(The Associated Press)
New car could vie for world's cheapest
In the race to make the world's cheapest car, Indian company Tata Motors might soon lose its No. 1 status to another Indian manufacturer. Motorbike manufacturer Bajaj Auto is coming out with a compact vehicle, the RE60 hatchback (shown). Although the company didn't specify a price when it unveiled the vehicle last week, chances are that it'll be cheap.
Bajaj even insisted that the RE60 be called a "four-wheeler" instead of a car. The vehicle will feature a 200-cc rear-mounted gasoline engine and will be able to reach about 43 mph. Commercial production could start in the next few months, Bajaj says. The vehicle was dreamed up in conjunction with Renault and Nissan as a potential competitor to Tata's Nano, which often costs less than $3,000 in India.
— Los Angeles Times
(The Associated Press)
Ford sales break 2 million mark in U.S.
Ford has announced that its namesake brand exceeded 2 million U.S. sales in 2011 for the first year since 2007, led by gains for models such as the Fiesta small car and revamped Explorer SUV. The second-largest U.S. carmaker is benefiting from an auto market that rose 10 percent through November from a year earlier. The Fiesta more than tripled its sales in 2011 from the year before, and the Explorer more than doubled its sales.
— Bloomberg
(Rolls-Royce)
Bentley, Rolls-Royce top sales records
The recession may have sidelined some buyers in the fund-manager class, but Bentley's sales around the world zoomed roughly 30 percent in 2011. And over at Rolls-Royce, the new Ghost — a mere $250,000, but hardly downscale — paced the brand to a global sales record, says David Archibald, president of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars North America. That total, some 3,500 cars, follows a record 2,711 sales in 2010. Christophe Georges, Bentley's North American president, says rising luxury-car sales show that consumers are regaining faith in the economy. That connection is stronger for cars than for other luxury goods because they are such visible symbols of wealth, he says.
— New York Times News Service
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