On today’s show… car sales are running red hot in the American market, the VW scandal won’t hurt the company’s racing efforts and VW has come up with a solution to fix its diesels in Europe. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily for November 30th, 2015.

SMOKIN’ HOT U.S. SALES
Automakers in the United States will report their November sales tomorrow and they should show that the market continues to run red hot. Ward’s forecasts that the SAAR will hit 18.4 million vehicles. It says sales should hit 1.3 million cars and trucks, up 3.2% for the month, but when adjusted for the daily selling rate, it says they should be up 12%. Amongst the major automakers, it expects Nissan, FCA, and Hyundai-Kia to be the biggest gainers.

A PEEK AT THE PEAK
But those red-hot sales numbers suggest that the American market is just about at its peak. At least from a profitability standpoint. That’s according to the investment company Sanford Bernstein. It says that sales volume can’t go much higher, that financing cannot get any cheaper, and that new assembly plants opening in Mexico are going to add more capacity. It believes all that will erode the profitability of the car companies. But here’s our Autoline Insight: as we’ve reported before, other analysts believe sales in the U.S. will go up even more in 2016, and that they may not cool off until the end of 2017. And remember, last week we told you how General Motors is increasing the variable profit of the new Malibu by $1,500, thanks to its new architecture. We think automakers will find new ways to offset costs that can protect their profitability.

VW SALES COLLAPSE, OR NOT?
Speaking of new car sales, there’s something of a mystery going on in Germany about whether Volkswagen’s sales are collapsing or holding their own. A report from a daily newspaper in Frankfurt, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, says that VW sales are dropping fast. Reportedly, Germans are very upset that VW understated its CO2 emissions. But Volkswagen sort of denies that report. VW told reuters that “the numbers we have paint a different picture of the situation in Germany.” Later in the show, we’ll have more on the diesel emissions fix that VW came up with.

And while Volkswagen is still reeling from this scandal, at least it looks like a big part of its racing program will not be affected. That’s coming up next.

AUDI’S DIESEL RACE CAR
Dieselgate has rocked Volkswagen’s universe and some feared its racing efforts would suffer, but Audi just pulled the wraps off its brand-new LMP1 race car, the R18. Although, we are seeing some cost-cutting efforts as both Porsche and Audi will only field 2 entrants instead of three in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The new race car is still a hybrid that relies on diesel engine technology, but rather than stick with a mechanical flywheel for energy storage the R18 will switch over to lithium-ion batteries. Audi says this is the most powerful and efficient race car it has ever built and it’s sure hoping that translates into wins on the race track. Last year’s defeat at Le Mans was only the 3rd time since the year 2000 that Audi lost the race.

PORSCHE GARAGE FOR CLASSICS
We’ve seen Porsche continually roll out new parts for its classic cars, a great way for any automaker to drum up some extra cash, especially Porsche with more than 70% of the cars it’s ever produced still on the road. But now for the first time Porsche is bringing service, workshop and sales exclusively for its classic cars under one roof. The first Porsche center just opened up in the Netherlands, but there are plans to open an additional 100 centers around the world by 2018.

Coming up next, Volkswagen came up with a way to fix its diesels that looks like it came out of a J.C. Whitney catalog.

VW ANNOUNCES 4-CYLINDER TDI FIX FOR EUROPE
Volkswagen has come up with a solution to fix its 1.6L and 2.0L diesel engines in Europe. The 2.0L diesel will receive a software update which should take a half an hour to complete. In addition to a software update, the 1.6L diesel will be fitted with what it calls a “flow transformer.” It’s a plastic mesh screen that sits directly in front of the air mass sensor on the engine. In a statement the company says it’s “a mesh that calms the swirled air flow in front of the air mass sensor and will thus decisively improve the measuring accuracy of the air mass sensor.” VW expects that fix to take less than an hour. The new measures have been approved by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority and the company will start fixing the engines in January. VW will also submit a fix to the Federal Motor Transport Authority for its 1.2L 3-cylinder diesel at the end of the month. Boy, here we thought it was technically difficult to meet emission standards and it turns out all you need is a plastic screen. Will wonders never cease?

We have a great Autoline After Hours coming up Thursday. John and Gary will be out at the media launch for the new Nissan Titan. Has Nissan finally cracked the code to figure out how to get Americans to buy its pickup truck? Tune in Thursday to get some of the best insights as to what’s really going on in the global automotive industry.

And with that we wrap up today’s report. Thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.