Crisis? What crisis? For you and me, perhaps, but not for Bentley buyers. The VW-owned British luxury carmaker announced today a 20% increase in global sales for the first half of 2011 with 2,978 cars delivered to customers, the best start for the company since 2008.The luxury marque attributes this surge in sales to the high demand for the new Continental GT as well as the increasing popularity in (least we forget, communist…) China, where Bentley sales have risen by 57% compared to the same period last year, to 680 cars. Thus, it has become the manufacturer’s second best market, behind only the US (George Orwell's "Animal Farm", anyone?). Not to be outdone by China, the capitalist West has contributed its fair, albeit smaller, share to Bentley’s rise. In Europe, sales have increased by 25% (494 cars) and in the USA by 23% (907 cars). Only in Japan, due to the recent catastrophic natural disasters, and the Middle East, where political unrest rules, have sales declined. So, well done Bentley - and well done to all the fat cats out there, be they…capitalists or…communists, who are rapidly increasing in numbers each day. Source carscoop
With the recent surge in used car prices in the U.S., many people leasing vehicles have discovered the surprising fact that the market value of their automobiles is greater than the dealer’s quoted residual (buyout) price.
All a would-be lessee needs to do is buy the car from the dealer and sell it on privately. The dealer gets the residual amount and the former lessee pockets a tidy sum. Take the example of a 2008 Volvo XC90. With more than twelve months left on the lease, the dealer’s buyout price was a quoted US$18,500. Compare this to the amount the lessee was likely to get by selling the car privately: a far more substantial US$27,000. That’s a profit of US$8,500! Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) describes the situation thusly: “What’s likely to happen now is [dealers have] underestimated the value of the car. So the residual price is low, and [lessees] have more incentive to purchase it. Or, buy it and then sell it.” It’s all thanks to the undersupplied, overinflated used car market in the U.S. at the present time. Add to that the fact many lease contracts are agreed on months or even years in advance, there’s nothing the lessees can do about it. And owners are taking notice. 21.8% of lessees now buy their cars, up from a historical average of 16.4%. Additionally, 40% of those who do buy their cars resell their cars within six months, up from 27.3%. We are living in interesting times, indeed.
The latest news from Audi is that the Ingolstadt automaker is working on a high-performance version of its new Q3 compact SUV. According to inside sources quoted by Auto Motor und Sport magazine in its most recent issue, the brand with the four rings has even decided on the powertrain, which is none other than the 340HP 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five found under the hood of the TT RS and RS3 hot hatch. Power of course would be transferred to all four wheels through Audi’s quattro system and a seven-speed S tronic dual-clutch transmission. These yet to be officially confirmed rumors have lead photoshop resident and Carscoop reader L il-k Amaru to use his talent on the creation of two renderings depicting the possible styling of the Q3 RS. The artist’s proposal includes all the usual design cues of Audi’s RS models such as the prominent front bumper with a honeycomb grille, side skirts, five-spoke alloy wheels, aluminum trim accents and a rear apron with a diffuser.
The third installment of the popular Transformers movies, "Dark of the Moon", directed by Michael Bay and produced by none other than Steven Spielberg, has made its premiere in Berlin. Of course, all the stars including Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Torturo, Patrick Dempsey and the gorgeous Victoria’s Secret model-turned-actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, were present. But since the movie is about cars, and even though the franchise features a lot of Chevrolet models, Mercedes-Benz was also present with the E-Class playing an Autobot (the good guys) and the SLS AMG appearing on screen as Huntington-Whiteley’s car. Funny, we think it should be the other way around, since the SLS is the supercar, right? And Michael Bay was so impressed he just bought one. Source carscoop VIDEO
Porsche, the most successful marque ever in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has announced its return in 2014 to the world’s most famous endurance race. Porsche has won at Le Mans a record 16 times, and aims for the top spot with its works entry in the top LMP1 category. Of course, Porsche had never really shut down its motorsport activities as far as endurance races are concerned. Apart from the numerous 911s, the RS Spyder that was run by the Porsche-backed Penske team in the US from 2006-2008 and to 2010 with several privateer teams, it has enjoyed success in the LMP2 category. “With the RS Spyder we proved that our motorsport engineers in Weissach are at the forefront,” says Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG. “We were the first to run a high-revving race engine with direct fuel injection, setting new standards in performance and efficiency. Recently, with the 911 GT3 R Hybrid, we adopted a completely new drive technology for racing purposes and achieved a considerable reduction in consumption.” According to Porsches’s head of Motorsport, Hartmut Kristen, the company will begin to evaluate its options for the brand-new LMP1 racer. As he points out, “these obviously depend on the details of the 2014 regulations, which are interesting because in principle the integration of our hybrid technology is one option”. Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood claimed the first overall victory for Porsche in 1970 with the legendary 917 short-tail. The 16th and, until now, last overall win was secured by Laurent Aiello, Stéphane Ortelli and Allan McNish in 1998 with the 911 GT1. In 2008 and 2009, the Porsche RS Spyder sports prototype won the title in the LMP2 category. Source carscoop
The Volkswagen brand has reported U.S. sales of 28,444 units in June 2011 recording a 35.1 percent increase over the same month a year ago. The German firm’s year-to-date-sales are up by 22.3 percent compared to 2010 at 154,125 units. The most impressive increase in sales comes from the new Jetta, which was introduced to the American market in October 2010. The compact sedan’s U.S. sales totaled 14,513 units in June (+120.9%) and 76,498 cars from the beginning of the year, an increase of 77.2 percent over the same period in 2010. The firm’s Touareg and Tiguan experienced 46.9 percent and 47.1 percent sales increases, respectively, while the hardtop-convertible Eos’ sales grew 17.7 percent over 2010. On the other side of the spectrum, the Chrysler-sourced Routan saw its sales drop 30.7 percent in June and 23.8 percent from the beginning of 2011. "We've been able achieve a volume in the first half of this year in what took us effectively seven months last year," said Jonathan Browning, President and CEO, Volkswagen of America, Inc. "With Volkswagen's broad range of fuel-efficient, high-quality vehicles, we expect the momentum to continue into the second-half of the year,” he added. Source carscoop
