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(From Corolland, based on a just-auto.com article): Toyota and Denso (a parts company associated with Toyota) have developed the world's first non-fluorocarbon car air conditioner by using carbon dioxide (CO2) under high pressure in Toyota's fuel cell hybrid vehicle FCHV. Most vehicles use HFC-134a, which contributes to global warming even though it is not harmful to the ozone layer.
The new unit operates as a heat exchanger, removing the need to have a heater core robbing heat from the engine in the winter. However, to work well, the CO2 needs to be under very high pressure, requiring stronger tubes, tanks, and compressors.
Carbon dioxide for the units would be created from purified gases from chemical plants - most would presumably be created using byproducts from industrial processes.
Most of the credit for this analysis and information goes to Bill Cawthon. However, we take credit for any errors or poor judgement arising from our take on his views.
The auto industry expected November to be disappointing, but the sales results may have been worse than they thought. Total volume fell nearly 8% from October - down 13% from November 2001 - and only Chrysler had a sales increase since last month.
Aggressive incentives did not prevent American automakers' market share from falling below 59%. Most sales were light trucks, with 2 million full size pickups sold so far in 2002, and 300,000 SUVs sold in November alone. The Dodge Ram is doing well, the only full-size pickup posting both monthly and year-to-year gains in November. But light truck sales fell 26% in November.
GM had a particularly nasty surprise, with new rebates failing to prevent market share from falling to 25% thanks to an 18% sales decline - and, for GM, an 18% decline is big.
Ford fared even worse than GM, with a 20% drop in November, based on daily selling rates (by an absolute benchmark, Ford only fell 17%) - but cumulative sales are down by 10% for the year. The Ford brand, though not the company, is still the sales leader, and the F-series is close in sales to all four GM full size pickups combined - strange, given the many advantages of the GM pickups, and dangerous for GM, since the F-series will be redesigned soon.
Chrysler posted the smallest decline of the domestics, 12%, but still gave up market share to the Japanese automakers. Honda actually increased 4.6%, probably due to new SUVs as well as the redesigned Accord, while Toyota and Nissan posted relatively small declines of 5.2% and 1.6%, respectively. All remain ahead of their 2001 sales totals, but Toyota’s lead is less than one percent.
Mercedes, Audi, (Ford-owned) Land Rover and a resurgent (Nissan) Infiniti reported their best-ever November results. The new G35 sedan and sport coupe are giving Infiniti their first really competitive mainstream products, while the Mercedes E-Class is continuing to be a sales success, passing the C-Class in monthly sales. Audi may hit a new sales record this year, while Volkswagen sales fell 17% last year.
The best selling car is likely to be the Camry again, followed by the Accord and Taurus, all at the top ofo the charts for a decade. The Corolla is gaining on the Civic, while the Dodge Caravan will easily be the best-selling van, followed by either the Odyssey or Windstar. Meanwhile, Chrysler's best selling car, the PT Cruiser, had the worst month in its history, dropping well below 10,000 units.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee was the second best selling SUV in November, after the Ford Explorer.
General Motors dealers sold 309,263 new cars and trucks in November in the United States, down 18 percent versus November 2001. GM's overall truck sales (171,862) were down 26 percent; car sales (137,401) were down 6 percent. Meanwhile, Chrysler seems to be doing moderately well:
Quoted verbatim from Chrysler PR:
Chrysler Group reported U.S. sales of 158,839 units in November 2002, up 10 percent from October 2002, though down 12 percent compared to November of 2001, when 173,361 vehicles were sold.
In November 2002 there were 26 selling days versus 25 days in November 2001.
Led by the launch of the all-new 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 Heavy Duty pickup trucks, total Ram sales in November were 30,585 units, up 13 percent from October 2002, and up nine percent from last year's November sales volume of 26,941 units....
Jeep(R) Liberty reported strong sales of 15,343 units for the month, up eight percent from October 2002 and one percent ahead of the November 2001 mark of 14,670. With 21,308 units sold, Jeep Grand Cherokee sales also improved, up 26 percent vs. October 2002 and three percent compared to November a year ago...
