As Aston Martin celebrates its 100th-year anniversary, the British automaker is hard at work finding ways to growing its luxury brand and even just survive.
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Eyeing BMW’s success with MINI, Daimler might be hoping to cash in on small car appeal even more with a product line to take on it’s rival’s smaller series of products.
Today is the 1st of March and that only means one thing… February is rapidly fading into the rear-view mirror. How well did automakers fare in the second month of the year? Here’s a look at some of the big sales stories from the last 28 days.
Daimler’s smart brand has partnered with BoConcept, a Danish interior design company to produce special furniture and accessories. A jazzed up fortwo cabrio is also a result of their cooperation.
January is known for two things: raucous New Year’s celebrations and miserably cold weather across many parts of the country. Despite holiday hangovers and blizzard conditions, vehicle shoppers snapped up cars and trucks like free earbuds at an iPhone launch.
Still soldiering toward its goal to regain the world’s top luxury automaker title, Daimler paid 640 million euros for a 12 percent stake in Beijing Automotive Group today.
Fuel-cell powered vehicles are likely to become the next big thing in non-gas powered vehicles, and today Nissan, Daimler and Ford announced that they are joining forces on creating a new common fuel-cell system that will be put to use in what the companies call “the world’s first affordable, mass-market” fuel-cell vehicle.
In an effort to jazz up its lame lineup, the folks at smart showed off a new special-edition model at the Detroit Auto Show today. The cityflame package is the latest in a long line of special models from Daimler’s economy-minded brand.
The China Investment Corporation, the country’s investment vehicle, is interested in purchasing a stake in Daimler AG between 4 and 10 percent according to a Chinese media outlet.
The number-crunchers have been earning their keep the last few weeks. With their mathematical weapon of choice in hand, be it a calculator, tally counter or even a trusty abacus, they’ve kept an exacting total of how many vehicles automakers sold over the past 12 months. How did things shake out? Which brand nearly doubled its sales for the year?
Following a drop to third place among luxury automakers, the CEO of Mercedes parent company Daimler is setting his eyes on an ambitious target of regaining the top spot in 2020.
Christmas is all but here and with the end of the year at hand, many dealerships are in full swing with their holiday sale events.
Daimler announced today that it is investing 200 million euros into the plant that currently builds the Smart Fortwo to make room for Europe’s first series production electric vehicle.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney isn’t the only one that’s skeptical about electric vehicles and their development. At an industry panel in New York, executives expressed their criticisms of the electric vehicle market as automakers have quietly shelved strong pushes towards developing EVs.
Smart just announced pricing for its ForTwo Electric Drive, making it the cheapest electric car on the market today at $25,825
The Smart Fortwo hasn’t exactly been the resounding success Daimler had hoped it would be, but now the German automaker is hoping its electric vehicle variant will lift the brand’s sales.
American electric automaker Tesla is enjoying great success, at least in terms of the EV market, and its CEO Elon Musk credits Daimler for saving the automaker in its time of need.
Entering its third generation and built in partnership with French automaker Renault, spy photos of the next Smart ForTwo have just surfaced.
Marking a milestone in one of the key hindrances to plague electric vehicles (EVs) thus far, eight of the word’s automakers have agreed to unify on a harmonized charging system capable of a 15-minute recharge.
It’s been two years since Daimler and BYD of China announced a partnership to develop electric vehicles for the Chinese market, but the collaboration finally has a name: Denza.
The two have not decided on what the logo will look like, but it appears that there are three possibilities being considered. None of the logos being proposed resemble the badges from Mercedes-Benz or BYD. It’s believed that the first Denza-badged vehicle will be built on the previous-generation Mercedes B-Class platform.
While Mercedes is in charge of the chassis, BYD will be in handle developing the electric powertrain. As For now, Denzas will only be sold to the Chinese market. Further details are scarce but we’ll probably hear more about the first Denza model when the Beijing Motor Show kicks off.
