Nissan price cuts, weaker yen raise fear of U.S. discount war

Automakers pressed to sell no-emission cars to reluctant buyers

Automakers are coming under increasing pressure to sell zero-emission vehicles to consumers in the United States who haven't shown much interest in them, with more states following California's lead in setting sales targets.... Read More »

Toyota's U.S. aces now run the Americas

North America and South America are radically different markets. But Toyota Motor Corp. has installed two familiar names from the United States to lead them.... Read More »

Chrysler adds spiff to stair-step program

Chrysler Group has tweaked its stair-step sales incentives to make them more palatable to dealers, said Reid Bigland, the automaker's head of U.S. and Canadian sales. Starting this month, dealers who hit two-thirds of their monthly sales goal by the 20th of the month will receive extra payments related to the stair-step incentives.... Read More »

'14 GM pickups get strong projected resale values

The redesigned 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra now arriving in showrooms sport sharply stronger resale values than the models they replace. ALG, a research company that monitors and projects vehicle values, assigned a forecasted residual value of 55 percent after 36 months for the crew-cab Silverado, and 56 percent for the Sierra.... Read More »

Chevy slumps in Europe as rival brands rise

Chevrolet, General Motors' best-selling brand globally, is falling further behind rivals in Europe as the region's buyers turn their backs on the marque's aging products. Chevrolet is positioned as a value brand in Europe and its Spark/Matiz minicar and Aveo subcompact account for almost half of the brand's volume.... Read More »

Dealers reap more Internet leads

Dealerships are seeing a surge of traffic on their Web sites and a greater willingness by shoppers to leave their crucial contact information, said data consultant Dataium. The brightening auto-selling climate combined with dealership Web-site improvements are prompting more Internet leads than a year ago.... Read More »

Certified-used Leafs coming -- but at what price?

Two years after Nissan started selling the Leaf electric vehicle, Nissan is puzzling over a new question: how to sell the car when it comes back used. Nissan hasn't offered the Leaf through its certified-used program because there weren't enough cars returning. But with the first two- and three-year leases starting to expire, Nissan plans to add the Leaf to its certified-used program this summer.... Read More »

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 just 4 percent from a year ago. Retail sales by the seven automakers rose 9 percent, to just more than 1 million units.... Read More »

Stocks dip after strong May sales

Light-vehicle stocks became leaner last month, falling to a 57-day supply on June 1 from 63 days on May 1. It was the first time inventories have fallen since the start of the year.... Read More »

Lentz: Toyota may never match '09 share

Toyota may never recapture the 17.0 percent share of the U.S. light-vehicle market that it achieved in 2009, Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America, told reporters before the company's annual shareholders meeting.... Read More »