had agreed to guarantee any such loan to sinking Saab, should a bank offer to do so. Well guess what?
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to lend the €400 million to Koenigsegg Group vis-a-vis Saab. The money is supposedly earmarked for "research and development activities for the improvement of fuel efficiency and safety including new tooling for the production of cleaner and safer cars." At least that's according to EIB. However, there's a very good chance that the loan will be used to finish closing Koenigsegg's deal with GM. Either way, looks like Saab might now have a fighting chance at not sinking into the North Atlantic.
VW's Fun Theory project, with its European ad agency DDB, takes on a third task to show that you can get more people to do the right thing if you make it fun. This time it's bottle recycling, and the tool used is a bin fitted with an arcade scoreboard. After a "player" presses start, lights flash above any of the six holes in the bin and the recycler collects points for putting a bottle in the correct opening. It's the same theory as whack-a-mole but with glass bottles.
Just as the other Fun Theory demonstrations with the bottomless garbage can and the piano steps, people flocked to the Bottle Bank Arcade: it was used 50 times more than the plain green bin sitting nearby. Put a scoreboard on something and all of a sudden people will celebrate doing anything – when's the last time you saw a grown man shaking his fist over throwing away a bottle?
There are few people in this world for whom we hold more contempt than European bureaucrats. They're the pencil-pushers that, if they had their way, would put an end to some of our favorite exotic sportscars and have us all driving Smart ForTwos. But every gray cloud has its silver lining, and in the case of Belgium's bureaucracy, is the sneak peak we get from time to time when a carmaker files its designs to register them as trademarks.
What we're looking at this time is the upcoming Mercedes-Benz E-Class cabrio. Although there were rumors that the model could be delayed, by and large we knew this was coming, and have even seen plenty spy shots of test mules preparing for their market launch.
Replacing the outgoing CLK convertible, this new model is based on the slick new E-Class coupe but, you know...with a convertible roof. It's a fabric job, unlike its rivals from BMW, Lexus, Infiniti and Volvo, which have all gone with folding hard-tops by now. The mechanicals are otherwise expected to carry over from its fixed-roof counterpart, although the jury's still out on whether an AMG version will be on offer as well. For now, we'll just have to peruse these grainy black-and-white images until the new drop-top Benz drops in the first half of next year.
New products, improved quality and a surge in public perception have helped Ford buttress its sales numbers here in the U.S., but the Dearborn-based automaker also has a good story to tell across the Pond. According to The Detroit News, Ford managed to grab 10.1% of Europe's overall market share in September – the first time since September of 2001 that the Blue Oval has touched double digits. Ford sold 155,000 vehicles in September in Europe's 19 biggest markets, up 12.3% versus September 2008. Ford has now beaten year-over-year sales totals for four straight months.
One vehicle that has gone a long way towards getting the Blue Oval over the 10% milestone is the new Fiesta, as the popular B-Segment vehicle achieved its highest September sales in 15 years. While Ford's overall market share benefited from the quality of its product lineup, the increased volume during the month of September also came in part courtesy of Cash for Clunkers-like scrap programs in several European nations. Many of those programs have recently ended or are being phased out, though, which worries Ford for the short term. Ford of Europe VP Ingvar Sviggum told the DetNews that the health of the market still pretty shaky, adding "It is clear that there is still a need for government intervention in Europe to help bolster the market until demand reaches a more sustainable level."
Citroën is perhaps the wackiest mass-market auto manufacturer still in business (have you seen the 2CV, C-Cactus, and that dancing robot?), and this year, the company celebrates 90 years of mercantilism.
In celebration of that achievement, they have put together a 90-second video flyover of some of the most memorable – or just plain intriguing – pieces of company lore. From using the Eiffel tower as a billboard for a decade, to de Gaulle, the Pope, the WRC, and the Playstation, there's been a lot of it. Follow the jump to watch the video.
