“We wanted to give the Mustang pony a more realistic feel,” said Douglas Gaffka, chief designer for the 2010 Mustang. “We lifted the head to make the pony more proud, tipped the neck into the wind to give it a feeling of greater speed and better balance. It’s more chiseled and more defined and looks more like a wild horse.”

The pony gets a raised head, swept-back ears, complimented with a fiercer mane, that gives the chiseled horse a sleek look. Ford has given the new badge a tinted-chrome finish. A black-chrome finish will also be available on Mustang GTs. Ford says the badge gives a hint at styling changes to come in 2010 Ford Mustang.

“Stephen Odell brings to Volvo a wealth of experience of strong leadership in the automotive industry,” said Alan Mulally, President and CEO of Ford Motor Co. “Given his strong track record at Ford, Jaguar and Mazda, the time is now right for Stephen to take up this new challenge at Volvo. I believe that Stephen is the right person - together with Lewis Booth and the Volvo Cars Management Team - to take Volvo forward and to return the business to sustainable profitability,” Mulally added. 

Odell, 53, joined the Ford of Britain in 1980 as a graduate trainee. Before he was appointed as Chief Operating Officer of Ford of Europe in April, 2008, Odell served Ford of Europe’s Vice President of marketing, sales and service for nearly three years. Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Jaguar North American from 1997 to 2000 and  held several senior positions at Mazda from 2000 to 2005.

“Volvo is one of the great iconic automotive brands,” said Odell. “The very attributes that make Volvo distinctively Swedish - its heritage of safety, environmental concern and its Scandinavian design — appeal to customers around the globe. Our strategy is to enhance the premium nature of Volvo by further strengthening these attributes. Volvo really is the auto brand for today’s customers.”

Odell will continue a restructuring program that was started by Fredrick Arp, which will help the automaker to return to profitability. Arp, 55, decided to leave Volvo, after three years leading the brand. He became Volvo CEO on October 1, 2005.

In the second quarter of 2008, Volvo reported a pre-tax loss of $120 million, compared to a loss of $91 million during the same period in 2007.

The Lincoln brand might get the C-segment car at the same time, when it will replace the Ford Escape early next decade. However, Kuzak didn’t go into details, but the upcoming car is likely to be based on the European Ford Kuga crossover vehicle.

The addition of new Kuga-based car would give Lincoln Lincoln a competition in every crossover segment and it is expected to boost impressive fuel mileage that every U.S. customer is now looking for.

“The rumors that a production version of the Volt will show up at the celebrations are true,” said an inside GM source. “The car will be a true representation of what the production version looks like and be somewhat different from the concept versions.”

According to Bob Lutz, GM’s vice chairman of global product development, Volt will not debut at the Paris Auto Show as had previously been speculated, however, it’s likely to appear at Detroit Auto Show in January. “Everything is looking good,” Lutz said. “We have quite a few running around now in old Chevy Malibu bodies, so we can modify the engine and battery configuration.”

GM will built the preproduction models of Volt next year and the final production version in 2010. It has been expected that the automaker will bring the Chevrolet Volt to U.S. roads in November 2010.

Nissan-brand sales were up 14.2 percent to 97,417 vehicles in August, driven by a 32.6 percent jump in light-truck sales, Al Castignetti, who is the vice president and general manager of Nissan Division, told Reuters.
 
August proved to be a very tough month for the company as their US sales fell by a huge margin of 9.4 percent to 211,533 vehicles.

 
The sales fell 20.3 percent in the month and are down 18.1 percent for the year to date compared with the same period of 2007, according to a statement given by the GM Motors.

The sales even slipped by a huge margin of 25.5% as compared to the last year of 151021 vehicles, at the Ford Motor Co.

Ford confirmed that the company sold 1.41 million vehicles in the month of August, down 15.3 percent from the same period last year.

Chrysler LLC, said, “U.S. sales fell 34 percent in August and are down 24 percent for the year.”

In one of their statements, the company noted that their sales improved 12 percent over July.

Toyota

According to the company, “August sales for luxury-brand Lexus dropped 9.1 percent from the same month a year ago to 29,281 units. Lexus sales slipped 14.7 percent for the year to date compared with the same eight months of 2007.”

Toyota managed to post a gain in the Camry and Camry Hybrid, which gained 3.3 percent to 44,064 units, but the major reason of its concern is the sales of the smaller Corolla, that fell by a huge margin of 3.4 percent to 29,443.

"Camry is ahead of last year’s number. If it’s not a record (year-to-date) number, it’s close to it," said Irv Miller, who is the group vice president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.
Even the Scion sub-brand, that is involved in Toyota Division totals, fell by a margin of 19.7 percent to 11,867 units.

"We see August as a marginal improvement over July. There is not a lot of reason to go running down the street with balloons and flags because there are still energy, housing and credit issues," Miller said. "People are still nervous. But we are cautiously optimistic that August might be the start of pulling us out from where we were." he further said.
 
Honda

American Honda Motor Co., confirmed the fact that it sold 146,855 vehicles in August, which is almost 7.3 percent less than the last year.
 
