Who is the Biggest car company? Why hasn't one company been able to stay on top of the competition?

It was Ford, they lost the competition to GM in the 70's , GM lost to Toyota, and Toyota lost to VW.

Since GM was on top, the number one biggest car company has changed twice in 2 years.

I just read Jamie Kitman's article in Automobile Magazine (great magazine, also read Ezra Dyer's article, the both of them are great!) and he points out that VW is on the verge of screwing up. They are making bigger cars, and making them cheaper, so they will be cheaper to buy and result in increased sales volume.

It's backfiring with VW. The Passat is only selling 10% of it's all time high in 2002. Not good.

Jamie looked the Passat over, and it's built in Tennessee for the American market, but it's not as nice as the German built Passat the rest of the world buys.

Jamie reports that VW has about a 1/4 million US customers, and wants to triple that and sell about 800,000 cars a year by 2018, but he tells us that the quality of the interior of the VW's is lousy, and thinks they are about to lose their market share to their competition. Time will tell.

The diesel version of one VW gets 52 mpg. Nice, but if a 45 mpg Hyundai has a nicer interior, I know I'd go for the better interior, and not worry about 7 less mpg while driving in a comfy and good looking surroundings.

FYI, the company that makes the most cars is Mattel.

remarkably nice original old cars at good prices at Qualcomm swapmeet

Very odd "Give me your best offer, I'll look through all offers and get back to the highest bidder, without really calling this an auction" 4 door chev. Excellent condition, stored since 1970 with various owners that never did anything to improve it.

This seller is likely going to be choosy about the next owners intentions, as they seem to give a damn that someone restore it. I say once you decide to sell it, you aren't interested in how it's treated becuase you've chosen to not treat it the way you intended

they were only asking 6 thou for this solid rust free 30 or 31 model A

Sold at 4 thou about an hour after the place opened, first guy who offered cash is going home with it, and a truck load of great spare parts, including spare roadster body. The wood rims are in terrific condition, and the car was aid to fire up and power the old car along. I believe it too, it was the best deal that probably was there, anywhere.

1923 Dodge, 3500 bucks

The sign says hiw wife told him to get rid of some projects, this rat rod project will be yours for about 1650 dollars, and has a for 460 engine

They only wanted 3 thou for the VW

good advertising

Found on http://autoadvert.tumblr.com

OilandSteel.tumblr.com

I've wondered why more fuel tanks weren't designed with tank level indicators, in the above case, a sightglass. Probably a held over prejudice from my submarine days

see more at http://oilandsteel.tumblr.com/

When streamliner is the consuming passion, and all the guy had was a VW bus

found on http://ratrodsrule.tumblr.com/

The bullet bus (aka: while taking on the improbable, meeting people and finding out that fellow VW fans donate parts)

This 21 Window Deluxe was abandoned and partially stripped in the Nevada desert and then promptly used as target practice for passersbys. After being rescued from the desert, a massive donation project started as bus owners from across the country donated parts and services to get this bus driving again. (that is so awesome! I believe the praise must go to the Samba.com, great VW website)

the only things left on this thing were:
1)beltline trim
2)front bumper
3)oh shit handle
4)battery strap
5)parking brake handle (bent 90 degrees to floor)
6)brake pedal
7)clutch pedal
8)throttle pedal (found in the pile of dirt and broken glass on cargo floor)
9)headlight switch (also on cargo floor)
10)4.5 pop-out frames
11)the driver's seat bottom

learned about this on http://thegreasylens.tumblr.com/post/2837493790/whats-that-youve-never-heard-of-the-bullet-bus

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=227232&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=240 for the full thread of 20 pages dedicated to this project

If you suddenly feel like looking at a great gallery of VW busses: http://www.oldcarspirit.cz/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10

For the other most amazingly beyond salvage kombis I've posted about that people have went crazy for:
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/1957-deluxe-vw-23-window-bus-pulled.html
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/not-too-far-gone-to-save-because-in.html
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-happened-to-bury-this-1950-vw-213.html

VW fans really love their vehicles, and customize them alot, but I've never seen a bug grafted to a van before, just this one in a movie

the reason? It makes for standing room!

VW ad campaign, nicely elegant

the 1965 VW bus that became a 1700hp top fueler, "Mental Breakdown"

I posted a photo of this once before, last Sept, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/11/there-is-integral-coolness-in-vws-but.html and it turns out that photo was of the debut at the Essen Motor Show in Germany.

Read about it and see a couple more photos here: http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2010/11/mental-breakdown-1700hp-volkswagen-bus.html

ever seen VW dump trucks?

I'm thinking that the obvious problem is too much weight over the rear

axle, and if they had too heavy a load getting dumped, it might tip this over backwards.

from http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2010/04/classic-volkswagen-vanswell-ti.html

WANT !

from http://aircooled-village.blogspot.com/2010/12/t1-promotion-pisten-bulli.html via the great http://stipistop.com

New car tranporters, of Bugs, T Birds, 1950 and 54 Nashs

Take a close look at the cab on the semi, unusual double front window where the firewall was because that cab was put on top of the cab foundation that used to be too short evidently

photos from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=931

race car haulers and transporters