Is your 401k taking a dump? Are your stocks falling fast? Maybe now is the time to look at another investment opportunity. We’re talking about classic cars!

While new car sales continue to fall at a precipitous rate, classic cars are hotter than ever, according to people like Terry Lobzun, a spokesman for RM Auctions, the company that holds the very popular Barrett-Jackson auctions on ESPN. They’ll be at it again this weekend, with approximately 300 and trucks on sale, the majority of which they anticipate selling for near-record prices.

Apparently, the classic car business hasn’t slumped with the economy and in fact, like regular used car sales, is holding steady and in some places actually picking up.
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Here’s some news that’s not all that surprising, Volkswagen’s Routan minivan, essentially a rebadged Chrysler minivan, is on the chopping block. You could pretty much see this coming from a mile away, almost before the Routan was rolled out. Rather than design and build their own minivan (a class of car that VW invented with the Type II way back when) VW decided that a better route was to take Dodge’s Caravan, change the trim here & there, add a VW badge and give it an Euro-sounding name. The Routan was built alongside its Chrysler Corp. counterparts at Chrysler’s Windsor, Ontario, plant until last December, when VW asked Chrysler to stop production. Apparently, not a single Routan has rolled off the assembly line since, and there are no immediate plans to resume production according to sources.

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ACK! No more W12 engine for Audi’s big sedan?! Actually, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Since the range topping 8 series is getting a redesign in 2010 and set to debut in the 2011 model year, Audi will discontinue the model only for one year.

Audi also announced that they will no longer be using the VW-sourced VR6 motor any further. Dating back to the early 90s, the VR6 engine is a 3.2-liter unit capable of producing up to 250 horsepower. Most recently the VR6 was used in the A3 and TT model ranges. According to Edmunds, Audi decided to drop the motor because it doesn’t fit with the company’s move toward more advanced direct-injection motors,

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Here’s some solid evidence that Toyota’s Scion brand sure knows it’s market: The 2010 version of the quite popular xB is getting a new and better audio system, and the prices for the car aren’t going up a cent. The 2010 xB which is exactly the same vehicle as the 2009, apart from the all-new, and standard 160-watt Pioneer audio system, and the car’s base price that remains at $15,750 (MSRP) when equipped with a five-speed manual transmission, and $16,700 for the four-speed automatic with sequential shifting.

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The hydrogen fuel-cell powered Honda FCX Clarity sedan was declared the 2009 World Green Car. American Honda Motor Co. Inc. announced yesterday at the New York International Auto Show. The FCX Clarity was chosen from an initial entry list of 22 contenders nominated by 59 World Car jurors from 25 countries worldwide.

The Clarity, available on a limited lease-basis, is powered by an electric motor that runs on electricity generated by an on-board fuel cell stack. The vehicle’s only emission is water, and its fuel efficiency is up to three times that of a gasoline-powered auto and two times that of a gas-powered hybrid vehicle, Honda reported.

This award is a good sign for hydrogen fuel-cell technology, which has undergone a lot of criticism lately. One of the main issues people have with hydrogen is that there aren’t enough fueling stations in this country to support it. Another one is that one tank of fuel on these vehicles can only take you approximately 100 miles. This recognition will hopefully give this segment a much-needed boost that will fast track it with many other carmakers.

General Motors announced last week that it is looking at ways to reduce energy and water use, by turning to renewable energy at all of its manufacturing plants. The company also said it plans to make fifty percent of its 160 manufacturing operations landfill-free by the end of 2010.

With Earth Day happening this week, this announcement by GM is a wise move at exactly the right time. With GM struggling to rebound after getting hit hard by the economy and unpredictable fluctuations in the prices of gas, the carmaker is taking a proactive approach to being green.

GM is already a very solar-power friendly company– it’s plant in Zaragoza, Spain, has the world’s largest rooftop solar photovoltaic power installation. It covers about 2 million square feet of roof at the plant with about 85,000 solar panels. The company has two of the largest solar power installations in the United States–in Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana, California.

GM’s plants did metal scrap sales of more than $1 billion last year, and recycled 17,000 tons of wood, 20,000 tons of cardboard, and 4,000 tons of plastics

Ever since I was a kid, American car companies in general, and GM in particular always seemed to be whining about one thing or another. To hear them tell it, it would be the end of the company if the government mandated seatbelts & safety glass (’they’ll think our cars aren’t safe!’) or, like in the early 70s, when the first emission regs came into being (’American’s don’t want small cars! We can’t make cars that are clean and give performance!’), and yet outfits like Toyota and Honda were able to do both. Another thing you’ll notice about GM is that at the end of the war, they were THE preeminent manufacturing concern on the planet; the #1 industrial company on the planet AND the largest automaker in the world. Yet despite having access to resources and engineering talent that were the envy of every other car manufacturer out there, Read the rest of this entry »

With Earth Day almost upon us, allow me to point out that one of the best sports cars out there, regardless of price or engine size is not only a great performer, but is a very clean and very fuel efficient ride.

