PETER BROWN
A new model for the industry (Or not)
Someday, decades from now, we may look back on this nasty 2009 not as the bottom of a global financial crisis but as a dramatic tipping point, when outmoded 20th century business models were tossed out like the trash and replaced with radical models for the new millennium. Or maybe we won't Peter Brown is associate publisher and editorial director of Automotive News. 12:01 am U.S. ET | Sept. 28
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PETER BROWN
Firing dealers is no job for an amateur
The bleak landscape where my Oldsmobile-Saab dealership stood, a half-mile from my house, awaits the reawakening of the economy so a strip mall can go in. Nobody, including me (Olds) and my wife (Saab), buys General Motors cars there anymore. The U.S. Treasury Department's enthusiasm for closing domestic car dealerships needs some re-examination Peter Brown is associate publisher and editorial director of Automotive News. 12:01 am U.S. ET | May 11
• A helpless feeling: GM dealers await their fate
PETER BROWN
In fact, it was a good week for Chrysler
The horror of a Chapter 11 filing by a once-powerful member of the Big 3 obscured some good news last Thursday: Chrysler LLC has a future. It will live. Even as he announced that Chrysler was going into bankruptcy, President Barack Obama had morphed from the subdued president who, a month before, gave Chrysler 30 days to avoid a death sentence. He went from the Grim Reaper to Chrysler's Salesman in Chief Peter Brown is associate publisher and editorial director of Automotive News. 12:01 am U.S. ET | May 4
• Bankruptcy: Chrysler's rebirth?
• Bankruptcy: Chrysler's rebirth?
PETER BROWN
We all know lots of things that are flat-out wrong. Did you know, for instance, that Ford Motor Co. doesn't manufacture in America anymore? Lots of people know that, and all those people are 100 percent wrong. The things we know but that happen to be wrong are one of the problems with politics. It's also a problem of free-flowing information and misinformation on the Internet. And it's a big problem for the Detroit automakers. Peter Brown is associate publisher and editorial director of Automotive News 4:11 pm U.S. ET | Dec. 17, 2008
PETER BROWN
Face it, we're in a panic. Guys who three months ago were bragging about their Hummer are trying to trade the unsellable bad boy for a Prius or Malibu. Every auto company is trying to squeeze another mile per gallon out of its cars and trucks. Automakers are tearing up their future-product plans and reassigning engineers to design new, fuel-efficient vehicles. And they're trying to conserve cash Peter Brown is associate publisher and editorial director of Automotive News. 12:01 am U.S. ET | July 7, 2008
PETER BROWN
Bob Lutz's team is turning out one terrific vehicle after another, and General Motors is also earning some credibility in fuel economy.And then Bob Lutz tells a bunch of reporters, supposedly off the record, that human-caused global warming is "a total crock of shit." Imagine the cringing over in Steve Harris' public relations department Peter Brown is associate publisher and editorial director of Automotive News. 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 3, 2008
PETER BROWN
I drive a lot of cars. Only a few of them are head-turners, cars that inspire people to flash a smile, give you a thumbs-up, ask how you like it. Any mid-sized family sedan? My well-deserved anonymity follows me wherever I drive one. Until now Peter Brown is associate publisher and editorial director of Automotive News. 12:01 am U.S. ET | Nov. 19, 2007
PETER BROWN
Maybe the Toyota secret was out. Maybe other carmakers could adopt Toyota's methods and match the leader in quality and productivity. Might that happen? Peter Brown is associate publisher and editorial director of Automotive News 12:01 am U.S. ET | Oct. 29, 2007
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Two weeks ago, Chrysler held a marathon press event orchestrated by the management of Fiat, which controls Chrysler these days. It was too bad it lasted so long. The Europeans didn't understand that they could have communicated the entire plan in a couple of hours. We wish Chrysler and Fiat well with their forecasts. But to say that they might be a tad optimistic would be an understatement Keith Crain is publisher and editorial director of Automotive News.
The buzz around this year's Tokyo Motor Show has centered on who's not here, instead of who is. Now we hear that Tokyo show organizers, who earlier this year contemplated canceling the bi-annual event, are polling the no-shows to figure out how to attract more attention in 2011.
Going. Going. Gone. Any day now, a revered 83-year-old brand -- Pontiac -- will be a relic of the past, and a relic of what General Motors used to be. John K. Teahen Jr. is senior editor of Automotive News.
As a small business owner, I have seen a lot of programs meant to fix our economy come and go. Tax cuts and hikes, bank bailouts, TARP funding, TALF funding and cash for clunkers have all passed us by. The silver bullet remains elusive. One of the real keys to ending this recession has been staring us in the face all along. To borrow a phrase: It's trade, stupid Russ Darrow is chairman of the American International Automobile Dealers Association.
