Aston Martin, a brand made famous by superspy James Bond

UK: Iconic sports car maker Aston Martin, which the Ford Motor Company said it would sell to a British-led consortium, was made famous by fictional superspy James Bond but is also renowned for its exploits on the race track.

Launched in 1913, the company has become world-famous for models such as the DB5, the Vantage and the Virage, giving it the image of a stylish, quintessentially British sports car firm.

In the 1950s, under new owner David Brown, several DB models drew attention on the racing circuit, with DBs winning first and second place in 1959 in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the world’s best-known sports car endurance races.

The DB4 and the DB5 models, launched in 1958 and 1963 respectively, became commercial successes.

Aston Martin cars have featured in many movies, even Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, but its very British glamour made them a natural choice for James Bond, the secret agent 007 created in 1952 by novelist Ian Fleming.

Bond was given a DBIII in the seventh novel of the series, Goldfinger, but in the film version he got a silver DB5 complete with an ejector seat, machine-guns and tyre-slashers.

Several subsequent Bond films featured different types of Aston Martins before 007 switched to BMWs for a few movies.

But in the latest screen incarnation last year, Casino Royale, Daniel Craig gets behind the wheel of both the classic DB5 and the new DBS. Despite Aston Martin’s screen popularity, the 1980s brought financial troubles. Ford bought a controlling stake in 1987 and took full ownership in 1993. Aston Martin subsequently brought out the Virage models and the DB7.

The company’s vehicles returned to the racing circuit in 2005 for the first time since 1989, but to date have not yet won any major prizes.

Ford, which wants to raise cash after record losses last year, has agreed to sell Aston Martin for 479 million pounds (923 million dollars) to a consortium led by motor sport entrepreneur Dave Richards, who will be non-executive chairman. The current Aston Martin boss Ulrich Bez will become chief executive.

Bez said last week that his company sold 7,010 of its luxury sports cars last year, equivalent to 10 times the firm’s production seven years ago. He said production levels for this year were set to be the same because factories were working at near full capacity.

The car brand is aiming to open new dealerships in Moscow and Beijing later this year to add to the 126 existing ones around the world.

Its headquarters are at Gaydon, Warwickshire, central England.

Ford’s sale of elite sports-car maker Aston Martin is a sign of deeper troubles at the US automaker after a failed foray into luxury European brands and a loss of focus on its critical US market, said analysts.

Ford bought into the brand made famous by fictional super spy James Bond when it was flush with cash in the late 1980s. It became the crown jewel in an expanding global empire and was never expected to make a major impact on Ford’s bottom line.

As Ford scrambles to radically cut costs after posting a record loss of 12.7 billion dollars in 2006, Aston Martin’s 923-million dollar selling price is a welcome cash infusion, analysts said.

“Aston Martin was a luxury they can’t afford given the strain they’re under,” said David Healy, an analyst with Burnham Securities.

“They’re in a good deal of trouble,” he said in a telephone interview. “I think they’ll survive this but it’s not a pretty sight.”

Ford announced it was looking to spin off Aston Martin in August, prompting much speculation it would also sell Jaguar, which Ford has sunk billions of dollars into without managing to turn it into a high-volume luxury brand.

While Ford has insisted it has no plans to sell Jaguar, or the other brands in its Premier Auto Group, which lost 327 million dollars in 2006, Merrill Lynch analyst John Murphy said circumstances may force the automaker’s hand.

“Given the potential need for liquidity in the next few years all options may be on the table in the future, especially if (its restructuring) plan is not materially accelerated or falters,” he wrote in a research report.

“We estimate a combined sale of Jaguar and Land Rover would raise 1.3 billion to 1.5 billion dollars, and a sale of Volvo about 8 billion dollars.”

Ford’s troubles will not end any time soon because it is still not building cars that Americans want to buy, said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with research group Global Insight.

BMW targets record profits in 2007

GERMANY: BMW, the German maker of luxury cars, said on Wednesday that it aimed to achieve record sales and earnings again this year after turning in its best-ever performance in 2006.

“The current year should be the best year in the company’s history in operating terms,” chief executive Norbert Reithofer told BMW’s annual earnings news conference here.

“Excluding the one-off gain on the Rolls-Royce exchangeable bond, we plan to beat the record pre-tax profit achieve in 2006,” he said. Net profit jumped by 28.4 percent to 2.874 billion euros (3.8 billion dollars) in 2006.

Pre-tax profit was up 25.5 percent at 4.124 billion euros on a 5.0-percent rise in revenues to 48.999 billions and a 3.5-percent increase in unit sales to 1.374 million cars.

In terms of sales, BMW also hoped to drive on to new records, the chairman continued. “We are aiming to achieve a new sales volume record for each of our brands, BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce,” Reithofer said. “Overall for 2007, we expect a sales volume growth in the higher single-digit percentage range,” he said.

Jaguar XJ diesel named greenest luxury car

Jaguar’s XJ 2.7 Diesel has been named the greenest luxury car on Britain’s roads in the Environmental Transport Association’s 2007 Car Buyers Guide.

