Toyota Officially Passes GM As Planet’s Biggest Car Maker

After more than seven decades as the world’s largest automaker, General Motors (GM) officially loses the title on January 21, 2009, when it announces worldwide sales of 8.36 million cars and trucks in 2008, compared with Toyota’s 8.97 million vehicle sales that same year. However, the news wasn’t all rosy […]


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GM Auctions Off Historic Cars

January 18, 2009, marks the final day of a weeklong auction in which auto giant General Motors (GM) sells off historic cars from its Heritage Collection. GM sold around 200 vehicles at the Scottsdale, Arizona, auction, including a 1996 Buick Blackhawk concept car for $522,500, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 […]


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Rare Bugatti Found In British Garage

On this day in 2009, media outlets report that a rare unrestored 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe has been found in the garage of a British doctor. A month later, on February 7, the car sold at a Paris auction for some $4.4 million. The black two-seater, one of […]


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“Speed Racer” Movie Released

On this day in 2008, “Speed Racer,” the big-budget live-action film version of the 1960s Japanese comic book and television series “MachGoGoGo,” makes its debut in U.S. movie theaters. Warner Brothers, the studio behind “Speed Racer,” brought on Larry and Andy Wachowski, the brothers who created the blockbuster science-fiction hit […]


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Danica Patrick Becomes First Woman To Win Indy Race

On April 20, 2008, 26-year-old Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Montegi in Montegi, Japan, making her the first female winner in IndyCar racing history. Danica Patrick was born on March 25, 1982, in Beloit, Wisconsin. She became involved in racing as a young girl and […]


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World’s Cheapest Car Debuts In India

On this day in 2008, at the New Delhi Auto Expo in India, Tata Motors debuts the Nano, billing it as the world’s cheapest car: The anticipated price tag is around $2,500. Tata, India’s largest automaker, called the four-door, bubble-shaped mini-vehicle (it was just 5 feet wide and 10 feet […]


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Honda Produces 6 Millionth Civic In North America

During the week ending on July 23, 2007, Honda Motor Company Ltd. produces its 6 millionth Civic in North America, according to an article in Automotive News. Honda’s history goes back to 1946, when the engineer Honda Soichiro founded his namesake technical research institute near Hamamatsu in order to produce […]


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Smart Launches U.S. Road Show To Introduce Its Microcar

Los Angeles, California, is the first stop on a cross-country road show launched on this day in 2007 by Smart USA to promote the attractions of its “ForTwo” microcar, which it had scheduled for release in the United States in 2008. In the early 1990s, Nicholas Hayek of Swatch, the […]


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DaimlerChrysler Sells Most Of Chrysler For $7.4 Billion

On this day in 2007, the European-American carmaker DaimlerChrysler, created in 1998 in a $36 billion merger, announces that it is selling 80.1 percent of the Chrysler group to the U.S. private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus paid $7.4 billion in the deal, mostly in the form of investments in […]


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First McDonald’s Drive-Through Opens In Beijing

On this day in 2007, Beijing, China, the capital city of the planet’s most populous nation, gets its first drive-through McDonald’s restaurant. The opening ceremony for the new two-story fast-food eatery, located next to a gas station, included traditional Chinese lion dancers and a Chinese Ronald McDonald. According to a […]


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World’s Largest Parade Of Fiat Cars

The Fiat 500 Club Italia, an organization formed in appreciation of the iconic 500–“Cinquecento” in Italian–car produced by the automaker Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino), holds what the Guinness Book of World Records will call the world’s largest parade of Fiat cars on July 9, 2006, between Villanova d’Albenga and […]


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DaimlerChrysler Announces Smart’s Arrival In United States

After a flurry of rumors, DaimlerChrysler chairman Dieter Zetsche announces on this day in 2006 that the company’s urban-focused Smart brand–already popular in Europe–will come to the United States in early 2008. Smart–an acronym for Swatch Mercedes ART–began as a joint venture between Swatch, the company known for its colorful […]


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“Cars” Released

On this day in 2006, the animated feature film “Cars,” produced by Pixar Animation Studios, roars into theaters across the United States. For “Cars,” which won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Pixar’s animators created an alternate America inhabited by vehicles instead of humans. The film’s hero is […]


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“World’s Fastest Indian” Makes U.S. Debut

On February 3, 2006, “The World’s Fastest Indian,” a movie based on the true story of motorcycle racer and land-speed record holder Burt Munro, opens in U.S. theaters. The film starred Anthony Hopkins as Munro, the sexagenarian who in the 1960s set several land-speed records on his modified 1920 Indian […]


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“Who Killed The Electric Car?” Debuts

On this day in 2006, “Who Killed the Electric Car?,” a documentary about the aborted attempt by the auto industry to create an electric vehicle, debuts at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The movie posited that there was a conspiracy between oil companies, automakers and the government to kill […]


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