Peugeot’s Stocks Rundown, Renault’s Order Book Prompt Optimism Ford Europe Raising Output, But Still Sees $2 Billion Loss In 2013 But Watch Out For The Japanese, Liberated By Falling Yen The headlines are all about gloom and doom as European manufacturers’ profits are slashed and sales droop, but some experts see evidence that the worst […]
Tag Archives | Europe Crisis

Germany Finally Dragged Down By Europe’s Mess
Feeble Upturn May Be In Sight For 2014 If Europe Wants To Ignite Sales, Slash Obnoxious Petrol Tax The European disease has finally caught up with Germany, and car sales in the continent’s biggest market are now on the slide. That might sound like a knockout blow for the European market, but many forecasters predict […]

Europe In 2013; “Bad” Or “Very Bad”?
Consensus Was, Down About 5%, Now 10% Drop Looks Possible “Mergers or even nationalization might be the only option” “we don’t see a return to pre-crisis levels before the end of the decade” Things must be rotten if the combined, jawboning talents of Europe’s automotive leaders can’t put a positive gloss on prospects, but […]

Europe Hanging On As Crisis Shows No Signs Of Easing
You’d Never Guess There Was A Problem As Model Flow Continues New Small SUV Niche Opens Up; Flash Cars To The Fore As Well “Don’t forget to say “connectivity” somewhere in your speech” Europe’s car industry is gritting its collective teeth and hoping for better times. That was the message being transmitted to the world […]
Europe Sales Outlook Bleak, With No Strong Rally In Sight
“A recovery in new car sales in Europe back to pre-crisis levels could take until the end of the decade, if it can be achieved at all” Ghosn Calls For German-Style Shake-Up In France, Italy, Spain Gloomy sales projections are not only pointing to sluggish near-term conditions in Western Europe, but also to a long-term […]
Germany Takes On Water As Euro Crisis Hits Confidence
Even VW Shunned As Sales Loss Could Reach 100,000 In 2013 As European car sales hit a wall with sales down over three million or 21 per cent since 2007, even Germany is suffering and Volkswagen is falling out of favour with investors. Well, one anyway. Latest data from Germany shows even Europe’s biggest market […]

Auto Prospects For Europe In 2013 Look Dire
“attempts by European Union governments to cure the Eurozone problem like “lipstick on a pig”” “at the end of next year, car sales in Western Europe will be 3.5 million less than in 2005” Americans might think first of “fiscal cliff” when talk turns to 2013. For European auto manufacturers the word association is more […]

Europe’s Tottering Car Makers Need To See Action
“Every time you take a new look at the red ink being generated by Europe’s losers, the numbers get bigger” If Europe was one country led by an elected President who saw that his re-election depended on winning support from swing states inhabited by Peugeot-Citroen of France, Italy’s Fiat and mainly German-based Opel and Ford, […]

Leaders In Paris Agree Limping Europe Hasn’t Bottomed Yet
New Golf VII Being Discounted Already “This is the worst market in Europe in the last 20 years” But Don’t Expect To See Any Company Bite The Dust Industry leaders at the Paris Car Show vied with each other to come up with the worst possible scenario for the European industry, and Renault Chief Operating […]

Currency, Economic Weakness Bear Down On Car Industry
“The crisis in Europe is not over, but is just beginning. In 2013 we predict the worst auto sales in Western Europe since 1993” As Europeans head back from their beaches and holiday homes, a second European recession in three years looms, and a feeling that the economy is drifting, pilotless, on to the rocks, […]