"Meeting the demand for fuel-efficient vehicles remains a priority," Dick Colliver, who is the executive vice president of sales for American Honda, said in a statement.

"In addition to the Civic and Civic Hybrid, the sales increase of the all-new Pilot shows that fuel-efficient technologies such as our variable cylinder management system are being well-received in Honda’s light-truck segment." he further said.

The teaser image reveals the logo and a portion of the grill of the car. The Buick LaCrosse is the smallest of all Buick sedans, which resembles the design of the Buick Invicta. GM vice chairman Bob Lutz said that the LaCrosse will use the FWD Delta II platform.

The production of the LaCrosse is expected to start at GM’s Fairfax plant in Kansas, in early 2009. The crossover vehicle will be a global car, which will also build in China with GM’s local partner, Shanghai Auto.

The American versions of the car will use the direct-injection 3.6L V6 engine that will achieve 286hp (213kW) and 255lb-ft (345Nm), while the Chinese model will get the V6 and a new four-cylinder engine with 250hp (186kW) and 220lb-ft (298Nm) of torque. All models will come standard with six-speed.

 

The company believes that the new program will help expand sales of its used cars, while at the same time improving residual values. Reportedly GMAC the finance arm of GM has faced major losses in recent months due to plummeting residual values of its leased vehicles, caused by high oil prices, weak economy and shifting consumer preference towards smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.

Brian McVeigh, General Manager of GM Fleet and Commercial Operations said, “We believe this 12/12 bumper-to-bumper warranty will grow our business as well as help reinforce our residuals.”

The warranty covers defects related to materials or workmanship, except standard wear-and-tear components on the vehicle such as tires and brake pads. All body and sheet metal components are warranted against rust-through corrosion for six years/100,000 miles.

GM has set the age and mileage eligibility standards for GM Certified Used Vehicles and Saturn Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles to include models of six years old or newer, with up to 75,000 miles clocked.

The changes take effect after September 13, 2008.

The automaker decided to bump up the launch of the subcompact car, as the company is practically sold out of the 2008 model.

“We basically increased supply as much as we could to meet demand, and we were still going to be sold out of the 2008 model,” said Honda spokesman Chris Martin. “We had to do something so that our dealers would not be without the small cars that buyers are seeking,” he added.

In the first seven months of this year, Fit sales in the United States, rose 7.9 percent to 52,053 units. Honda sold 12,226 Fits in July alone which nearly equaled Acura’s total sales for the month. The automaker sold 12,828 units of Acura in July.

Honda builds the subcompact car in its five plants. The Suzuka plant is Japan supplies Fits for the United States. The automaker plans to increase its production in the Suzuka plant as well as in one more plant, if the U.S. demand for the car continues to rise.

The 2009 Honda Fit gets a 1.5-liter inline four-cylinder engine that achieves 35 mpg on the highway and 28 mpg in the city. The price of the base version of the new Fit starts at $15,220, including destination. There has been an increase of $600 over the 2008 model. The prices range up to $19,430 for the high-line Fit Sport Navi.

The Japanese automaker has set the goal of cutting the quality complaints by half on new cars by 2012. Therefore, the company is putting the responsibility for quality improvements in the hands of 5,300 people.

According to the automaker’s spokesman, Pauline Kee “Quality commitment is one of the three commitments in our GT2012 business plan, and Nissan is putting in a lot of focus and effort to meet our commitments.”

Reportedly, the company’s Infiniti luxury brand ranked above average in the 2008 Vehicle Dependability Study, released this month by J.D. Power and Associates. But, the Nissan brand couldn’t make it and stood below average.

As part of the plan, Nissan will also increase the number of quality control training for workers and will boost the number of engineers to help suppliers with quality issues.

At present, Nissan has a total of 250 engineers, certified as quality inspectors. The number is expected to increase to 4,300. And the number of engineers helping the suppliers will grow to 1,000 from 5.

Moreover, Nissan has already selected ten directors as quality control heads in an attempt to detect the parts problem earlier. The company said, the directors will take the responsibility for quality breakdowns.

Creed, 63,  joined Chrysler LLC in 1985 as Director- Interior Design, after leaving Ford Motor Co. and he has designed some of the Chrysler’s most memorable concept and production cars.

“Trevor has led a distinguished automotive design career,” said Chrysler LLC Chairman and CEO Robert L. Nardelli. “He played a key leadership role in the design of award-winning vehicles such as the new Dodge Challenger, Chrysler 300C, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Dodge Viper, Dodge Ram and the Plymouth Prowler. We thank him for his contribution to the Company and wish him well in his retirement,” Nardelli added.

Ralph Gilles, 38, will replace Creed as the Vice President- Design. He will take over the reins of the automaker’s design operations on September 1. 

Gilles has been instrumental in a number of Chrysler’s most eye-catching designs in recent years, including the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, Magnum and Viper.

Along with this announcement, Chrysler has also named Andreas Schell the Vice President of Electrical/Electronics Engineering. Schell replaces Bill Mattingly, who left Chrysler in July.