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Automakers are getting nervous about Europe's economy

Carmakers BMW and Stellantis on Thursday expressed concerns about Europe's economic outlook, joining a chorus of retailers and others in warning of waning consumer confidence on the continent and hitting their shares. "Obviously the macro(-economic situation) in Europe is more challenging, which gives me pause, personally," Stellantis chief financial officer Richard Palmer said on a conference call with analysts. "If there was anywhere where I was more concerned, it would be Europe than anywhere else really based on the macro." This follows a dire assessment of consumer sentiment in Europe from the likes of consumer goods company Unilever and news of lower spending by Europeans from Amazon. Like other major auto companies, Stellantis and BMW have been hit by supply chain disruptions stemming from the global coronavirus pandemic that have curtailed car production. They have also benefited from strong consumer demand amid low vehicle supply, allowing them to raise prices and keep them high even as the semiconductor shortage shows signs of easing. BMW posted a 35.3% jump in third-quarter revenue despite a small drop in vehicle sales. Stellantis said its revenue rose 29% on the back of a 13% increase in vehicle sales as more semiconductors became available. The concern among analysts has been that demand may falter, just as carmakers get their hands on the supplies they need, undermining pricing and hurting profits. But this week Ferrari said it was confident about its prospects for this year and 2023 as demand for its luxury cars, as well its pricing power, remained strong. Both BMW and Stellantis said on Thursday they had vehicle order books that stretched into the second quarter of 2023. But BMW's chief financial officer Nicolas Peter said high inflation and rising interest rates could hit buyers' wallets. "This is causing conditions for consumers to deteriorate, which will affect their behaviour in the coming months," he said. "We therefore continue to expect our higher-than-average order books to normalise, especially in Europe." He added customers had been unhappy about the wait for new cars, so "a slight reduction (in orders) would not be negative." Palmer said Stellantis was "ready for any softness in demand" but in the short term had been affected by a shortage of drivers to deliver its cars to dealers. "At the moment, we can't build enough cars," he said.

New BBC Top Gear season is off to a great start

The past few years have been very demanding for Top Gear fans. The Jeremy Clarkson Top Gear got too big for itself, and the core quality of the series degraded as stunts and jokes gradually became more and more stale. Things came to a head with the Fracasgate, with Clarkson punching a producer in a very nice hotel in Yorkshire with a very nice brass plaque commemorating "The End of Clarkson's BBC Career". Fast forward to a year ago, when the BBC produced a new series of Top Gear, with famed breakfast show person and shouting enthusiast Chris Evans hosting. Laden with personnel and curiously lacking any direction, the first new season collapsed onto itself with Evans eventually quitting the entire shindig. After that, viewers received a new, Amazon-produced Clarkson-Hammond-May series called The Grand Tour, which was often brilliant and just as often hampered by writing as hackneyed as the last Clarkson years of Top Gear. Now the slate is clean. Evans is gone. The first Grand Tour season has aired. The BBC has had a good long time to re-evaluate its strategy. And the first episode of this season's Top Gear has aired in the UK - and will air March 12 on BBC America. Your first extended look at all new #TopGear, coming 5 March. See you there pic.twitter.com/lYoYOtrWxR — Top Gear (@BBC_TopGear) February 23, 2017 What an improvement! It seems like the producers have taken an ax to everything not strictly necessary for making a great car show, and they've left what is absolutely crucial. There are the three car guys, Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid. There is a new studio. There is a new track car. There is a celebrity, but it's not painful to watch. There are easy jokes, there are car jokes, there are Ronin jokes. Ronin jokes! It's as if Harris, by dissecting continuity errors in the 1998 film's BMW chase, is reaching out to us fans, saying he's one of us, and he did notice the wrong wheels when the black BMW falls from the bridge. (Other mistakes are wrong-colored tach needles, for instance.) The first car film is a quality Ferrari FXX K piece, with Harris enjoying one of the 40 built track-day specials on the bankings of Daytona. It's remarkable it was Harris who was allowed to drive the exclusive Ferrari, as the first "outsider" (in his words) to drive one; years ago Harris was one of the most vocal critics of Ferrari's practices, resulting in him getting banned from driving press Ferraris. But then again, this is a customer car.

Couple arrested after carjacked Jaguar breaks down

A couple that played musical chairs with allegedly stolen luxury cars was arrested in suburban Salt Lake City following a carjacking and police pursuit after one of the cars drove over a “stop strip” tire deflater and the other was a Jaguar suffering from mechanical problems. Police arrested Brock Hansen, 33, and Brittney Price, 23, on Sunday in Taylorsville, Utah, following the incidents, which were reported by local media and spotted by Jalopnik. They began, police say, when an officer out on patrol spotted what he suspected was a stolen BMW. The officer began to trail the car to run the license plate numbers when the BMW came to a stop to pick up a man, later identified as Hansen, who was walking on the street. The officer then continued to follow the car, was able to confirm that the BMW was, in fact, stolen, and called for backup. Police at one point used a stop stick — a triangular tube filled with tire-puncturing nails — to try and stop the duo, but Price instead made a U-turn after driving over it and continued on with a deflated tire. She eventually pulled into a gas station, where surveillance footage shows Hansen exiting the vehicle, walking over to what appears to be a Jaguar X-Type sedan whose driver was standing at the pump, climbing nonchalantly into the drivers seat and taking off, following the stolen BMW. Price eventually stopped and exited the BMW to try and get into the Jaguar but was apprehended by police after a brief foot chase and scuffle that left an officer injured, KSL-TV reported. Hansen then took off and led police on a chase — “at relatively low speeds,” according to ABC4.com — before he stopped the car and surrendered to police without a fight. Both were taken to jail. “What we learned from the owner of that Jaguar is that heÂ’s been having some issues with that Jaguar and he believes that the Jaguar just wasnÂ’t going to go anymore and was bogging down Â… so may have picked the wrong vehicle to try and run from the police in today,” Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake Sgt. Melody Gray told ABC4.