Additional November sales highlights, compared to the same month last year:
Month Sales DR % Sales CYTD DR %
Model Curr Yr Pr Yr Change Curr Yr Pr Yr Change
Cirrus 0 0 0% 0 371 -100%
Sebring Sedan 3,056 4,841 -39% 53,874 52,094 3%
Sebring Coupe 521 1,343 -63% 11,265 15,509 -28%
Sebring Convertible 1,671 2,506 -36% 41,627 42,997 -4%
Concorde 2,190 3,548 -41% 29,028 29,051 0%
300M 2,109 3,446 -41% 30,015 33,595 -11%
LHS 0 315 -100% 552 8,623 -94%
Prowler 39 114 -67% 1,289 974 0%
CHRYSLER CAR 9,586 16,113 -43% 167,650 183,214 -9%
PT Cruiser 8,537 12,067 -32% 129,928 132,041 -2%
Voyager 1,852 3,209 -45% 35,481 41,761 -15%
Town & Country 8,712 12,154 -31% 116,321 130,297 -11%
CHRYSLER TRUCK 19,101 27,430 -33% 281,730 304,439 -8%
CHRYSLER BRAND 28,687 43,543 -37% 449,380 487,653 -8%
Wrangler 4,295 5,274 -22% 59,279 63,970 -8%
Cherokee 0 244 -100% 0 74,248 -100%
Liberty 15,343 14,670 1% 154,657 75,722 104%
Grand Cherokee 21,308 19,986 3% 200,109 202,516 -2%
JEEP BRAND 40,946 40,174 -2% 414,045 416,456 -1%
CP CAR 9,586 16,527 -44% 168,255 214,246 -22%
CPJ TRUCK 60,047 67,604 -15% 695,775 720,895 -4%
CPJ DIVISION 69,633 84,131 -20% 864,030 935,141 -8%
Neon 9,343 5,827 54% 118,731 99,384 19%
Stratus Sedan 6,072 4,278 36% 83,096 82,443 0%
Stratus Coupe 916 1,562 -44% 17,830 20,996 -15%
Avenger 0 0 0% 0 143 -100%
Intrepid 6,904 6,511 2% 103,437 102,243 1%
Viper 45 120 -64% 1,434 1,292 11%
DODGE CAR 23,280 18,298 22% 324,528 306,501 6%
Dakota 8,045 12,245 -37% 122,131 142,936 -15%
Ram P/U 30,585 26,941 9% 362,122 314,285 15%
Caravan 17,888 18,618 -8% 225,675 223,570 1%
Durango 7,623 9,468 -23% 99,498 120,775 -18%
Ram Wagon 53 571 -91% 10,661 17,719 -40%
Ram Van 1,732 3,089 -46% 24,307 34,280 -29%
DODGE TRUCK 65,926 70,932 -11% 844,394 853,565 -1%
DODGE DIVISION 89,206 89,230 -4% 1,168,922 1,160,066 0%
TOTAL CAR 32,866 34,825 -9% 492,783 520,747 -6%
TOTAL TRUCK 125,973 138,536 -13% 1,540,169 1,574,460 -3%
TOTAL CAR & TRUCK 158,839 173,361 -12% 2,032,952 2,095,207 -3%
Total Minivan 28,452 33,981 -19% 377,477 395,968 -5%
Total Sport Utility 48,569 49,642 -6% 513,543 537,231 -5%
Selling Days 26 25 282 281
Bill Cawthon of just-auto reported:
Chrysler is planning to trim its minivan lineup. Currently the company offers 21 different models (including European versions) ranging from the base, short wheelbase Dodge Caravan SE at around $20,000 to the fully equipped Chrysler Town & Country at $39,000.
The base eC Voyager and Caravan models are already missing from the 2003 new model lineup, but Chrysler wants to cut even more models as the company continues to look for ways to reduce costs. The problem is which ones to cut: there are no uniform, nationwide preferences and a model that sits on one dealer's lot is another dealer's bread-and-butter.
The decision won't be made soon and is unlikely to be implemented before the next generation of minivans is rolled out in 2005 or 2006.
Incidentally, Chrysler says it will sell its ten-millionth minivan sometime in either December or January.
Allpar's opinion: Chrysler does need to cut back on the confusing number of trim levels, but also needs some unusual features, such as small diesels - already sold in Europe - and a manual transmission version, to capture or recapture as much of the market as they can. They also need to publicize the all wheel drive van so people know it exists. Despite what Chrysler seems to think, Honda isn't going away, and Toyota's coming on strong in the next generation, while Ford and Mercury are bound to close the gap - and everyone seems to be in the minivan horsepower race except Chrysler. Only Chrysler has the sales volume, overall, to justify niche vans at this point. They need to act while they still can.
The 1.4 and 1.6 liter engines developed cooperatively with Rover, and reportedly based on the Neon engine, currently powers the BMW Mini (at least, the 1.6 liter version does) - including the supercharged Cooper S, the only Mini to have truly sporty acceleration. This "Pentagon" engine will, according to The Car Connection, be used in the North American version of the upcoming four door Smart / Mitsubishi Colt. The engine is made in Brazil.
BMW is reportedly planning to move the Mini to a new Peugeot engine, most likely to avoid reliance on rival DaimlerChrysler. (Thanks, Dan Minick.)
The Liberty diesel will have a 2.8 liter, four cylinder engine made by VM Motori (surprisingly not Detroit Diesel or Mercedes), putting out 150 horsepower. Due to the Liberty's heavy weight, that will yield a 0-60 time of about 13 seconds, compared with 10 seconds for the gas V-6 (both slower, incidentally, than the PT Cruiser.) The good news, though, is that the diesel version could have 30 mpg highway with two wheel drive - the gas version delivers 24 mpg with the 2.4 four cylinder. The diesel will be in both rear and four wheel drive configurations, manual or automatic. There is still no word on cost, and only 5,000 will be made in the first year to test the market (Volkswagen imports 20,000 diesel-powered cars to the US each year, by comparison).
Chrysler killed the gas-electric hybrid Dodge Durango TTR due to disappointing acceleration and economy (and, we suspect, the imminent redesign of the Durango). The same powertrain was tested in a minivan, but that project was killed due to cost.
Thanks to Doug Hetrick for pointing out the AutoWeek article which contained this information.
Pete Hagenbuch wrote that the "Grand Opening" gala is scheduled for Friday Nov.22. "One of the Cunninghams on display is the C4R which raced at Le Mans in 1951-54. The Dual-Ghia is a fresh restoration and is just gorgeous! And the Chrysler Allard is so mean and ugly looking it's almost beautiful! There's lots of NASCARs and dragsters and a few funny cars too. For more, you can visit the museum at http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/museum." A Hemi exhibition is one of the museum's first.
The 2004 Chryslers will all sport nearly-identical front clips, with massive grilles and slanting headlights, according to a 2003 dealership brochure. A photo of the lineup appears at http://www.autonews.com/.
Toyota has gained government permission to mass produce a fuel cell vehicle, another first from the company that was first to market with a hybrid-electric. See full details at Corolland.
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