Lexus and Toyota brand executives have new spring in their steps these days after each brand reported a 7-percent rise in November U.S. sales over a year earlier. Both brands also are reaching normal levels of inventories at their American dealers again, have some important new products recently introduced or in the pipeline for imminent launch, and are taking some interesting new marketing steps.

"I've been waiting for over seven months to say this," Bob Carter, Toyota Division general manager, commented to auto reporters. "For the first time since [the March natural disaster], sales were up for the month versus a year ago."

The iconic Camry is leading the way. Americans have embraced the new 2012 Camry enthusiastically enough that Carter was certain Camry still will be America's best-selling car for 2011, for the tenth consecutive year. Consumer interest also is being heightened by the launch just last week of a new hybrid version of Camry.

What's more, buyers of the new Camry are making the most highly contented version, the SE, the most popular choice by far, a flip from earlier versions. These buyers tend to be much younger than Toyota's reliable baby boomer cohort. Toyota's planned Super Bowl commercial in February for the new car will only help things along.Continue reading...

With many markers of the health of the U.S. auto industry improving these days, J.D. Power & Associates brings us another one: Americans are more satisfied with the new-vehicle sales process than they were a year ago. Among the luxury brands that lead in this score, Lexus still ranks highest in the researcher's new Sales Satisfaction Index, although Cadillac is sneaking up, and Mini heads up mass-market brands.

The notion that financially strained Americans actually would be happier about the auto-dealership experience is contra-intuitive, given that this experience used to rank right above getting teeth pulled on many consumers' bucket lists. There's also the fact that there have been about four million fewer people in the U.S. new-vehicle market even this year, three years into an industry recovery, than during the market's heyday several years ago.Continue reading...

They aren't exactly hurling bratwursts at one another yet, but the Big Three auto makers of Germany — Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW — certainly are ratcheting up the world-domination rhetoric these days. From their rosy projections and concomitant saber-rattling, you wouldn't know that these companies will be challenged as their German taxes help to bail out a bankrupt Greece for the next several years, or as the global economy continues to teeter on the precipice of a double-dip recession.

Volkswagen — with hopes high for the 2012 VW Beetle — plans to sink $86 billion over the next five years into plants, vehicles and R&D to bolster its much-discussed bid to overtake Toyota in global sales volume by 2018. Those projected outlays are up a tad from what VW previously was planning. The company "is investing a record amount in forward-looking projects to achieve its goal of becoming the world's best automobile manufacturer," CEO Martin Winterkorn stated in an announcement timed to last week's Frankfurt Auto Show.

One likely landing spot for an increase is its new U.S. manufacturing operations in Tennesee. Getting a much bigger share of the American market — despite its maturity and how highly competitive it is — is considered key to VW's plans for global domination. And Volkswagen of America CEO Jonathan Browning told brandchannel that the U.S. arm of the company is doing its part. "We can make sure we're offering vehicles and services that represent great values in the marketplace and really biuld on inherent strengths that consumers recognize" in the VW brand, he said.Continue reading...

Zipcar take note, Hertz On Demand is in the 'hood and redefining car-sharing.

Hertz's new service, formerly known as Connect by Hertz, has rebranded and now offers: no membership fees; expanded one way service; guaranteed availability Monday through Thursday in New York City; more car and SUV options including electric vehicles (EV’s) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV’s) at select locations; simplified reservation process; and 24/7 live, in-car assistance.Continue reading...

When brand meisters are feeling their oats, sometimes you really know it. That’s certainly the case with top executives of Volkswagen AG and their VW and Audi brands, these days. Day after day, week after week, month after month, they’re coming out with one bullish result, pronouncement and plan after another.

You’d hardly know that Europe is about to sink into a financial morass and the U.S. economy can’t get going again, or that even growth in China has slowed down.Continue reading...

More and more top automotive executives like to talk about global dominance these days, either ascending to the very pinnacle of worldwide sales volume —currently occupied by General Motors — or taking some much bigger chunk of overall market share than they have now over the next few years.

Carlos Ghosn of Renault-Nissan, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Martin Winterkorn of Volkswagen have been the three most recent notable big talkers in this regard.

But when the microphones are turned off, you can bet that the one competitor they’re all talking about, and perhaps most worried about, isn't Toyota any more — it's Hyundai.Continue reading...

Don’t look now, big Automaker, but Toyota is recovering traction in the US much faster than anticipated even a few weeks ago. And once it’s got something resembling normal vehicle inventory levels back in place, expect the once-unassailable Toyota brand to attempt to come back like it’s got something to prove — and market share to re-gain.

Toyota executives are determined to return production to normal levels at their North American operations much more quickly than they had feared and announced. This month, output of eight core North America-built models (the Toyota Avalon, Camry Corolla, Highlander, Matrix, Sequoia, Sienna and Venza) will return to normal, while Toyota just announced that production of a handful of others would normalize by September.Continue reading...

There’s nothing like driving a car to decide whether you want to buy one. And for U.S. car buyers, it’s even better if the dealership salesperson isn’t hovering around somewhere to see if you like it. That’s why General Motors and Ford, among other automotive brands, are putting more resources into test-driving events and other experiential marketing.

GM, for instance, is taking its Chevrolet, GMC and Buick brand vehicles to 25 U.S. markets this year — most recently, last weekend to CitiField in Queens, N.Y. The show features 130 vehicles, 70 GM models, and about 20 non-GM vehicles that consumers can drive for comparison purposes. There are seven driving courses including an on-road course for Chevrolet Volt, the extended-range hybrid to which GM is still trying to accustom American drivers.

“We’ve done a lot of ride-and-rives throughout the country, and that’s an awesome way to get people to understand the product and really appreciate it,” Cristi Landy, Volt’s product-marketing director, told brandchannel. “You can do all the talking you want, but getting behind the wheel really does it for people.”Continue reading...