It used to be that the McLaren F1 Street was the most expensive car in the world.  At slight over $ 1 million, in the mid 90s.  Now, it’s the Bugatti Veyron at $1.5 Million.  In between that time, there have been record makers but mostly from auction houses that sold rare and historic vintage cars to tycoons who have nothing better ...

You can browse the net and a quick Google search will return pages about the 100 or so most beautiful cars in the world.  They are mostly from a bygone era like the early Ferraris and Jaguars, mostly European and a handful of American luxury cars, and very few modern ones. What struck me was the vote going to the latest Jaguar XK and ...

After the Nardo failed to compete in the super and exotic car markets, Volkswagen bought out Lamborghini.  After the Phaeton bombed in the luxury car markets, Volkswagen bought out Audi.   So what’s the lesson here?  Never toy with a famous brand name that is already permanently etched in the minds of the consumer. Volkswagen is all about cars for the masses – cheap but dependable.  If you have $300 grand, you would get a Ferrari, not a ...

People always think “Beetle” when they hear, see or read about the word “Volkswagen.”  This association is so strong in the market that it makes me wonder that were the people at Volks thinking when they came out the supercar Nardo and the super luxury Phaeton just a few years back? It is clear they know nothing about product ...

Is it true that Ford got his revenge against Ferrari when it fielded the Shelby Cobra Dayton in the Le Mans of the mid-50s? Answer:  The revenge was really more the action of a rich kid who was refused entry into a prestigious club.  I’m talking about Edsel Ford who was jilted at the last minute over a transaction for Ford to buy ...

The new Mercedes Benz SLR supercar jointly developed with McLaren can very well trace its history to the 300SLR that had created a lot of regret and anxieties in the Benz boardroom. One of its variants entered the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour endurance race, bumped a slower moving Austin Healey from the rear and flew headlong at 125mph  into a cheering crowd that suddenly turned into horrid spectators when nearly a hundred of them died as the fiery Benz SLR ...

I am truly baffled that the industry that created a lot of great MBA course studies missed out on this one big time.  GM, Chrysler and Ford failed to cover their market segments.   And they capitalized on a trend for short-term gain, forgetting that a trend is just that, a trend that will not last. I am talking about SUVs and large ...

There’s hardly any British auto industry these days.  MGB is still around, but that isn’t exactly what I call an industry for a first world country.  And it certainly isn’t even a shadow of the once mighty and proud British automotive industry that thrived along with their German and Italian counterparts. US car marks might not be so fortunate as to find benevolent companies to bail them out. Everyone is reeling from the global financial ...

The US auto makers are to blame.  Ever since the 50s, US cars have been known to be engineered in excess.  They are large gas-guzzlers that are often the butt of jokes among the Europeans and Japanese who refer to engineer compact and fuel efficient cars. And for the last 20 years, the US industry has been basking on SUVs that just ...

The Brits have long ago lost their thriving automobile industry.  Those famous marquees associated with the King and Queen of England are gone.  The Bentley has gone to German car maker Volkswagen.  The Rolls-Royce is now with BMW.  And so are the Rovers and the Jaguars. Now, it looks like the same will happen with the US auto ...