Happy days are coming back to Detroit Michigan as General Motors, Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Group LLC have come back into the top three after nearly two decades of conceding defeat to foreign automakers. All three of these Detroit big daddies gained in market share for the first quarter of this year. They are also looking to be able to post better sales figures for April than Honda and Toyota will be able to do as well.

AutoNation Inc. CEO Mike Jackson agreed to a telephone interview and commented, “The renaissance in Detroit is real. They have fantastic new products, and they’re in a very good position to compete.”

He is not alone in pointing out the growing and long overdue success for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. While it seems the past generation of drivers were disappointed in the less than top quality vehicles that were being churned out, they had given up and gone to the foreign automakers. The American automakers learned their collective lesson though and are coming back big time with high quality, high tech and high excitement vehicles whether your flavor is eco-friendly, sporty, luxury or soccer mom large and in charge mobiles.

George Magliano, senior principal economist for IHS Automotive, stated: “From now on, the window has been opened to everybody. The baby boomers used to walk in like zombies and buy the Toyota. They don’t do that anymore. They can buy a Korean car, they can buy a Volkswagen, and they certainly can buy a Detroit car.”

This isn’t a time to sit back and gloat over the winnings though, it just means it’s time to work harder and better to keep those best in class cars coming out. Bob Shanks, Ford’s chief financial officer, said, “We’re going to have to watch very closely what happens competitively as the Japanese competitors were able to benefit from the weak yen. We are starting around the world, not just in North America, very selectively and very early, to see some signs. They’re taking advantage.”

Source Auto News

Toledo, Ohio has been in celebration mode since last year when Chrysler announced it would be investing $72 million into its Toledo Machining Plant to update, modernize and keep the Toledo workforce happy and healthy. Now, they are going to be adding another almost $20 million into that, $19.6 Million to be more precise. This additional investment will go toward increasing their capacity to produce nine speed transmissions. These transmissions are being built for the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart.

Scott Garberding, Senior Vice President, Manufacturing, Chrysler Group LLC, said, “The new nine-speed transmission is a critical part of our strategy to meet fuel economy requirements over the next several years and Toledo Machining will play an integral role in bringing this transmission to market. Securing this additional investment is a testament to the dedication and commitment of the plant’s workforce and helps secure its future long-term.”

General Holiefield, Vice President and Director, UAW Chrysler Department, added, “We’re very pleased that Chrysler is once again investing in the Toledo Machining Plant and the skilled workforce there. This will help preserve and enhance jobs in the area and give a greater measure of security to our members and their families well into the future.”

Toledo, Ohio isn’t the only plant that Chrysler is pouring investments into. Indiana is receiving $374 million to update several existing plants and to also create a brand new manufacturing site in Tipton along with updates to several of the existing plants. The new plant will be in Tipton, Indiana and the plants in Kokomo will receive some modernization and other updates. This is great news for workers in Indiana as it is with the workers in Toledo, not to mention their communities. As the automakers continue to make their comebacks, we should expect to see more investments like this, from Chrysler along with Ford and General Motors as well.

While the “Imported from Detroit” message won rave reviews during the 2011 Super Bowl, Olivier Francois, Chrysler Group LLC head of marketing is stating that it’s time to let that go and express the “imported” aspect of Chrysler made vehicles. Apparently remaining patriotic to Detroit is something that Chrysler finds limiting because they want to prove they have a broader definition. Where that leaves the Eminem “Born of Fire” commercial is anyone’s guess.

Francois shares: “There are three words in ‘Imported From Detroit. I’ve been thinking about this a lot in the last weeks. Everyone thinks of the noun, ‘Detroit.’ And we might have put more emphasis initially on the noun because Eminem is a great ambassador and music is all about Detroit and Chrysler ‘is’ Detroit. And ‘Detroit’ brings a certain romance to the brand. But it’s time to remember the verb as well: ‘Imported.’ Our dealers and plants and colleagues are dealing with more than one brand. If Chrysler is Chrysler and Dodge is Dodge, it’s because they each have a specific mission. Dodge is primarily fighting domestic brands. So if Chrysler wants to make sense in the same showroom, it must bring a different flavor and style. That’s why we’re working on our future [Chrysler] cars to have this really specific level of [attributes such as] road manners, and then we won’t just compete with Chevy and Ford. Chrysler will have all the characteristics that make it America’s import-fighter. It’s all about having the substance to take on the imports — this is what Chrysler means to me.”

Kudos if that statement makes sense for you. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to us, but it will be interesting to see how Chrysler continues to market their brand. We believe the main point is, they don’t just want to compete in the Detroit Big Three arena, they are ready to take on the world.