GALLERY: Denza Proposed Logos
[Source: Sohu via Leftlane News]
Car enthusiasts probably cringed during Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Otis” video as the duo mangled a Maybach 57, but the joke seems to be on them now.
The irreverently-altered Maybach was supposed to bring between and estimated $100,000 and $150,000 at auction. That money was meant to go, at least in part, to the Save the Children Charity.
Unfortunately, as the audacious music stars learned, people don’t really like the idea of spending that kind of money on what amounts to a disfigured and outdated Maybach. The car earned $60,000 — an less than a quarter of its original value. While that’s chump change to own an ultra-exclusive Maybach (especially because the company is gone), it’s still a lot to pay for junk.
It’s too bad one of the music moguls didn’t just “give” it to the other as a memento of the video shoot. They could have collectively donated more to the charity without breaking much of a sweat. Heck it wasn’t so long ago that Birdman gave his brother and Lil Wayne Rolls-Royce Ghost and Bentley Mulsanne respectively.
Nonetheless, Save the Children is probably grateful for whatever money it got, regardless of wasted potential. At least it still raised more than Justin Bieber‘s Hyundai Genesis, though even that is questionable considering the Hyundai sold for more than its original MSRP.
You can watch the music video after the break.
Wikipedia is known to the world as the open encyclopedia that anyone can edit on the Internet. While it may seem like the foundation of a disaster, Wiki contributors have, for the most part, kept things accurate and factual.
So why is it a surprise to some that a company would edit its own Wikipedia page? Well, it’s not really, since it probably happens more often than is documented, but it’s unfortunate when the company selectively removes anything negative that was written about them.
That’s what Daimler is being accused of when their German Wikipedia page was edited and the IP address of the user pointed back to Daimler AG’s headquarters in Germany. The information that was removed mentioned that Daimler, BMW, and Porsche had all received the “Worst EU Lobbying Award” back in 2007 for their joint efforts to delay Europe’s upcoming CO2 regulations.
Naturally Daimler is saying that the edit was not made on behalf of Daimler but that it was the work of an independent Wikipedia contributor that also added onto an article about Victoria, the Crown Princess of Sweden, and another article about müesli. We’re not sure what those alleged edits have to do with Daimler, but it doesn’t seem so shocking that the company would remove negative information from a public forum, given the ability.
[Source: Der Spiegel via Left Lane News]
Although Daimler has announced the discontinuation of the Maybach brand, young money ballers, shot-callers now have the opportunity to bid on what’s arguably the most notorious Maybach of all.
Starring in the Jay-Z and Kanye West “Otis” music video, the chopped “Mad Max” Maybach will be put on the block by auction house Phillips de Pury & Co. at the New York Contemporary Art Evening sale on March 8. All proceeds of the Maybach auction will be donated to Save the Children. Previously, this vehicle was also up for auction to benefit the victims of drought in East Africa.
Burning rubber in four-wheel drifts and spitting fire in the process, Rockafella’s insane whip is estimated to raise between $100,000 to $150,000. Considering Jay-Z and Kanye’s handiwork left us with half a car, it seems appropriate for its estimate to be half the value of a Maybach 57 when new.
[Source: Leftlanenews]
The Mercedes-Benz G-Class is a funky, but rugged luxury SUV from the German automaker, and it appears that it’ll be in production until at least the year 2020.
Mercedes-Benz’s parent company Daimler has come to an agreement with Magna Steyr to extend the production of its G-Wagen in Graz, Austria and was able to get more favorable conditions along with a better price from Magna. Daimler went so far as to threaten Magna that the company would move production of the G-Class to Hungary but it appears that Magna conceded to Daimler’s wants and production will continue in Austria.
The G-Class was originally designed to be a rugged off-roader and a light military vehicle for the German Army. The plant in Graz began production of the SUV back in 1979 and is currently the longest produced Mercedes-Benz in Daimler’s history. Last year, 7,200 G-Class vehicles were made, and this year the number is set to 8,500. Mercedes hopes to hit an annual production of 10,000 for their G-Wagen.
[Source: Automobilwoche]