Hybrid sales slide 9.9% in 2008

Despite all the clamor about how hybrids are going to save the planet, cure cancer, facilitate the second coming, etc., sales of battery-pack-mobiles are down nearly ten percent for 2008. At the beginning of 2008, it looked like hybrids were going to have their best year ever, driven by high fuel prices and a recessive economy. That recession, however,has caused consumers to cut way back, leading to dramatic drop in fuel prices, killing much of the argument for a hybrid's price premium. Consumers shy away from hybrids when fuel dips below $3.50 per gallon, and the incessant clang of news stories about expensive fuel also dries up, causing the issue of fuel efficiency to fall from consciousness.
Toyota is still the hybrid sales king, with 241,000 units shifted in 2008. Honda managed to ring up 31,000 sales, and Ford came in third with nearly 20,000 vehicles sold. While nearly every automaker offering hybrids is down (Nissan actually saw a 5 percent increase, and General Motors garnered a whopping 179 percent jump thanks to its 2008 introductions), Ford was hardest hit, with a 22 percent drop. Some might say "we told you so" about the way things have played out - by the time everyone got on board with more efficient offerings, the bottom has fallen out of the price of fuel - and others might use the sales figures to agitate for a gas tax to stimulate the purchase of fuel efficient vehicles.

[ Via: Auto News - sub req ]
[ Tag: escalade hybrid, EscaladeHybrid, ford escape, ford fusion hybrid, ford hybrid, FordEscape, FordFusionHybrid, FordHybrid, gm hybrid, GmHybrid, honda hybrid, HondaHybrid, hybrid, hybrid car sales, hybrid cars, hybrid sales, hybrid vehicle, hybrid vehicle sales, hybrid vehicles, HybridCars, HybridCarSales, hybrids, HybridSales, HybridVehicle, HybridVehicles, HybridVehicleSales, nissan hybrid, NissanHybrid, sales figures, SalesFigures, tahoe hybrid, TahoeHybrid, toyota prius, ToyotaPrius ]

Consumers rate automakers bang for the buck

Consumers surveyed for the YouGovPolimetrix BrandIndex were asked to rate everything from cable channels to search engines in terms of bang for the buck. It's not so much a scientific study as it is an opinion poll, and among the department stores and search engines, automakers were also rated. Among the domestic carmakers, General Motors claims both the best and the worst, with HUMMER rated the worst bang for the buck while Chevrolet was rated positively. Toyota was among the top ten of all brands rated, demonstrating consumers ongoing love for their Camrys, but before we end up with a dogmatic flamewar in the comments, remember that this is just an opinion poll with an buzzword-tastic name.

[ Via: AdAge ]
[ Tag: brandindex, chevrolet bang for the buck, chevrolet toyota hummer, ChevroletBangForTheBuck, ChevroletToyotaHummer, gm bang for the buck, GmBangForTheBuck, hummer bang for the buck, HummerBangForTheBuck, toyota bang for the buck, ToyotaBangForTheBuck, yougov ]

Buy Toyota badges... from GM

A long, long time ago -- 1996 to be exact -- Toyota decided to brand engineer a GM vehicle for the Japanese domestic market. The vehicle they chose: the Chevrolet Cavalier. They even called it the Toyota Cavalier, and wanted to move 20,000 of them per year in Japan. They put them in dealer showrooms next to JDM cars, and, well... people didn't really buy them. By 2000, the Toyota Cavalier was mort.
And while their loss is not exactly your gain, it might mean you can have some fun with rabbits and hats. GM made Toyota Cavalier parts, including Toyota badges, for the car, and has boxes of the stuff at its warehouse in Lansing, Michigan. If you can get a parts manager to fulfill your order -- overseas-only parts are normally red-flagged for U.S. domestic use due to DOT issues -- then you can get a Toyota badge wrapped in official GM packaging. Cue the Ripley's Believe It or Not theme music...

