Archive for the ‘General Auto News’ category

« Older Entries

Police Watching For Peephole Drivers As Winter Nears

October 28th, 2009

As snow and temperatures start to fall, it’s “peephole driving” season in the USA.

Many Americans have done it: gone outside to an ice-covered vehicle on a cold winter’s morning, chipped just enough ice off the windshield to see through and driven away.

Peephole driving dramatically reduces a driver’s field of vision, and it increases the likelihood that snow or ice can become dislodged and hit another vehicle or a pedestrian, according to police and safety advocates.

“Everybody is in such a hurry to get where they’ve got to go, they don’t want to take the time to completely defrost their windows,” says Sgt. Scott Kristiansen of the Buffalo Grove Police Department in suburban Chicago. “That puts everybody at risk.

“Reasonable people who would never think of leaving their driveway with worn tires or bad brakes will routinely drive their children to school after scraping just a small peephole with which to see out of the vehicle,” says Kristiansen, a 26-year veteran in the village of about 42,000 northwest of Chicago.

In Illinois and some other states, police can cite drivers for obstruction of a window or obstructed vision. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, drivers can be cited if their failure to remove snow or ice causes injury or property damage.

New Jersey strengthened its law last week. Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, signed legislation requiring drivers to “make all reasonable efforts” to remove snow or ice from the roof, hood, trunk and windshield. For truckers, the law applies to the cab, the top of a trailer or semi-trailer and the top of a freight container. Drivers who fail to comply face a $25-$75 fine.

“There are many stories of innocent drivers who have died or been seriously injured because of ice or snow dislodged from a truck or car,” says Republican state Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz, a sponsor of the law. “Finally, common-sense legislation that protects drivers by requiring the removal of potential flying debris is now law.”

There are no reliable statistics on the number of people hurt or killed because of peephole driving, says David Weinstein, spokesman for AAA clubs of New Jersey. “Often the driver doesn’t know what happened and drives away,” he says. “Or they do know what happened and know they’re culpable and drive away.”

Technical Trooper Tim McCool of the Kansas Highway Patrol says he’s seen peephole driving increase in his 27-year career as people grow more impatient. He estimates that peephole drivers have 2%-3% of the normal field of vision. As winter looms, the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles advises, “Peephole driving is an invitation to disaster.”

Source: usatoday.com

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News

Asian Cars Top Reliability, Ford Scores Well Too

October 28th, 2009

Asian automakers are still building the most reliable cars and trucks, with eight of the top 10 brands from Japanese and Korean companies, according to an annual survey by Consumer Reports.

But several models from Ford Motor Co. are now consistently scoring above Honda and Toyota, the perennial leaders.

While Toyota’s youth-oriented Scion brand finished first for the second year in a row, several Ford models, including the midsize Ford Fusion and its cousin, the Mercury Milan, consistently have been at or near the top of their classes, a trend that led Consumer Reports editors to declare that Ford is now making some vehicles with world-class reliability.

After Scion, Honda, Toyota, Infiniti and Acura rounded out the top five brands in reliability based on surveys taken in March of subscribers who own or lease 1.4 million vehicles.

Honda’s Insight hybrid was the most reliable vehicle in the survey, while the luxury SUV Volkswagen Touareg was the least reliable. The survey gauges how dependable 2010 model cars and trucks will be based on reliability in the past.

Asian automakers have scored well over the years because they traditionally paid more attention to quality and have tried to perfect manufacturing procedures. The U.S. automakers, however, claim that they have caught up.

“Ford is definitely doing something right,” said Rik Paul, the magazine’s automotive editor.

Ford’s Detroit-area competitors, General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, didn’t fare as well, however.

Chrysler had only one model that Consumer Reports recommended based on reliability and its staff test, and the Chrysler brand finished last out of 33 brands sold in the U.S. One third of Chrysler’s models were much worse than average in reliability.

Six models from GM were recommended by the magazine, but it’s still inconsistent. Only 21 of 48 models the magazine studied scored average or better in reliability.

The relatively poor performance by GM and Chrysler could hurt efforts to fight back from financial problems that led to stays in bankruptcy court earlier this year. Auto industry officials say the nonprofit Consumer Reports is among the most widely consulted sources when people buy vehicles.

Officials at GM and Chrysler say they are committed to improving quality.

At Ford, though, four-cylinder versions of the Fusion and Milan finished second in the family car category, beaten only by Toyota’s Prius gas-electric hybrid. The Fusion and Milan outscored Toyota Motor Corp.’s Camry and Honda Motor Co.’s Accord, the two top-selling cars in the U.S. “which many people view as the paradigms of reliability,” Paul said.

