TOYOTA PROFITS UP:Toyota posted a near 20 per cent rise in quarterly profit yesterday on brisk sales in North America and Europe, and kept its forecasts for an eighth straight year of record earnings intact.
Japan's top carmaker is cruising past rivals at home and abroad, riding a reputation for making energy-efficient cars, boosted by the halo effect from its popular Prius hybrid and backed by a steady stream of new or refreshed products such as the RAV4 and new Lexus LS.
Toyota is storming the US market, winning sales from GM and Ford, both of which are undergoing painful restructuring. GM, Ford and Chrysler all lost market share to Asian brands last year.
NEW VOLVO ESTATE LATER THIS YEAR:Volvo has confirmed the introduction of a new V70 estate later this year. The new car will debut at next month's Geneva Motor show alongside the new XC70. It features subtle design changes and a new six-cylinder petrol engine alongside diesel and bio-ethanol engine variants.
Volvo is also making much of its latest developments in child seating safety, with the V70 featuring new dual built-in child booster cushions that can be adjusted in two stages.
NEW BOSS FOR CITROËN AS PROFITS FALL:PSA/Peugeot-Citroëhas appointed Gilles Michel, currently PSA's head of platforms, engineering and purchasing, to succeed Claude Satinet as managing director of Citroën.
PSA is expected to report later today that its operating profit margin fell to 1.7 per cent in 2006 from 3.4 per cent in 2005.
FORD MAY GET €670 MILLION FOR ASTON-MARTIN:Ford is set to get more than €670 million for Aston Martin, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Bidders, including UK-based private equity firm Doughty Hanson, made second-round offers for the carmaker last week in an auction being run by investment bank UBS AG, the sources said.
Investment bankers have said Aston Martin is likely to attract wide interest due to its desirable brand and could be viewed by some bidders as a trophy asset rather than a private equity-style business investment with rigorous returns targets.