INDUSTRY NEWS

Toyota City in ruins
Inhabitants of Toyota’s home town struggle for work as automotive boom is replaced with economic gloom.

2013 VFACTS: Winners and losers
VFACTS data for 2013 reveals the Toyota Corolla as the best-selling passenger vehicle in Australia, just pipping the Mazda 3.

Toyota halves production, shuts manufacturing plants
Expecting its first official operating loss in six decades, the automotive superpower has slashed production in Japan and America.

Holden not going anywhere: Batey
Ex Holden MD adamant the lion brand won’t step aside for Chevrolet in Australia

Holden free to cherry pick in the future
Holden will be free to cherry-pick from General Motors global automotive portfolio after the closure of its Australian manufacturing operations in 2017.

Hyundai braces for busy year
Koreans attempt to crack six figures with a cornucopia of new cars over the next 12 months or so

GM posts second-biggest loss in operating history
The news does not get better from Detroit… Peter McKay reports on the latest figures and losses.

Holden denies holding Government to ransom
Holden has denied media reports that it is playing “double or nothing” with the Federal Government, demanding another $265 million in funding or else it will abandon local production in three years.

Ford: We could close before 2016
Ford admits it could cease manufacturing in Australia months or even years ahead of its original 2016 schedule.

February vehicle sales down 21.9 percent
This month’s VFACTS sales figures show more short-term doom and gloom for the local market, but spirits (and sales) should rise by June.

Car industry slams ‘dire’ tax changes
Another nail has been hammered into the coffin of the Australian motoring industry – and it’s the Federal Government that’s swinging the hammer.

Gone! Toyota to leave Oz by 2017
Toyota has announced it will follow Ford and Holden and cease manufacturing in Australia by 2017.

US Mail: The casualties of crisis
Wheels magazine’s US correspondent John Lamm reports from the war zone.

‘Holden’s Evoke makes me smile,’ says Land Rover boss
Jaguar Land Rover wasn’t angered by Holden’s decision to name its entry level VF Commodore the Evoke — which sounds suspiciously like Land Rover’s hot-selling Evoque. On the contrary, in fact.

Toyota can’t guarantee staying to 2017
Toyota could leave Australia before its 2017 deadline, with the company refusing to guarantee it won’t shut its factories early

Yaris recall is 45,000-plus cars
Toyota Australia has confirmed that it’s recalling more than 45,000 Yaris sedans and hatchbacks to rectify a potentially dangerous seat belt pretensioner glitch.

Toyota gets behind local industry
Toyota Australia recently announced that it will pour $123 million into its local manufacturing operations as it prepares to build what it says is a major facelift vehicle from 2015.

New Safety Standards for the European Union
EU mandates stability systems and efficient tyres from 2011.

Oz’s cheapest car axed
Australia’s cheapest car, the $9,990 Chery J1, is no more due to safety regulation changes.

Credit crunch
The fractured – nay, broken – American car market has forced Japan’s big four to turn to its government for financial assistance.

Report: Holden quits Oz by 2016
Today was supposed to be the day that Holden’s great export hope was launched in the US city of Palm Springs.

Nissan staff ‘OK to moonlight’
More signs of belt-tightening in Japan, with Nissan employees given the green light to moonlight while the company is quiet. Peter Nunn reports from Tokyo.

D Day for Holden
Today is D Day for Holden with reports swirling the embattled company’s boss, Mike Devereux, is this morning appearing before the government’s Productivity Commission and could use the occasion to announce the company’s withdrawal.

GM passes on billion dollar loan
Cost reduction and cuts across the board allow GM to hold its debt-ridden head up high.