Of the 51 Ford, Lincoln or Mercury models in the survey, 46 were ranked average or better in reliability.

Yet while Mercury was the only Detroit brand to finish in the top 10 (10th), the Ford brand finished 16th, while Lincoln finished 20th. That’s largely due to higher-end models — many with all-wheel-drive — scoring below average in reliability, said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ senior automotive engineer.

“Those types of problems are keeping them from being truly world class,” Fisher said.

Bennie Fowler, Ford’s vice president of global quality, said the company is applying the same methods that worked with the Fusion and other models to the ones that didn’t perform as well.

Toyota, despite a recent spate of recalls, and Honda consistently build cars that cause few problems for Consumer Reports readers, Paul said. Ford, he said, is approaching that consistency. While GM has some bright spots, it has a ways to go to match the Japanese.

The Dodge Ram pickup, the only Chrysler model recommended by the magazine, did well in road tests and was average in reliability. The recommendation is important, though, because the Ram is Chrysler’s top-selling model.

Paul said automakers often can only make quality improvements when new models come out, and those have been few for Chrysler in the last two years.

“Hopefully for them, when they do release new models, they will still have the same level of quality that we saw in the Ram,” he said.

Source: yahoo news

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News

Plans To Accelerate “Cash For Clunkers” Payouts

September 5th, 2009

The U.S. government plans to accelerate the pace of processing up to $3 billion in “cash for clunkers” reimbursements to auto dealers and hopes to complete the job by month’s end, officials said on Thursday.

Dealers, through their main trade group, have complained the Transportation Department’s online processing system was cumbersome to use and too slow to respond to some 700,000 rebate applications between the first week of July and the third week of August when funding was nearly exhausted.

Most of the 3,000 people involved in processing are contractors, and government officials have acknowledged computer system breakdowns and other problems handling the avalanche of applications from 16,000 dealers.

The government offered consumers up to $4,500 when they traded in older gas guzzlers for more fuel efficient vehicles. The incentive was far more popular than expected and boosted depressed U.S. auto sales and overall U.S. economic output.

Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Japanese carmakers were big winners.

Transportation Department officials said the government has so far processed about $500 million in rebates from 120,000 sales. The goal in coming weeks is to add more workers to process about $100 million in rebates per day.

Citigroup Inc (C.N) is managing the blizzard of paperwork.

Bailey Wood, legislative affairs director for the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), said the pace must be faster.

“We’re far from solving the ultimate problem,” Wood said. “Dealers are still floating the government billions of dollars.”

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, speaking in Chicago on Thursday, called the program a lifeline for manufacturers and dealers and that the administration would submit a formal report to Congress next week, which authorized the $3 billion in funding.

LaHood said any thought of resurrecting the program, which no one has proposed, would be up to Congress.

“We have been criticized for spending a lot of money and $3 billion is not inexpensive. So we’ll leave that decision up to Congress,” LaHood said.

Source: reuters.com

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News

Asian Automakers Captured More Than Half Of US Auto Sales In August

September 2nd, 2009

Asian automakers gobbled up more than half of US auto sales for the first time in August as a government-funded “Cash for Clunkers” program spurred demand for their fuel-efficient vehicles, industry data showed Tuesday.

Asian brands captured 52.3 percent of the US market in August — a five-point jump from a year earlier — while the Detroit Three saw their share slide 4.5 points to a record low of 40.8 percent.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler first saw their share slip below 50 percent in July 2007 after steadily losing ground to foreign rivals for decades.

All three have undergone a series of painful restructuring programs and both GM and Chrysler were forced to seek bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

European brands saw their share slide 0.5 points to 6.9 percent in August, according to Autodata.

The stunning surge from Asian automakers came as US auto sales posted their first monthly gain since October 2007, rising one percent to 1.26 million vehicles from 1.25 million in August 2008.

Hyundai, Ford, Toyota and Honda were the big winners after posting double-digit gains while General Motors and Chrysler continued to report sharp losses despite the increased showroom traffic.

August’s seasonally-adjusted annualized rate of 14.09 units, the highest since May 2008, was up from an adjusted rate of 11.24 million in July and 9.69 million in June, but still well below the 16 to 17 million vehicles sold every year for the past decade.

