Category Car News

Lexus announced its April 2014 sales stat yesterday, and it can be seen the GX460 sales is 2.5 times of the same month last year.

If we look closer we can see the trend that beginning October 2013, the GX’s sales volume started to explode. In Octorber 2013, Lexus sold 1.65 times of what it sold in October 2012; and even the extensive wind chill monthes earlier this year did not impact its sales at all, doubling the number of the same month in the last year.

This is a very good case for marketing analysis. It tells us two important facts that makes your product to be successful: 1. price; 2. external appearance.

Compared the 2014 model to 2013 model, the GX460 lowered the...

Today comes updates to the future BMW M2:

– Start of production in late 2015;
– Used a N55 based 6 cylinder turbo engine, 365-375 hp

The M2 is a must-do for BMW because Mercedes-Benz will introducing the 367hp W205 C450 next year. Without the M2, currently BMW has no product to compete with the Mercedes rival.

The reason why BMW not take the turbo 4 cylinder engine route for M2 may due to:

1. Larger turbo lag for the 4 cylinder engine to achieve same output;
2. Excessive developement cost to overcome the shortcoming mentioned in #1.

For enhancements made to the “standard” N55 engine to achieve 370hp-level ouput, the following are some speculations:

– Tuning to the ECU to ...

Currently the LWB version of the BMW 3-series (F35) is only offered in China.

Previously the LWB 3-series is rear-wheel-drive only. But news come out recently that BMW is planning to manufacture xDrive LWB 3-series in it Shenyang production plant. Here is one spyshot showing the xDrive 328Li is under testing in public road.

Not only the LWB 3-series will be added the xDrive option, but also the LWB 5-series (also sold in China only) will get this treatment too. This indicates another forward step BMW is making to localize its product line.

For US market, with the X3/5/6 and the future X7 are made in US, it can be expected that BMW will shift more models’ production to US...

Here is the highlight:

– Revenue increased 13% to GBP 519 million;
– Full year adjusted EBITDA up 22% to GBP 84.8 million;
– Global retail volumes increased 11% to around 4,200 units.

However, we cannot declare Aston Martin is making progress financially. This is because revenue and EBITDA tell us nothing about the financial health of a company.

Revenue just informs you how many money they will suppose to collect for selling their inventory; we do not know the cost of making the goods.

EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is just telling you what money the company has, before lenders collect their interests/principles, government collect...

Lexus has launched a special edition of the LX570 (called “LX 570 Supercharger“) in the Kuwait market, with the V8 engine supercharged.

The updated V8 engine now makes 450 hp, instead of the naturally aspirated version’s 383 hp. There is no doubt this model will be available in all major middle-east market soon.

While US market has little possibility to get this supercharged LX570, it leaves us an interesting question: will Lexus build a supercharged LS460? We are know for the full size luxury sedan market in US, the LS460 is lacking behind of the engine output. The LS460 “only” has 386 hp, while the BMW 750i makes 445, the Mercedes-Benz S550 makes 449 and the Audi A8 4...