I am, of course, talking about the Lotus Elise, a car with handling so stupendous, it can run rings out of 98% of the cars out there. So what gives, why talk about the Elise now? Because the new 2010 model has just been announced, and some very important figures have made very nice gains. The British automaker has carried out various tweaks to the Elise’s powertrain and aerodynamics helping the 2010MY Elise return a 9% reduction in CO2 emissions and similar increases in fuel economy. The Elise S shows significant improvement in fuel efficiency, raising it’s combined cycle MPG numbers from 28.3 mpg to 31mpg.

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Finally some good news (sort of) from General Motors. It looks like Saturn, one of the GM divisions most often mentioned to be on the chopping block, might actually be spun off into its own independent company.

Last week General Motors said that Black Oak Partners along with other investors and a group of Saturn’s dealers are interested in buying the firm’s Saturn division. Black Oak Partners is a private equity firm, but GM has remained silent on who the other investors might be.

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Honda is canine-conscious and they’re proving it with a new dog-friendly car that has mutts drooling and wagging their tails worldwide.

The Japanese automaker exhibited a “Dog Friendly” version of the Honda Element SUV at the New York International Auto Show on Thursday.

The concept features a cushioned pet bed with safety restraints in the cargo area, a spill-resistant water bowl, and even a ventilation fan to keep canines comfortable. A folding ramp gives animals an easy way to get in and out.

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Lamborghini says it made record deliveries and profits in 2008 but noted that the economic uncertainty has not left it unscathed.

On Wednesday, the German-owned company posted a pretax profit of euro 60 million ($79.6 million) last year. That was up 27 percent from euro 47.1 million in 2007. Net profit figures have not been released.

The company did not provide a forecast for 2009, but says “the overall target for 2009 year is to attain an overall profit.”

Automobili Lamborghini SpA put 300 of its 1,000 workers on short-time work weeks from February through May and did not rule out extending the option.

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Review by Alex Kramer | Photographs by Derek Mau

Pros:

• Versatile supercharged engine w/direct injection delivers performance and efficiency
• Excellent balance between handling and ride quality
• Quattro all-wheel drive provides unflappable traction
• Top notch interior materials
• Good overall value in its class

Cons:

• Multi Media Interface controls are awkwardly placed
• Rear seating could use a bit more room
• Exterior styling is still a bit conservative

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More concept news from this month’s New York Auto Show points the way forward to what SUV could be like in the future. Or at least what they could be like if the Honda Motor Company has its way. Say hello to the Acura ZDX. Sources say that the ZDX is ” … very close to [a] production version of the Japanese firm’s forthcoming crossover that is due to go on sale in the States in the fall of 2009.” So Acura is really going to build this thing, and it’s going to be hitting showrooms within months. Although at first bringing another SUV-like ride to the streets might not be the brightest of ideas, there is a certain rational here. BMW, to name one, is rolling out their X6 crossover SUVs as we speak, which has the same ‘it’s a coupe, and it’s SUV’ looks of the ZDX, so if Honda is wrong, they’re not the only ones being wrong.

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Damn! I guess Tata, the company behind the Nano, the car destined to be the cheapest of all, was right with their marketing research. The Nano, which will sell for 2 grand (which is about the down payment on a minivan) was expected to cause waves and sell big, but even Tata says this is unexpected. Tata had decided to take a page from Amazon et al’s playbook and allow people to “pre-order” one of the little guys, rather than have to stock up and store bunches of the cars.

In just five days Tata has already sold over 51,000 “booking forms” (Tata’s term for the pre-orders) to its dealers and individual customers, along with another 30,000 or so being taken from Tata business partners. Just to get an order form cost 300 Rupees, or about $6 in U.S. funds, with the final price for Nanos ranging from between 95,000 and 145,000 Rupees or $1,880 to $2,780.

So, the bottom line is, as always, the bottom line: Tata said they would build it for XX amount, and they also said people would beat a path to their door. There were skeptics, but they have now been proven wrong on the first two counts. Now it remains to be seen if this will move impoverished third-worlders off of scooters and into safer Nanos (Tata’s stated aim).

Source: AutoBlogGreen