Source: yahoo news

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News

Top Selling Cars In US In August 2009

September 2nd, 2009

Automakers released August U.S. sales figures Tuesday. These were the top-selling vehicles, as well as the total number sold and the percent change in sales from August 2008.

Vehicle August 2009 sales Percent change

1. Toyota Camry/Solara 54,396 28.2

2. Ford F-series 45,590 17.1

3. Honda Civic 43,294 49.6

4. Toyota Corolla/Matrix 43,061 51.9

5. Honda Accord 39,726 -5.4

6. Chevrolet Silverado 32,421 -39.6

7. Honda CR-V 30,284 58.3

8. Nissan Altima 26,833 10.1

9. Ford Focus 25,547 61.9

10. Hyundai Elantra 21,673 124.4

Source: yahoo news

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News

Car Sales Without Cash For Clunkers Boost

August 25th, 2009

Now comes the hard part for the auto industry — luring customers without big Cash for Clunkers discounts.

The popular government rebates gave auto sales a jolt, but it was only temporary. Now car makers and dealerships are forced once again to confront the worst market in a quarter-century.

While Cash for Clunkers may have proved there are still car buyers out there, it is unlikely the heavy demand will last. In fact, the big rush to car lots this month may have had the unintended effect of stealing sales from this fall and next year.

“I am really worried about this winter,” said J.P. Bishop, president of a dealership chain in central Maryland. “If you didn’t buy now, the only reason you are going to buy over the next three or four months is because your car died.”

Cash for Clunkers, which offered drivers as much as $4,500 off the price of a new, more fuel-efficient car, proved far more popular than anyone imagined. Through Monday, dealers reported selling 625,000 vehicles in just a month with the rebates.

The program was set to come to an end Monday night. The government had set the deadline on estimates that most of the $3 billion set aside for rebates would be used up by then. Analysts initially figured the cash would last as long as November.

Cash for Clunkers had its complications: Congress had to race to approve $2 billion more for the program after the first $1 billion quickly ran out. Dealers complained the government was slow to reimburse them for deals they made on new sales.

Hours before the Monday night deadline for Cash for Clunkers sales, the government gave dealers an extension, until noon Tuesday, to file the paperwork to get repaid. The deadline for sales was not affected.

The Transportation Department granted the extension after the Web site set up to handle the claims was temporarily shut down from overload.

For the auto industry, coming off the program could be like a letdown after a sugar high.

Automakers and dealers got a reprieve from a dismal year of plummeting sales, big layoffs and the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler. GM actually added shifts at some plants to meet higher demand.

Cars, trucks and SUVs sold in July at an annual rate of 11.2 million vehicles, the first time this year the figure has crept above 10 million. That’s still far below the 16 million vehicles sold just two years ago.

While Cash for Clunkers has helped the auto industry stabilize, it will probably take a full economic recovery to give car and truck sales a lasting rebound.

“There’s still a sizable amount of pent-up demand that’s going to be felt,” said Erich Merkle, president of auto industry Web site autoconomy.com. He said the “baton of Cash for Clunkers” could eventually be passed to a “fundamentally stronger economy.”

Sure signs of that, of course, are a ways off. Unemployment is still high and the housing market still weak, enough to keep people shy about making big-ticket purchases, said Rebecca Lindland, a Global Insight analyst.

“While this Cash for Clunkers program provided a respite for an ailing industry, we are not out of the woods yet and we still have a long road to recovery,” she said.

There also simply isn’t much left for drivers to shop for — especially when it comes to the most popular Cash for Clunkers vehicles, such as the Ford Focus, the Toyota Corolla and some hybrids.

GM, Hyundai, Toyota and Ford have ramped up production of their more efficient models because of inventory shortfalls, but those vehicles won’t reach dealers for a while.

Automakers are approaching the next few months cautiously. They are moving to replenish dealer showrooms, but are wary about building too many cars if demand fizzles.

Ford, for example, has said it will boost production by 33 percent from a year ago during the fourth quarter. But Ford executives say that could change depending on customer demand.

GM spokesman John McDonald said Cash for Clunkers has been “very successful” for GM. He said the company estimates 30 percent of its sales increase during the period came from customers who didn’t qualify for the government rebates but bought cars anyway.

But McDonald said that no one expects sales to keep going at that rate, and the automaker doesn’t see the need to boost them through sales incentives.

“We think it’s a good stimulus for the economy and a good way to get people interested in buying cars,” he said. “But the idea to increase incentives to make up for this just don’t make sense.”

