March vehicle sales were still bad, but automakers expressed some cautious optimism Wednesday after the monthly tally showed a smaller year-over-year decline than most had been expecting and an improvement over February’s dismal numbers.

U.S. car and truck sales totaled 857,735 units last month — a 24 percent improvement over February’s total, but 36.8 percent less than the 1,356,926 vehicles sold in March of 2008.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hyundai’s Kia brand was considered an also-ran automaker just a few years ago, but the Korean automaker has really been stepping up its efforts as of late. Kia will continue that push with a host of new technologies in the coming years, with the first showing up in European markets later this year.
Read the rest of this entry »