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Mixed sales results, but automaker stocks rise on need for cars in Houston

DETROIT — The Big Three Detroit automakers on Friday reported better-than-expected August sales and issued optimistic outlooks for demand as residents of the Houston area replace flood-damaged cars and trucks after Hurricane Harvey, sending their stocks higher. General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler posted mixed August U.S. sales, with GM up 7.5 percent and Ford and Fiat Chrysler down. Japanese automaker Toyota improved sales by nearly 7 percent, while Honda fell 2.4 percent. Still, analysts focused on the potential for Detroit automakers to cut inventories and stabilize used vehicle prices as residents of Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, are forced to replace tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of vehicles after the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Mark LaNeve, Ford's U.S. sales chief, told analysts on Friday that following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 "we saw a very dramatic snapback" in demand. That said, Ford sales fell 2.1 percent in August. It sold 209,897 vehicles in the United States, compared with 214,482 a year earlier. Sales were down 1.9 percent in the Ford division and off 5.8 percent at Lincoln. Demand was down for cars, crossovers and SUVs. It was not clear how many vehicles in the Houston area will be scrapped, LaNeve said, saying he had seen estimates ranging from 200,000 to 400,000 to 1 million. Ford's Houston dealers may have lost fewer than 5,000 vehicles in inventory, he said. Ford is the No. 1 automaker in the Houston market, with 18 percent share, according to IHS Markit. The company plans to ship used vehicles to Houston dealers and has "every indication we would have to add some production" of new vehicles to meet demand, LaNeve said. Investor concerns about inventories of unsold vehicles and falling used car prices have weighed on Detroit automakers' shares most of this year. Now, automakers can anticipate a jolt of demand from a big market that is a stronghold for Detroit brand trucks and SUVs. "It's got to be a positive for the industry," LaNeve said. Investors appeared to agree. GM shares rose as much as 3.3 percent to their highest since early March. Ford increased 2.8 percent at $11.34, and Fiat Chrysler's U.S.-traded shares were up 5.2 percent $15.91, hitting their highest in more than five years. GM reported a 7.5 percent increase in U.S. auto sales in August, helped by robust sales of crossovers across its four brands.

Nissan GT-R and Jaguar F-Type meet for time trial battle [w/poll]

It seems that the Jaguar F-Type Coupe R is the performance coupe du jour. First, Motor Trend challenged it against a Porsche 911 on video to see how it fared. Now, Autocar in the UK is pitting the Jag against the latest iteration of the Nissan GT-R around a small course in a time trial battle.
On paper, it certainly looks like the F-Type Coupe is the clear winner. The two performance cars boast the same 542 horsepower (at least by UK specs), but the Jaguar does it with more torque, less weight and an eight-speed gearbox, compared to the six-speed in the GT-R. That seems like an automatic recipe for victory. However, the Nissan claims a faster sprint to 62 miles per hour and all-wheel drive. Nobody wants to watch a video of the new car running away into the sunset, and once the two of them make it to the track, the playing field appears much more level.
So which would you rather have? Keep in mind, that while the GT-R is cheaper than the F-Type Coupe R by a few thousand pounds in the UK, in the US a base R starts at $99,000, and the Nissan has a base price of $101,770. Scroll down to watch the video, and then make your choice in the poll, below.

Runway Rumble: Nissan GT-R, Ducati 1098 and Lamborghini Reventon Roadster battle it out

One 2.5-mile runway, three different ways to take off: a Ducati 1098, a tuned Nissan GT-R with 580 horsepower and a launch control upgrade, and a Lamborghini Reventon Roadster. You'd naturally expect the Ducati to assert it's lightweight, high-horsepower authority in these matters, but with more than two miles to run, the ride that gets the jump at the line isn't always the one that gets the win.
That comes in especially handy for the Lamborghini, which suffers from a bad start in the first race and just looks plain ordinary in the second, until it finds redemption. You can see how it all goes down in the video below.