This rare 1948 Packard Eight Station Sedan will be among the featured attractions at the Auctions America Fort Lauderdale sale April 1-3. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ A street-racing crash on Interstate 5 in Commerce, California resulted in three people killed, four injured in critical condition, and one driver arrested on manslaughter charges. More at the Los Angeles Times.
+ Ford will invest $145 million in its Cleveland, Ohio engine plant to manufacture 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engines for the F-150 Raptor pickup, preserving 150 jobs. More at Cleveland.com.
+ The personal stake of CEO Sergio Marchionne in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and related companies slipped nearly $50 million to $232 million in 2015 due to shrinking share prices. More at The Detroit News.
+ Volkswagen’s former chief executive Martin Winterkorn was informed that the carmaker was using defeat devices two weeks before the scandal became public, the German paper Bild am Sonntag reported. More at Yahoo! Finance.
+ Due to delays with the timing system, the new knockout qualifying procedure for Formula 1 will not be introduced until the fifth race of the season, says series boss Bernie Ecclestone. More at BBC Sport.
+ Canadian parts maker Magna International reported a much higher-than-expected quarterly profit as low fuel prices boosted demand for vehicles in Europe and North America. More at Reuters.
+ Nissan Motor Co. will acquire up to $3.5 billion in its own stock in a bid to shore up its share price after a 24 percent decline this year. More at Bloomberg.com.
+ BMW chief engineer Frank Isenberg asserts there will be no M2 convertible in the lineup, saying “convertibles are not for racetracks, they’re for cruising.” More at Motor Trend.
+ At the Geneva Motor Show, Alfa Romeo will debut the exclusive Disco Volante Spider, with plans to produce only seven examples, each in a different color. More at Autoblog.
+ Early consignments to the Auctions America Fort Lauderdale sale on April 1-3 include a 1948 Packard Eight Station Sedan to be sold at no reserve. More at Hemmings Daily.
+ At the 2016 Detroit Autorama, Billy Thomas of Georgetown, Texas won the Ridler Award with his 1939 Olds convertible built by Customs and Hot Rods of Anice. More at the Hot Rod Network.
+ The 2016 Daytona 500 earned a 6.6 rating and averaged 11.4 million viewers, down 14 percent from last year and the second-lowest rating since live, flag-to-flag coverage began in 1979. More at Racer.
Read the previous Executive Briefing from February 26 here.
Photo by Ryan Merrill, courtesy of Auctions America.
Curious about the Hemmings comment regarding the Packard’s bumpers. 1948 Packard sales literature shows “painted bumpers”; did they not, in actual production, come that way? Thanks for any enlightenment.
That Ridler Award winner Olds is beautiful…..with the exception of the wheels. To each his own, just not my taste. Lots of hard work and design put forth there for sure.