The award, presented by television presenter Janet Ellis at the RIBS in London recognises Jaguar’s commitment to delivering CO2 and fuel consumption advantages to customers with the development of its industry-leading diesel engines and application of advanced lightweight aluminium vehicle architectures.

The ETA guide lists 2,500 new cars and provides a star-based ranking system that gives consumers an overview of any vehicle’s performance against the following categories; power, carbon dioxide emissions, fuel consumption, noise and safety.

The XJ beat off strong competition from the Mercedes-Benz S320 and BMW 7 Series to claim this award - following in the footsteps of its stable mate, the X-TYPE, which won the category in 2006.

Managing Director of Jaguar in the UK, Geoff Cousins said: “We fully recognise our responsibility to the environment and are committed to playing our role in developing technology solutions in cars, fuels and infrastructure to address climate change - this award shows we are heading in the right direction.”

This is the latest in a long line of awards for Jaguar’s flagship model, which last year further demonstrated its fuel economy credentials by covering 1000.2 miles on a single tank of fuel - the average fuel consumption hitting 53.5mpg which equates to 139g/km of CO2.

The all-aluminium XJ, face-lifted for 2008, boasts an all-new distinctive design and features a host of state-of the art-technologies including the sound-deadening ‘Vibramount’. Supplied by Avon this technology was nominated for an innovation award at the Automotive News PACE (Premier Automotive Suppliers’ Contributions to Excellence) Awards in New York.

‘Vibramount’ has helped the XJ Diesel gain its reputation for world-class smoothness and quietness by countering engine movements to eliminate vibration and noise. Refinement has been improved whilst allowing ride and handling to be optimised.

In the UK, the Jaguar XJ boasts just over 20 per cent share of the large luxury segment and sales in 2006 were up 25% over the previous year.

This serves to demonstrate that the XJ is a car that continues to exceed expectations and attract customers who simply love to drive. It was recently voted Luxury Car of the Year in the Business Car Awards.

GM turns a corner, but still faces bumpy road

US: General Motors appears to have turned a corner with its first quarterly profit in nearly two years but still faces a rocky road back to long-term profitability, analysts said.

GM on Wednesday posted a net profit of 950 million dollars in the fourth quarter after a massive cost-cutting and reorganization effort. Excluding one-time items, the profit amounted to 180 million dollars.

David Cole, head of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said the turnaround appears to be picking up momentum for GM, which is trying to hold off Japanese rival Toyota’s overtaking it as the world’s biggest automaker.

Greg Gardner of Harbour Consulting also said results for the fourth quarter and the 2006 indicate the company cost-cutting efforts, including the buyout of thousands of workers, are beginning to pay dividends.

“They won’t see major traction from the buyouts until the 2007 results come in,” added Gardner, who noted more than 34,000 GM workers had agreed to early retirements and buyouts last year. Gardner added GM is moving closer to its goal of reducing structural costs to 25 percent of revenue. The production of new GM products, such as the pickup truck and cross over vehicles, went very smoothly, he said.

Fritz Henderson, GM’s chief financial officer, said the sharp improvement in GM finances are a 10.4 billion dollar loss in 2006 reflects a turnaround not only in North America but elsewhere in the world.

The Asia-Pacific region “remains the core of GM’s global growth strategy,” Henderson said.

GM’s automotive business in Asia Pacific posted strong results as revenue jumped 30 percent to 15 billion dollars in 2006 even though profits slipped 20 percent due to GM’s sale of its stake in the Japanese automaker Suzuki, Henderson said.

Record 2006 sales of GM Daewoo products contributed to GM’s continued strong performance in the region, headlined by sales gains of 32 percent in China and 19 percent in South Korea.

New investment in China, for example, are not fully reflected because they are made with GM’s joint venture partners.

“We’re investing pretty heavily in China but you don’t see any of that on the balance,” he said.

GM also is building new plants in India and Russia, he said.

US group to build Chinese trucks in Texas

US: A specialty truck maker in Texas will become the first US automaker to build a Chinese-designed vehicle, Tiger Truck said Monday.

Privately-held Tiger Truck has been distributing light-duty, slow-moving trucks in the United States for ChangAn Automobile Group, the third largest Chinese automaker, since 1999.

It has now purchased a manufacturing site in Jasper, Texas with a capacity to build 7,500 vehicles a year on a single shift.

The company said three different trucks will be built at the site and that about 80 percent will be for export, primarily to Latin America and the Caribbean. The first vehicles will be delivered in early 2008.

“In our off-road vehicle class, Tiger has been first to build an automatic transmission, four wheel drive, limited slip differential, electric drive, hybrid drive, and now we will be first to deliver true ‘Made in US’ vehicles with a Chinese heritage,” Mike Ward, founder and chief executive officer of Tiger Truck, said in a statement.

The Jasper facility will assemble a full-sized pickup truck for the US and Canadian off-road market and two trucks for on-road use: a full-sized pickup with a diesel engine that will be sold for the export market and a medium duty truck that will be sold worldwide for on-road use.

Tiger said the 92 acre (37 hectare) site with more than 250,000 square feet (23,000-square meter) of existing indoor manufacturing space has abundant expansion capacity.