A major hurdle in Saab's transfer to the homegrown hands of Sweden's Koenigsegg has been surmounted: the Swedish government has agreed to guarantee a 4.3 billion kroner ($615M U.S.) loan from the European Investment Bank to the Koenigsegg consortium. That represents the final funding the maker of the CCX needs in order to compete the financing of the deal.
The next hurdle is for the European Investment Bank to consent to give Koenigsegg the money. A Swedish government representative said he hoped the EIB would decide before the end of the month. If that happens and things goes favorably, Koenigsegg may still get the deal done on its original timeline, the end of the year
Like anyone else who's been around for 60 years, the Toyota Land Cruiser has put on weight and girth over the years. Also like some 60 year-olds we've met, the big Toyota has just gone under the knife for cosmetic upgrades and hit the gym to keep the muscles toned.
Set to debut this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the latest Land Cruiser gets fresh styling that pulls it in line with the latest Highlander and upcoming new 4Runner. The new body rides atop an 11-percent stiffer frame with insulating mounts soaking up noise and vibration. The UK market goes diesel-only with the D-4D underhood, while a 4.0-liter V6 burns gas for other European markets. With the new diesel, Toyota's claiming best-in-class fuel economy and a 4.5 percent improvement over the current Land Cruiser's carbon emissions figures.
While many Land Cruisers don't venture into the woods, Toyota has upped the capabilities of its SUV. The suspension now sports active roll bars as well as Adaptive Variable Suspension that lets drivers twiddle damper settings and provides self leveling and height control. Tip-toeing into the bog might be easier with a Land Rover-like Multi Terrain Select system that adjusts the Land Cruiser's dynamic responses for different surfaces, and four cameras send images from around the vehicle back to the bridge so the driver can see what's going on. A crawl function and a steering angle display are also parts of the off-road arsenal.
Like the ersatz Range Rover the LC has become, Toyota paid attention to the interior of its latest effort too. Three rows of seats have places for seven backsides, and legroom for second-row passengers is way up. The rearmost seats hide away for a flat load floor and a refrigerator is available for the center console, handy for provisioning if you plan to get stuck. All sorts of electronics and entertainment systems are also baked into the Land Cruiser, from navigation to a 605 Watt audio system with hard drive.
When GM decided to hand 55% of Opel to Magna, you didn't think the Belgians were just going to have some waffles and call it quits, did you? Oh no. Belgium's prime minister made a call to the EU president about the deal, and the EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told a Belgian newspaper, "If something happens against the rules, I will take action."
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It had been reported that SAIC had quietly taken a stake in Saab in conjunction with the Koenigsegg Group. However, it's been confirmed that Beijing Automotive -- which also recently made a play for Opel -- has grabbed a share of the Trollhätten pie.
BAIC provided the $400 million difference in cost that Koenigsegg needed to complete the sale and the final financial hurdle is for the Swedish government to guarantee a $600 million loan from the European Investment Bank to Koenigsegg.
Those kinds of numbers mean that Saab will be more expensive than Aston Martin, which might sound a little odd -- especially for a company that sold just 93,000 cars last year. But the tie to BAIC -- and Russia, Augie Fabela, a cell-phone company magnate -- could open up two enormous markets that will give Saab access to market numbers that could justify its purchase price and existence.
China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, at which point it was given five years to adjust to the rules of open trade before any complaints were lodged against it. On schedule, in 2006, the complaints began, lodged by the U.S., Europe, and Canada.
In one example of open trade prohibitive practices, Automotive News reports that if a car built in China uses a percentage of imported auto parts above a specific threshold, China taxes each imported part an additional 25%. In such a price-competitive atmosphere, such a policy all but proscribes the use of imported parts, a move that has lead to complaints from all three continents.
The original complaint was decided at the end of last year in a ruling against China. Beijing appealed, to no avail. In response, China has rescinded the tax, which is an initial step to truly opening the market up for foreign parts- and automakers. The U.S. trade in auto parts to China is not even 113th what it is to Mexico, a statistic that a host of companies would clearly like to change.
