Nick Bunkley

Output soars to 16M, with high-profit twist
Vehicle production in North America is back near record levels, with output forecast to surpass 16 million units this year for the first time in more than a decade. ...

With Polk deal, IHS expands auto data empire
One of the best-known and longstanding names in automotive data, R.L. Polk, is being absorbed into one of the fastest-growing research firms, IHS Automotive. ...

Nissan, Hyundai-Kia fleet sales rise in May
Both Nissan North America and Hyundai-Kia more than doubled their fleet sales in May, but overall fleet sales by the top seven automakers in the United States increased j ...

Robots take the wheel for Ford road tests
Making sure vehicles are "built Ford tough" has become too tough on the test drivers whose job involves putting thousands of bone-jarring, teeth-rattling, mind-numbing mi ...

Big pickup transaction prices rise at twice the industry rate
It feels like the good old days for the Detroit 3, with big pickups flying off dealership lots and plants running full out to fill orders for large, profitable models. ...

Lutz: GM nice-guy Wagoner fell victim to bad timing, bad luck
Bob Lutz put a chapter about his old boss, Rick Wagoner, in his new book, which has the word "idiots" in the title. But Wagoner is no idiot, Lutz writes. ...

Ford, propelled by F series and Escape, achieves best May since '06
A 31 percent gain for the Ford F-series pickup and a monthly record for the Escape crossover helped Ford Motor Co. reach its best May U.S. sales total since 2006. ...

Too busy for a shutdown
The traditional summer auto plant shutdown is quickly fading away. With tight inventories, rising sales and customers flocking to big, profitable vehicles, the Detroit 3 ...

Hyundai-Kia boosts fleet sales, stops 2-month skid
A 67 percent increase in fleet sales helped Hyundai-Kia Automotive end a two-month streak of declining U.S. sales in April, making up for a 6 percent decline in retail vo ...

Why Chevy execs are suddenly watching 'Mad Men'
One of Joel Ewanick's big moves in his brief reign as chief marketing officer of General Motors was to combine two rival ad agencies and give them the Chevrolet account, ...

Custom 'werks' loads up Jeeps -- and revenue
The staff at Fields Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram noticed that many of the Jeeps they sold looked different when their owners came in for an oil change or other service appoint ...

Surge in high-profit pickups, SUVs made April big for Detroit
April's auto sales rate was the lowest since October, but the parade of high-margin pickups and SUVs rolling off dealership lots gave the Detroit 3 double-digit increases ...

Lincoln shoots for a happier ending after troubled MKZ launch
How far off track did the launch of the redesigned Lincoln MKZ get? The car, whose chassis bears the burden of a once-thriving luxury brand now trying to prove it's still ...

Mid-sized sedans, hot in 2012, cool off
For the third straight month, a different car has topped the giant mid-sized sedan market, a segment that has significantly slowed this year as competition intensifies. ...

Farley: Lincoln MKZ sales rebound, set record in April
Ford said it sold more Lincoln MKZ sedans in April than in the first three months of the year combined, as the luxury brand began to recover from lengthy production and d ...

Hyundai apologizes for UK ad that depicts suicide attempt
Hyundai apologized for an ad that sought to promote the zero carbon emissions of a fuel-cell powered ix35 by featuring a man failing to commit suicide using a hose attach ...

Hyundai apologizes for U.K. commercial that depicts suicide attempt
Hyundai apologized for a spot, created by the agency Innocean Europe for use in the United Kingdom, showing a suicide attempt failing because the vehicle, the ix35 crosso ...

Capital One pays $3.5 million to settle SEC charges over auto-loan losses
Capital One Financial today agreed to pay a $3.5 million fine to settle charges that it hid millions of dollars in auto-loan losses as the economy was headed toward a rec ...

Why dealers should embrace 'the age of transparency'
More than half of Americans have smartphones in their pockets or purses, and mobile devices have taken on a major role in the car-buying process, especially in the critic ...

Mid-sized crown up for grabs
The Nissan Altima and Ford Fusion have entered the thick of the mid-sized sedan sales chase -- long a battle mainly between the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord -- leaving t ...

In the computer age, it's time to analog-off
My 2-year-old son recently started asking about the clock hanging on the wall of his bedroom. ...

GM sales rise 6%, led by Cadillac, Buick
General Motors' U.S. sales rose 6 percent in March, the company said today, as new nameplates helped Cadillac achieve a 50 percent gain and Buick rise 37 percent. ...

GM says fuel economy of new big pickups will top Ford F-150's
General Motors today said its upcoming redesigned full-sized pickups will have the most fuel-efficient V-8 engines in the segment, even promising better highway fuel econ ...