There are also signs that Cash for Clunkers may have sapped the market for the near future, with buyers taking advantage of the rebates and buying now rather than sticking to plans to replace their cars next year.

Last week, the automotive research company J.D. Power and Associates predicted Cash for Clunkers will flatten the auto industry’s recovery by lowering sales next year. J.D. Power reduced its 2010 sales forecast to 11.5 million from 11.6 million.

“Because this was hot and heavy for such a short period of time, we are going to have a payback,” said Jeff Schuster, executive director of forecasting at J.D. Power.

Source: AP

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News

Auto Dealers Request Clunkers Submission To Be Extended

August 24th, 2009

U.S. auto dealers are asking the government to extend the deadline for submissions for its “Cash for Clunkers” program to August 31, citing computer problems that are delaying the entry of applications into the system.

The National Automobile Dealers Association late on Friday said dealers began reporting slowdowns or crashes with the computer system on Friday afternoon.

The U.S. government said it would suspend its popular “Cash for Clunkers” auto rebates on Monday as the program’s $3 billion budget runs dry, a month after it was launched.

“Many dealers are working around the clock to submit their “clunkers” applications to meet the Administration’s deadline,” NADA said in a statement.

“Despite these efforts, computer issues may prevent some “clunker” applications from being submitted in time, through no fault of the dealers.”

The program, offering payments of up to $4,500 to people who trade in old gas guzzlers for new, fuel-efficient vehicles, will end at 8 p.m., August 24, by which time all applications for the rebates must be submitted to Washington.

It has provided a big temporary boost for the auto industry and the U.S. economy. In the past few weeks, both Ford Motor Co and General Motors Cohave increased production as some models have been in short supply.

“This later deadline for submissions would help avoid computer slowdowns due to overwhelming demand, and ensure that the President’s statement yesterday that every dealer ‘will get their money’ is achieved in a sensible, orderly manner,” NADA said in its statement.

Source:  reuters.com

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News

Big Crowds At Final Clunkers Weekend

August 24th, 2009

From Vermont to California, exhausted but appreciative car dealers watched their lots grow empty as crowds rushed to trade in gas guzzlers during the final weekend of the popular Cash for Clunkers program.

The hectic pace of the $3 billion rebate program accelerated in the final weekend, after the government announced the program would end at 8 p.m. EDT Monday, two weeks earlier than expected.

Adding to the urgency, some dealers had said they would stop Cash for Clunkers sales even earlier to make sure the government reimbursed them for the rebates — or because they didn’t have enough eligible cars left.

In the final hours, customers streamed in.

“We thought about it a couple weeks ago,” said Annette Palmer, 51, at Town and Country Honda in Berlin, Vt., on Saturday with her husband. They hoped to trade in a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee for a Honda CR-V.

“We kind of dragged our feet. Then we heard it was closing and we picked up our feet and ran,” she said.

Though short of some new models, such as the Ford Focus, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Nissan Altima, many dealers were still selling as many cars as they could before Monday night’s deadline.

Standing outside one of his Hyundai dealerships in Appleton, Wis., John Bergstrom said customers traded in 100 clunkers throughout his fleet of 20 dealerships on Saturday and 100 the day before. They were his two biggest sales days during the clunkers program.

“That’s about as good as it gets,” Bergstrom said. “It’s going out with a bang.”

In all, Bergstrom said his dealerships — whose brands include Ford, GM and Toyota — sold 800 cars during the program, boosting sales 30 percent. He had to bring in extra staff to deal with the paperwork, but the sales were worth the hassle, Bergstrom said.

At Universal City Nissan in Los Angeles, Alberto Vasquez said keeping up with the pace of the program has taken a toll on employees. Some labored past midnight to wrap up last-minute deals.

“Are we tired? Definitely,” said Vasquez, the dealership’s director of training. “But it’s also bittersweet, because we’re happy that we’re selling cars.”

The dealership has sold more than 700 vehicles through the program and brought in extra staff to help enter information on the government’s reimbursement Web site.

Cash for Clunkers has been wildly successful in spurring new-car sales and getting gas-guzzling models off the road, though some energy experts have said the pollution reduction is too small to be cost-effective. Customers receive rebates of between $3,500 and $4,500, depending on the improvement in fuel efficiency from their old vehicle to their new one. As of early Friday, nearly half a million cars had been sold through the program.

But the new sales left many dealers worried about not being reimbursed by the government. As of Friday, dealers had been reimbursed for just a small fraction of the billions in sales.

