Monday, December 29, 2008

Auto-Future 2008: the year in review

Now that this year is ending I decided to put a series of links of auto-future articles since January 2008. This was an interesting year (but not in a good way) and it appears 2009 will be worse... but hey, I'm not complaining so let's revisit one year in blog articles.

In January, amongst several car news, there was an article on how Shell was kind of acknowledging peak-oil. A nice introduction to the year of big mess in oil prices.

Later something related to the next BMW 5-series. Actually just these days received info on this car confirming those previsions from February.

March was the month of the Car of the Year: it was the Toyota iQ. Yes, we don't wait until the end of the year to give awards cuz we know the future.

The first of April presented my favourite article, the fake story on Ford of Europe declaring independence. This was great fun writing and it become even more interesting when some weeks later Ford decided to choose is european division to design most of the future global platforms.

Correcting other folks news. Sometimes it happens!

June brought several novelties about the Ford Focus III. And I took the opportunity to ask Ford for a few things about this car.

Something interesting in July: back in 2007 I decided not to show some very revealing shots of the Megane III because these would do harm to Renault's business. These images were criminally stolen inside Renault's development center. Some journalists from Auto-Plus were later accused of espionage because of that.

A favourite of auto-future: the Chevrolet Volt. I hope it makes to production. But if it don't, others will. The future of automobile is electric.

Peugeot: you need help, lot's of it. Offering help to Peugeot, they will have a couple of rough years ahead. But now everyone will.

November was the month of the "New Crossover". There are several articles on the subject, and I will be presenting much more in the future.

In December, amonst several interesting features, there was this more sentimental article related to the Detroit bailout.

Ending with the image of the year: the Ford badge with the European stars. The future success of Ford depends on the implementation of global platforms, some of these designed outside of the USA. This will be a key strategy for several players: leveraging on global platforms for cost reduction. Part of the reason Ford is in better shape now is because of its European division. So in the future Ford will be a bit more European. And in general, all big car manufacturers will become more global in their operations.


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