Car Promises That Weren't Kept

Ever wonder what happened to events in the auto industry that were supposed to occur but didn't? You might have seen a news story on a site like ours of a promise by an automaker that sounded legitimate with lots of potential, but in the end a decision was made and it never happened. We look back at a few from the past decade.

Lotus' New Lineup
Think back to November 2010, when Lotus unleashed its soon-to-come lineup into the lower halls of the Los Angeles Auto Show. The niche automaker had four near-production sports cars — the Elite, Esprit, Elan and Elise — plus a four-door concept called the Eterne. All five came fresh from the 2010 Paris Motor Show. The reception in America was phenomenal; Lotus even slapped model years as early as 2013 on some of them.

Turns out we were California dreamin'.

Does Reliability Affect Luxury-Car Sales?

Luxury cars have moved past the days of the ignition-challenged Jaguars in AMC's "Mad Men," but many still have faults. The Mercedes-Benz M-Class and Buick LaCrosse rate below average in Consumer Reports' reliability surveys; the Lincoln MKX, BMW X3, BMW 7 Series and Buick Verano rate even worse. Then there's Jaguar, which earned low marks in J.D. Power and Associates' predicted reliability ratings for its entire 2012 crop. Sibling brand Land Rover fared little better.

Does it matter? Not as much as you think.

It seems luxury-car shoppers care for reliability as much as Don Draper cares for self-restraint. Through April, Jaguar and Land Rover sales are up 12.7%. The Verano outsold Buick's Regal and Encore combined. M-Class sales are down, but it's still Mercedes' best-selling SUV. The MKX is Lincoln's best-selling car. Period.

Are luxury cars unreliable on the whole? The jury's still out. Luxury brands took top honors in J.D. Power's latest Initial Quality and Vehicle Dependability studies, but they spanned the gamut in Consumer Reports' reliability surveys. That's why Jake Fisher, the magazine's director of auto testing, sees little correlation between luxury and reliability.

Study: Most Americans Would Exchange Personal Info for Personalized Cars

A new study suggests the majority of Americans would be willing to divulge personal information, including their own fingerprints, if it personalized their car — and nearly two in three would ride in a self-driving car.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems polled 1,514 consumers and 405 auto-manufacturing professionals age 18 and older across the U.S. and nine other countries, from underdeveloped India to first-world France. The firm found three-fourths of U.S. shoppers would share driving habits — as some insurance companies already facilitate — in exchange for insurance discounts. That tracks with Cisco's 10-country average. In the land of the autobahn, by contrast, only about half of all Germans are somewhat or very willing to have such devices installed — but more than 90% of all Indians and Brazilians are amenable to them.

What about other personal information? Reveal away, Americans say. Sixty-five percent would be willing to share personal information like height, weight and entertainment preferences to automakers, not just their car, if that returned a more customized driving experience. And around 55% would be somewhat or very comfortable providing biometric information, like fingerprints or DNA samples, if it made for personalized vehicle security. This is the sort of information "that would allow [the] vehicle to identify you as the rightful driver," said Andreas Mai, who directs product management for Cisco's connected-vehicles division. "Interestingly enough, we found that consumers are willing to trade personal data if they can get benefits from that." (If you think it's too Big Brother, consider that many laptops already ask for such information.)

Unlikely Winners Top Strategic Vision's 2013 Total Quality Awards

How does the Chrysler Town & Country, one of Consumer Reports' least reliable cars on the market, earn a quality award? The same way a Volkswagen Tiguan, a car whose current generation garnered middling scores in J.D. Power and Associates' long-term dependability and short-term quality studies, does. San Diego-based Strategic Vision's released its Total Quality Awards on Monday. Some winners — the Toyota FJ Cruiser SUV and Tacoma pickup, the Kia Soul hatchback, the Lexus LS sedan — have high marks in other reliability studies. Others have anything but.

That's because the firm calculates its Total Quality Index, which originated in 1995, by polling new-vehicle owners on problems experienced and satisfaction with numerous other aspects. In essence, it mixes leading reliability studies from Consumer Reports and J.D. Power with scores for product and dealership satisfaction — the sort of metrics J.D. Power gauges in its Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout and Sales Satisfaction Index studies.

"A lot of quality scores out there simply count problems, and they have no way to be able to determine the importance of the various problems out there," Strategic Vision President Alexander Edwards told Cars.com. "We take a look at what are all the positive impacts plus the negative issues."

Reliability issues can sink an individual model, Edwards said, but the quantitative differences between what's considered reliable and unreliable are so narrow today that owners draw their perceptions from minor aspects — a loose door handle, for example.

Subaru Adds Jobs, Cars to Indiana Factory

In three years, the Subaru Impreza will hail from Indiana.

Subaru imports today's Impreza, which competes with the Honda Civic, Ford Focus and other compact cars, from Japan. Its sole U.S. plant in Lafayette, Ind., builds the larger Legacy sedan, the Outback wagon and a few Tribeca SUVs. It also builds the Camry sedan in a partnership with Toyota, which owns 16.5% of Subaru.

Lafayette has two assembly lines. In 2012, Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries announced a production increase along one line by 2014 to 200,000 cars a year from the current 170,000. The other line, which assembles the Camry, has an annual capacity of 100,000 units. The Associated Press reports Fuji Heavy wants to double that capacity and add the Impreza, investing $400 million and bringing employment to 4,500 from the current 3,600.