Some dealers chose to stop participating over the weekend so they could have enough time to process and file the paperwork, including AutoNation Inc., the nation’s largest auto dealership chain.

At Toyota Direct in Columbus, Ohio, employees were told to double- and triple-check paperwork so it wouldn’t be rejected for reimbursement, said Jim Collins, the dealership’s assistant general manager.

Sales picked up on Saturday, though the dealership had only 20 new cars eligible for sale under the program. Sales employees sometimes jogged paperwork into the manager’s office to keep up with the pace.

The dealership won’t take any new sales on Monday so it can be assured of reimbursements, Collins said.

“We have quite a bit of paperwork, but is it worth the selling of a car right now? Absolutely,” he said. “We like to sell cars. That’s what we’re in business to do.”

Martin Main Line Honda in the Philadelphia suburb of Ardmore stopped its Cash for Clunkers sales at noon on Saturday. But by late afternoon there were still groups of people wandering the lot.

General sales manager Michael Freeman said the program had been “overwhelming,” with 115 clunker sales and big surges in customer traffic at the start and now at the end. He’s aiming to get the final stack of paperwork filed before Monday’s deadline.

“I have people upstairs, that’s all they’re doing — paperwork,” he said. “The backlog is a nightmare, and it’s starting to be a nightmare at the end.”

Customers were feeling the urgency, too.

In Appleton, Wis., April DeKeyser looked at her new Mazda 3 2010 and still had trouble accepting that it was hers.

The 22-year-old nurse from Brussels, Wis., had wanted to trade in her Chevy S10 truck as soon as the clunkers program began. But she had a hard time finding the car she wanted and had to run to numerous dealers.

DeKeyser said she knew she had to get the rebate this weekend. Without it, she wouldn’t have bought her new car.

“I would have waited,” she said. “Basically, I would have driven the other vehicle until it died.”

Source:  AP

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News

Cash For Clunkers To End On August 24th 8 pm

August 22nd, 2009

The U.S. government said it will suspend its popular “Cash for Clunkers” auto rebates on Monday as the program’s $3 billion budget runs dry, a month after it was launched.

The program, offering payments of up to $4,500 to people who trade in old gas guzzlers for new, fuel-efficient vehicles, will end at 8 p.m., August 24, by which time all applications for the rebates must be submitted to Washington.

It has provided a big temporary boost for both the deeply troubled auto industry and the battered U.S. economy. In the past few weeks both Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co have increased production, as some models have been in short supply.

However, the temporary nature of the program is likely to raise concerns that it may have only brought sales forward from future months, and sales could plunge again.

“We’ve seen an overwhelming and overnight success and so much so that we’ve reached the point where we need to wind this program down,” an administration official said on Thursday.

“The goal of the wind-down is to provide a soft landing for dealers and consumers and ensure the program ends in a successful way,” the official told reporters during a background briefing. The official asked not to be named.

The Transportation Department said it thought enough money would be left to continue accepting submissions until the Monday deadline, based on conservative estimates of valid transactions to date.

The announcement comes a day after a group representing some 20,000 new car dealers in the United States warned that dealers who accept additional sales under the program face a growing risk that they may not be paid back the rebates they have already given customers.

Dealers have complained of difficulty running businesses while awaiting government checks under the program.

As of Thursday, auto dealers had submitted claims to Washington for nearly 457,500 vouchers totaling $1.9 billion, of which just under 40 percent of the applications have been reviewed, according to the Department of Transportation.

The government has paid about $145 million to dealers.

Source:  reuters.com

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News

Chrysler Switches Powertrain Warranty To 5 Years 100K Mile

August 20th, 2009

Chrysler Group LLC said Wednesday that it is dropping its lifetime powertrain warranty in favor of a 5-year, 100,000-mile guarantee.

Chrysler spokesman Rick Deneau said the decision was driven by market research that showed consumers prefer warranties with a fixed time period. Powertrain warranties typically cover repair or replacement of transmission and engine parts.

“Basically, the assumption of a lifetime warranty just wasn’t that big a deal to consumers,” Deneau said.

The 5-year, 100,000-mile warranties will be transferable to new owners if the vehicles are sold before they run out, he said. The previous lifetime warranties were not transferable.

The new warranty program also includes the automaker’s SRT and Viper models, which were excluded from the lifetime warranty. But the Sprinter van and the diesel version of the Ram pickup remain excluded, Deneau said.

The change is effective with the start of the 2010 model year.

Source:  AP

No comments »

Posted in General Auto News