Revenue

Increasing fines, ticket cameras, and the deck stacked against drivers to fight tickets.

The DriveNow carsharing service, which is a partnership between BMW and Sixt, is growing quite rapidly. "We've been surprised about the explosion of new subscriptions, which has helped boost revenue," says Sixt CEO Erich Sixt. The number of DriveNow users has increased from 215,000 at

It's been thirteen years since Aston Martin introduced the original V12 Vanquish. The model was effectively been replaced twice over by the time it reached its Bar Mitzvah, but its underlying platform is still around. And not just around, either: it underpins everything Aston makes and has made ever since it came on the scene, save for the Cygnet and the Noah Joseph

Let it never be said that there isn't money to be made selling high-end exotic sports cars. Last month Ferrari revealed that it had recorded record profits despite selling fewer vehicles than the year before. Now arch-rival Lamborghini has reported record revenue.

Ford took in $2.6 billion in pre-tax profits in the third quarter of the year, making for a record trio of months that saw the Blue Oval's year-over-year earnings increase by $426 million. The earnings are being attributed not just to improvements in North American sales, but sales around the globe.

Ford is rolling along nicely, with a positive second-quarter sales report and a $2.3 billion profit in North America. The Dearborn, Michigan-based manufacturer captured $1.2 billion globally from April to June, with a $177 million profit in Asia. Even in Europe, the land of doom and gloom for automakers not named Mazda, Ford saw some success as it lowered its e

Not that it means anything beyond bragging rights, but if you're fixated on the positions of domestic automakers on the annual Fortune 500 list, both General Motors and Ford are still on it but they've slipped a couple of notches. The list ranks American companies and they're ordered solely by revenue. GM, fifth last year, came in seventh, while Ford fell from ninth to tenth even though both companies saw sma

Chrysler reported a small profit for the first quarter, reflecting lower shipments of vehicles to Europe and a slow down in production for the U.S. connected with new model launches. The company's overall outlook, though, remains positive as it moves toward a likely initial public offering.

We all know we shouldn't mess with Texas. And Houston, Texans shouldn't mess around with statistics, because the folks running the show are going to come to any conclusions they want no matter what the statistics say. This is the easy part: a study of red light cameras in the city shows that accidents have actually increased at intersections with the cameras.

Red light cameras are nothing more than a surreptitious tax. Oh sure, they're sold to municipalities as a safety benefit, but what else would you say if you wanted to be paid to install, administrate, and monitor your little ticket-writing bots? The cities and towns that put the cameras greedily snap up the extra revenue generated by dangerously short yellow lights and overzealous cameras. Patrick Bedard has been poking holes in the theory that traffic cameras are the salve for behind the wheel

Don't go getting too excited, it probably won't mean a crate version of the S65 or N54 for Roundel fans. Running an automaker is expensive, especially a manufacturer that leans more toward niche status than casting a wide net. BMW is looking at all options for future revenue, and one of the thoughts that's occured to the well-respected manufacturer of cars with chutzpah is to bank on its engineering chops and sell engines to other carmakers. Lotus has pimped themselves out for years to other aut

The business world has always confounded us for being a place where one can celebrate with champagne after not posting a profit for three months, if only for the fact that you didn't lose as much money as people thought you would. Such is the case with General Motors, which today announced that it had lost "only" $115 million this quarter. Those pesky "special items" in the ledger amount to $644 million for GM and include money that's been spent to aid the reorganization of Delphi and "goodwill

Porsche's sales figures are in for the 2006 fiscal year, and profits are up by over ten percent to a staggering €7.27 billion. Production grew by nearly thirteen percent over last year, putting out more than 100,000 cars over the year.

Earlier this week we posted about how General Motors' reported first quarter $323 million loss became a $445 million profit. And this is not by some accounting fluke: analysis of the automaker's finances shows the profit stemmed from its cost-management strategies and higher revenue from sales such as its new Buick Lucerne and Cadillac vehicles. Of course, postponing the addition of its $681 million h