[ Via: Automobile ]
[ Tag: badges, cavalier, chevrolet cavalier, ChevroletCavalier, chevy cavalier, ChevyCavalier, gm, gm badges, gm parts, GmBadges, GmParts, jdm, jdm parts, JdmParts, toyota, toyota badges, toyota cavalier, ToyotaBadges, ToyotaCavalier ]

VIDEO: Chevy Traverse takes on Toyota Highlander inside and out

When the 2009 Chevy Traverse goes on sale in September, it will be the fourth, eight-passenger Lambda-based crossover to come from GM. The bow-tie CUV will carry the lowest starting MSRP of the quartet, and it will also carry the most power, with 288 hp and 270 lb.-ft. of torque, along with the highest towing capacity of 5,200 lbs.
Hit the jump to view several comparison videos that pit the Traverse against one of its main competitors, the Toyota Highlander. The first video is a walk-around of the Traverse to point out unique styling points, and from there it's all competition. We judge everything from the interior volume to the driving experience, and then take the two CUVs into uncharted territory -- the track. Enjoy!

[ Via: Autoblog (Toyota) ]
[ Tag: Chevy Traverse,ChevyTraverse,crossover,three row seating,ThreeRowSeating,Toyota Highlander,ToyotaHighlander ]

Autoblog Podcast #87

The Chicago Auto Show wasn't that eventful, but that's what we lead off Autoblog Podcast episode #87 with. The Challenger was the biggest deal, followed by the Denali XT, and then a bunch of inconsequential things. We did find ourselves talking about the Suzuki Equator and the Ford Transit Connect, too. We give you our first up close and personal impressions of the Challenger SRT-8 in this podcast. We also saw the VW Routan, which certainly doesn't conjure warm, fuzzy memories of Type IIs gone by. Chevy's Traverse calls into question the usefulness of Saturn's Outlook in the product lineup. Speaking of GM badge-engineering, we got word this week that Pontiac will not be getting a Trans Am companion to the Camaro, dang. Another disappointment is the rumor that Cerberus is going to let the Viper run down without rewinding the clock for a third generation. We wrap up by touching on the possibility that an Indian pickup could be the first diesel hybrid in the US, even though it's not even being imported yet, and we're sure that when it gets here, it'll generate even more hate than the new Acura RL. 42 minutes, that's it. Sorry it's a little late this week, it's all Alex's fault, I swear.
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[ Via: Autoblog (Suzuki) ]
[ Tag: acura, autoblog, autoblog podcast, AutoblogPodcast, challenger, chicago, denali, denali xt, DenaliXt, dodge, equator, firebird, gm, lambda, pickup, podcast, rl, routan, suzuki, trans am, transam, transit, xt, zeta ]

The end is nigh? Camry outsold Silverado in April, gunning for F-Series

Could the reign of Ford's F-Series atop the sales charts in the U.S. come to an end? Some believe that it could indeed happen, and it's not even another pickup truck that is threatening the Blue Oval's bread-and-butter full-size pickup, it's the Toyota Camry. Let that sink in for a moment... alright, let's continue. The Camry already posted better sales numbers than the Chevy Silverado, the perennial second-best seller to the F-Series, for the month of April. In fact, the Silverado suffered a sales drop of 24.7 percent to 37,231 units while the Camry grabbed 40,016 sales in the same month. Still, even after the Camry's great sales month, the Silverado holds the edge when the entire year-to-date sales numbers are compiled, and the F Series still sits atop the list for now. Consider too that the Ford truck will get a major redesign for the upcoming model year. So, while high gas prices will likely continue to put pressure on full-size pickups, let's not jump to hasty conclusions just yet.
[Sources: Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota, the Auto Channel]

[ Via: Autoblog (Toyota) ]
[ Tag: best selling, best-selling, BestSelling, camry sales, camry-sales, CamrySales, chevrolet, chevy, f series, f series sales, f-series, f-series-sales, ford, FSeries, FSeriesSales, pickup sales, pickup-sales, PickupSales, toyota, truck sales, truck-sales, TruckSales ]