Source Forbes

The midsize sedan segment is the most highly competitive out of all other vehicles. For the past few years, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord were the main contenders, but that changed with the new Nissan Altima and Ford Fusion throwing their weight around. Nipping at their heels has been the Chevy Malibu and Hyundai Sonata, and its game on. The Altima and Fusion are in a death match for the crown and to stay on top as “King of the Mountain” in the midsize category.

Bob Carter, Toyota Motor Sales’ senior vice president of automotive operations, said, “We feel really good about our position following a late build-out of the ’12 model. We are absolutely confident we will be the No. 1 [car] in the market in 2013.”

Well, apparently that’s smack talk because all the other automakers have their own perspective.

Victor Benitez, general manager of Gus Machado Ford, comments about the new Ford Fusion, “We now have a vehicle that can compete head-to-head with Camry and Accord. It’s a good-looking car.”

Don Johnson, Chevrolet’s vice president of sales and service, said, “Clearly it’s a very competitive segment, but it’s really that month-over-month trend that we like right now.” This is in light of the fact that Chevy Malibu sales rose more than 25% from February and March was the sedan’s best month since last August.

How is your favorite playing out in the battle to win the crown as top selling midsize sedan? Here is the rundown for sales so far for the year:

Sales to Date for 2013 Midsize Sedans

1. Toyota Camry 100,830
2. Honda Accord  88,427
3. Nissan Altima 86,952
4. Ford Fusion 80,558
5. Chevy Malibu 49,179
6. Hyundai Sonata 47,285
7. Kia Optima 38,813
8. Chrysler 200 36,885
9. Dodge Avenger 32,047
10. Volkswagen Passat  25,909

Source Auto News

Congratulations go to the winners of the 2013 Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Award. This is the sixth year for this award from Kelley Blue Book. The “Judges” of these awards are about 12,000 shoppers that visit KBB.com over the year and have their say on 13 categories including non-luxury cars, luxury cars and truck segments.

Hwei-Lin Oetken, vice president of market intelligence for Kelley Blue Book, said, “The Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards are unique because they reflect the opinions of actual in-market new-car shoppers, providing automakers with a glimpse into what potential customers really think of their brand and showcasing their perception strengths. While other awards from KBB.com are based on data calculated by Kelley Blue Book experts, the information that comprises the Brand Image Awards comes directly from the opinions of thousands of new-car shoppers over the period of an entire year. The insights gleaned from the Brand Watch study can be an invaluable tool for automaker marketing teams and their agencies.”

The Winners of the Kelley Blue Book’s 2013 Brand Image Award Are:

Award-Winning Non-Luxury Brands

• 2013 Honda for the Best Overall Brand
• 2013 Honda for the Most Trusted Brand
• 2013 Honda for the Best Value Brand
• 2013 Chrysler for the Most Refined Brand
• 2013 MINI for the Best Performance Brand
• 2013 Ford for the Best Car Styling Brand

Award-Winning Truck Brand

• 2013 Toyota for the Best Overall Truck Brand

Award-Winning Luxury Brands

• 2013 BMW for the Best Overall Luxury Brand
• 2013 Lexus for the Most Trusted Luxury Brand
• 2013 Buick for the Best Value Luxury Brand
• 2013 Mercedes-Benz for the Most Refined Luxury Brand
• 2013 Porsche for the Best Performance Luxury Brand
• 2013 Porsche for the Best Car Styling Luxury Brand

Many critics are surprised by these results and the serious question remains, are these vote in by actual owners of these cars, or just website visitors who are imagining what the Best Brand Image is? Either way, these are the results and you have to admit, most of these picks are definitely some top selling models.

Source Kelley Blue Book

News is all over the map, and the World Wide Web about how Chrysler will be gearing up to expand, hire and build hundreds of thousands of new Jeeps at their Toledo Ohio plant (250,000 to be exact), and now we hear that the 2014 Jeep Cherokee sales dates are being set back due to Fiat’s financial position.  Fiat is in a tough spot due to the European economic weather and is cutting budget for development, engineering, and yes, retooling the Toledo plant that will be building the Cherokee is being delayed while the Italian automakers shifts its budget around to figure out how to live up to their goals.

In the meantime the 2014 Jeep Cherokee is languishing in images and a great deal of discussion over its styling down to the sheetmetal that is being used to build the beast. SRT president Ralph Gilles and Jeep design head Mark Allen are defending that by saying that the objective was to have a vehicle design that would still look fresh within five years, but a recent article in the Wall Street Journal mentions how looking fresh really had nothing to do with the design work. Apparently, what you see for the Cherokee are features that were originally designed for an Alfa Romeo model. Using those plans for the Jeep was a way for Chrysler to push the new Cherokee into the market faster while saving hundreds of millions of dollars in engineering work.

Needless to say, everyone is a bit confused in regard to what is coming out of the Chrysler camp in regard to what they are doing, how they are doing it, and especially when they are doing it. Jeep fans will just have to hold on a little while longer until the automaker gets it figured out. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later.