China has recently undergone a lot of development in its car market sector, and is rapidly climbing to the top of the world’s vehicle trade. Thus, it’s no wonder that Volkswagen have decided to generate presence there by introducing their latest, visually evolved Tiguan.

It’s still unclear whether or not the new design is meant for the Chinese market exclusively, so it’s still possible that the European and American versions of the car will look differently. However, knowing VW’s way of doing things, this is highly unlikely at the moment. Visually, the car appears to share a lot with the current Scirocco and Golf models, creating a nice consistent flow in VW’s design decisions. The technological details about the vehicle are still unknown, so we’ll have to wait for VW to reveal those.

Source: Alex Ion

Underground Racing have been quite busy lately, this time modifying a Lamborghini Gallardo. Ordered by a person named Jonah, the modified Gallardo can produce the impressive 1500 horsepower running on VP C16 racing fuel. It’s worth mentioning that the model loses a lot of the engine’s original power by the time it’s reached the tires – an estimated 25% for this vehicle, which means that the original produced power may go up to 1900 HP! When testing the car, Jonah took the quarter mile on the track in under 10 seconds, coming in at a little over 160 mph. Even though, from his words, it’s been a while since he’s took her to the track, he still managed to bring out the beast in this already respectable car.

Source: Alex Ion

“Turbulent” wouldn’t properly describe the recent flight path of national flag carrier Japan Airlines, in a spiralling game of chicken with its retirees and unions over a $3.7 billion pension shortfall. 

President Haruka Nishimatsu, who needs a pension deal to get bridge loans and bailout money from the state,  is asking for an average 40 percent cut from retirees and current employees.

“If we can’t, risks to our survival will increase, including the possibility of a court-led reorganisation,” he said on Monday to a gathering of unions and retirees.

The merits for the 17,000 current staff and some 9,000 retirees, who can block any pension cut if more than one-third object, are not compelling to everyone.

“I feel an attachment to the company, but on the other hand I have my own life. I have been banking on that corporate pension to make ends meet,” said a 59-year-old male retiree.

The government, which first raised the prospect of court-protected bankruptcy and in so doing helped send JAL shares tumbling, has played equal hardball with its staff, saying it may try to revise the law to forcibly implement pension cuts, which would most likely put the whole issue in a legal circling pattern. 

Would a nation with a growing number of pensioners be supportive of such a move, which may then become a blueprint for their own weaker returns? I wouldn’t put money on it. But for a carrier with more than $15 billion in debt as well as shares at record lows and falling, someone needs to blink — and soon.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Issei Kato

Source: Daniel Sloan

The CTS Coupe recently gained some additional attention when Cadillac revealed official details about the vehicle. It doesn’t seem to have changed much since the concept stages, and it’s designed with obvious aggression, boldness, and you can sense the elegant combination of art and style which has become something like a trademark for Cadillac as of recently.

At the bottom of the car, it hasn’t changed at all from the CTS sedan. The wheelbase is the same, though it has been slightly reduced in the coupe, and the engine is the same 3.6 liter V6 that powers the sedan version. Customers can pick between a rear- or all-wheel drive. And to top it all off, Cadillac also came out with the announcement of a CTS-V coupe, which boats a nearly double engine power and impressive technical characteristics.

Source: Alex Ion

For some of Japan’s retailers trying to jumpstart consumer spending, setting prices is like doing the limbo: How low can they go?

Japanese retailers reported mostly dismal first-half earnings results, with the industry stuck in a slump as shoppers remain reluctant to open their wallets even as the economy emerges from recession. 

With no sales pick-up in sight, stores seem to have no choice but to continue their race to undercut rivals, with prices dropping for everything from cars to clothes to milk.

On the surface it sounds like a shopper’s paradise: Who wouldn’t mind paying less than 1,000 yen ($11) for a pair of jeans?

But it could also lead to a deflationary spiral in which consumers put off spending in hopes of further falls in prices.

And what’s more, these price cuts are slicing into already razor-thin profits at companies, which are then forced to pass on the pain to employees in the form of lower paychecks.

“It’s a death march,” said Junji Ueda, CEO of FamilyMart, Japan’s No. 3 convenience store chain.

“Manufacturers and transportation companies can’t make profits, and retail workers can’t get pay rises, or even worse, deflation will get to the point where they can’t keep their jobs.”

But some retail managers say price cuts are not hurting their businesses and there is room for even more markdowns.

“Some say we are cutting prices at the expense of profits, but such an argument is groundless. The problem is how to control inventory efficiency,” said Motoya Okada, president of Japan’s No. 2 retailing group Aeon Co Ltd, which runs the Jusco chain of supermarkets.

“Some wonder how we can sell jeans at 880 yen, but at the same time, there are many who think they are still expensive.  Recently, I visited Vietnam and was surprised to see items better than ours are sold at half our prices.”

Tadashi Yanai, CEO of Fast Retailing, maintains rivals’ efforts to undercut each other are self-destructive, although the firm’s casual-clothing chain Uniqlo is seen by some as one of the very culprits for fanning the deflationary trend with ultra-cheap apparel.

Fast Retailing is among the few Japanese retailers that have reported robust profit growth,  buoyed by strong sales at the Uniqlo stores.

“Our 990 yen jeans created value, but those that followed, like the ones for 880 yen and 850 yen, — I guess jeans will be sold for free eventually – did not produce value at all. I think our rivals will end up hurting themselves through such moves,” Yanai said.

I am a bargain hunter and always happy to pay less, but I’m just hoping my salary doesn’t decline like the prices of the goods in my shopping cart.

Photo credits: REUTERS/Issei Kato

Source: Taiga Uranaka