Cadillac Extends Certified Pre-Owned Coverage

Cadillac announced new coverage limits Monday on its certified pre-owned cars, with a full bumper-to-bumper warranty extending to six years or 70,000 miles from when the car was new. That's two years and 20,000 miles past the brand’s previous CPO policy, which extended just four years or 50,000 miles. The program also includes 24-hour roadside assistance and three months' OnStar and Satellite radio service.

Shoppers can also purchase Cadillac's Premium Care Maintenance, which covers oil changes, tire rotations and other routine maintenance, for $399, Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell confirmed. Premium Care Maintenance is standard on new Cadillacs but was previously unavailable on CPO cars.

The brand’s program falls short of BMW's six-year, 100,000-mile CPO bumper-to-bumper policy; both brands employ simple caps that apply no matter when you buy the car. Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Audi also have 100,000-mile warranty limits, but their yearly limits vary depending on when you buy the car.

April's Fastest- and Slowest-Selling Cars

April's fastest-selling cars mixed luxury models with recent redesigns and, oddly enough, a few oldies. The Audi Q5 and Q7 — frequent speedy sellers despite their age — met the likes of the BMW X3, Land Rover Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz GL-Class and Lincoln MKZ. A couple 2014 redesigns also made the list: the Subaru Forester and Chevrolet Impala.

It's good news for Ford's Lincoln division, whose redesigned MKZ has been hampered by production setbacks during its launch. Both the MKZ and MKZ Hybrid were among April's fastest-selling cars, reprising the cars' March appearance — but with a key difference. As we reported on April 2, March's brisk sales pace didn't translate into higher sales, but that changed in April. Lincoln shoppers bought 4,012 MKZs and MKZ Hybrids, up 115.4% versus April 2012. It was the best month in the nameplate's seven-year history, Ford proclaimed.

A few oddball cars often land among the fastest sellers, and April was no exception. The current Scion xB hatchback hit dealerships in May 2007 while Nissan introduced the current Frontier pickup truck at the 2004 Detroit auto show. In car years, the elder Nissan is somewhere between actors Michael Caine and Christopher Plummer — and it hasn't aged as well. But the Frontier and xB spent little time on dealer lots in April, and both have minimal incentives. Go figure.

April's slowest sellers document the continuing sales trickle for two cars: the Acura ILX Hybrid and Chevrolet Malibu Eco. Both variants make up a good chunk of their respective nameplates in Cars.com new-car inventory, but they took 150 and 229 days, respectively, to move. Contrast that with April's 51-day monthly average, which stayed about even with March (48 days) but came in a bit slower than April 2012's 45 days.

Here are March's fastest and slowest sellers:

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: April 2013

Nissan and Ford led a strong month for the auto industry, with sales up 23.2% at Nissan and 17.9% at Ford thanks to big gains among both carmakers' strongest sellers. Nissan Altima sales gained 35.4% while Ford Escape sales spiked 52% — despite similar year-over-year incentives on both and lower dealership supply for the Escape.

It may seem bizarre that the Altima, then, isn't among the top 10 best-sellers. It's been there for ninth months straight, and in March it was the best-selling car (not truck) in America. But a year ago, sales were dismal — less than 17,000 in April 2012 — so even a healthy spike kept Nissan off April 2013's top 10.

The Toyota Camry and Honda Accord had higher-profile struggles. The Camry's sales drop could signal plateauing demand for Toyota's seventh-generation family sedan, whose year-over-year sales have declined for three straight months. The new Accord, meanwhile, is just 7 months old, and shoppers found significantly lower discounts versus the 2012 Accord a year ago. It's a factor that could affect Accord sales through autumn. Still, Ford didn't seem to have a problem with that. Anyone considering the new Fusion found a similar situation — lower discounts versus year-ago levels — but it didn't stop shoppers from flocking toward the popular sedan, whose sales boomed 23.7%.

Coda Becomes Latest EV Start-Up to Short Circuit

Los Angeles-based start-up Coda announced today that it is declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy and pulling the plug on its electric vehicle. The news echoes other recent high-profile struggles for EV start-ups like Aptera and perhaps most notably Fisker, which just last week met with Congress amid emerging details of continual financial failures.

The Detroit News reported today that the company's parent, Coda Holdings Inc., said it would restructure to focus on the energy-storage portion of the business, Coda Energy, formed in 2011. Coda, which made its bankruptcy filing in Delaware, announced that it expected to complete a sale of the company within 45 days and that its energy-storage business would remain fully operational during the restructuring, the newspaper reported.

Nissan Slashes Prices Across Lineup

Nissan is hoping to bolster sales by cutting prices on seven out of the 18 vehicles in its lineup. Starting May 3, prices on model-year 2013 Altima, Sentra, Juke, Murano, Rogue, Maxima and Armada vehicles will decrease by 2.7% to 10.7%, depending on the car.

The sticker reductions vary by model and, in some cases, trim level and will be applied to new vehicles, including those already in dealer inventory. At the low end of the spectrum, new Altimas, for example, could cost up to $580 less; a base 2013 Altima currently starts at $22,550, including destination. At the top end, the Armada's price tag could go down by as much as $4,400; Nissan’s full-size SUV currently starts at $42,285, including destination.

Why were these seven chosen? They make up around 65% of Nissan's U.S. sales volume, the automaker reported, and Nissan spokesman Brian Brockman told Cars.com that the lower prices will help the vehicles perform better when searched online, appearing more frequently and favorably against the competition.  

"While studying our market position against key competitors, there was an opportunity to increase buying consideration for those seven models by bringing MSRP more in line with transaction price," he said.

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