At $1.01 million, a North American record for the marque, this sleek 1968 Bizzarrini 5300 Strada was the top seller at the inaugural Keno Brothers New York City auction in Soho. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ As the government in China eases its one-child-per-family policy, automakers there are betting that minivans will become the industry’s next big growth segment. More at Reuters.
+ Volkswagen Group’s top executives knew a year ago that some of the company’s cars were markedly less fuel efficient than officially stated, a German newspaper reported. More at Automotive News Europe.
+ Ford will end its “Friends and Neighbors” retail incentive program a month early, replacing it with conventional rebate and discount plans for consumers. More at the Detroit Free Press.
+ Mercedes racing boss Toto Wolff said Ferrari’s partnership with Formula 1 newcomer Haas F1 Team was handled properly following clarification of rules loopholes from the FIA. More at Eurosport UK.
+ Toyota Motor Corp. outsold Volkswagen AG for the fourth straight month in October to remain the world’s top-selling automaker for the year to date. More at CNBC.
+ BMW is debating the next model in its lineup of electric vehicles under the “i” badge for 2018, with a decision on its body style in the final stages. More at Motor Trend.
+ City authorities in Maranello, Italy, Ferrari’s home town, are cracking down on the area’s numerous Ferrari rental car agencies due to noise and speed complaints by residents. More at WTOP.
+ Hyundai workers have re-elected Park You Ki, a militant labor leader in power almost a decade ago during one of Korea’s worst years of industrial unrest, setting the stage for final wage talks next month. More at Bloomberg.com.
+ In the Netherlands, Porsche has opened the first of its dedicated retail service centers for classic Porsche vehicles, planning for 100 such facilities worldwide by 2018. More at Autoblog.
+ Citing a lack of sponsor funding, Chip Ganassi Racing has released 20 year-old IndyCar phenomenon Sage Karem from his driver contract and has reduced its entries for 2016 to three. More at Racer.
+ The Keno Brothers New York City 2015 auction at Skylight Clarkson Square in Soho drew a packed house of 1,500 guests and more than $8.3 million in total sales. More at Sports Car Digest.
Read the previous Executive Briefing from November 27 here.
Photo courtesy of Keno Brothers Fine Automobile Auctions.
VW management has screwed over the company big time. I can’t really blame them for wanting to get by the EPA and their stupid regulations, but they {VW} were stupid for doing it in a way in which they got caught. Cummins, Catapillar, and Detroit Diesel made the same mistake back in the 90’s and got caught, which caused EPA to speed up their pending regulations which in turn caused some not ready for prime time technology to be forced on the marketplace with some disastrous results.
VW should have known the old adage, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” History would have told them they couldn’t get away with it. Now a bunch of people will lose their jobs, a bunch of cars may be recalled and retrofitted or even bought back and crushed, the company will lose market share that it had fought long and hard for, and the VW name will be tarnished as a cheater. Wonder if they still think it was worth it?
The Chinese one-child policy was being slowly eased for years, and eliminating it won’t cause as much difference as the government might like. As China develops more and fewer people are farmers, they are already finding out what the rest of the developed world already knows: kids are expensive. Not to mention, that policy completely threw off the gender balance, so there’s not as many women to have those kids.
I’m not disagreeing that minivans will become more popular (the Chinese like soccer, after all), I just don’t think that the policy change will have a large effect on it.