Auto Buying Tips

General Motors (GM) recently announced it will be ending another one of its popular American brands and icons.  This time it will be the Mr. Goodwrench and Goodwrench Service Centers.  As of February 1, 2011, there will no longer be any Goodwrench Service Centers in the United States.  However, the Goodwrench Service brand will continue to be used in Canada.

The icon, Mr. Goodwrench, will be terminated from the job he’s held for close to forty years.  Mr. Goodwrench now symbolizes the thousands of Americans who have been terminated after working for the auto industry for decades instead of representing GM.  Just like its actual employees, GM’s long-time icon is being axed due to the corporation’s attempt to regain its financial viability.  GM has recently closed down several of its brands, trying to “rightsize” the corporation so it can focus on its four top selling brands.

Emphasis on brands rather than corporate images

The only brands GM plans to retain are Cadillac, GMC, Buick, and Chevrolet.  To help counteract the negative images recently acquired by its corporate office, GM is emphasizing that each of its products are a separate brand. To help create the distancing, GM is doing away with its corporate umbrella label of Goodwrench Services.  In September, in lieu of Goodwrench Services, each brand will start Continue Reading...

Pontiac brand will be missed

The end has finally come for the Pontiac Motor Division after 84 years filled with major strife and occasional success.  General Motors (GM) closed down the division officially on October 31, 2010, once all its contracts with dealers expired.  The Pontiac Continue Reading...

Nissan North America announced a recall of 2.14 million vehicles on October 28, 2010.  This makes it the third largest recall in Nissan’s history.   However, this is just one of a long list of recalls for the auto industry this year.   There have been dozens of various makes and models recalled by several manufacturers, ranging from school buses and semi-trucks to cars, SUVS, and recreational vehicles.  Toyota and Honda have both announced recalls right after Nissan made its latest announcement.

Reasons for recalls

With all the recalls (approximately 20 this year alone), many people may assume that the vehicles are getting shoddier and unsafe to drive.  However, due to Toyota’s bad experiences, automotive manufacturers are now becoming more proactive in vehicle safety campaigns.  They are trying to catch all the issues before any incidents and injuries are reported by consumers.  Thus, most of the Continue Reading...

Would you rent a BMW vehicle if you couldn’t buy it for some reason?  For instance, what if you couldn’t afford a monthly payment for the BMW M6 sports coupe, which has a U.S. starting price of $102,350?  Would you be willing to short- term lease it or rent it by the hour whenever you wanted to use a car?  What if you could rent out a BMW compact 1 series for just €16 ($22.29) per hour or a flagship 7 series sedan for just €32 an hour?  Would you choose a BMW model over some other make or model of car?  BMW is assuming that consumers would do so.  Since the BMW Mini Cooper is currently one of Zipcar’s most requested rental cars, BMW may be right.

BMW on Demand

On October 22, 2010, BMW Group announced it would be starting a Continue Reading...

The James Bond automaker, Aston Martin, has announced it will be making a car especially designed for city driving.  The idea is to make a sub-compact luxury car that addresses the hassles of driving in congested cities like London, England.  Aston Martin’s CEO, Dr. Ulrich Bez, has announced that its 2009 concept car will be on the market by late spring, 2011.  The sub-compact car will be Aston Martin’s smallest and slowest vehicle to date.

Will Cygnet be worth the price?

Many people are wondering if the British luxury car manufacturer will be able to convince consumers Cygnets are worth a high end luxury car price.  The 2011 Cygnet will be based on imported, factory-ready Toyota iQs from Japan.  The Scion iQ is one of Toyota’s low end models, which sells for about a third of the projected Cygnet base price.

Aston Martin will leave the iQ engineering alone.  Basically the only difference between Continue Reading...

Numerous people wonder what it would be like to have driverless cars.  Several people have depicted driverless vehicles in science fiction films, books, and cartoons.  General Motors (GM) planned to be ready to road test a driverless vehicle by 2015.  However, a company not even in the automotive industry has beaten GM to road testing a driverless car.  This company is Google, the internet search engine giant.

On October 9, 2010, Google reported to The New York Times that it has successfully road tested a fleet of driverless cars on a variety of California roads.  Google used its artificial intelligence technology, consisting of sensors, cameras, GPS, and massive computer databanks to convert six Toyota Priuses and one Audi TT into driverless vehicles.  They have Continue Reading...

Toyota recently held their annual U.S. dealership meeting in Las Vegas. At this meeting, CEO Akio Toyoda announced plans to turn Prius into a sub-brand of Toyota by the end of 2012. A sub-brand is usually a product or service brand that has its own name and visual identity to differentiate it from its parent’s brand.

Toyota used sub-branding when marketing its Scion lineup. The primary reason for sub-branding the Scion was so Toyota could reach the youth-oriented market better. Although the Scion has done well in the past, its sales have been slumping lately.

The primary purpose of sub-branding the Prius is to help Toyota with growing its “green” credibility. The company desires to become the world leader in the manufacturing of top quality, low cost, yet eco-friendly vehicles. Toyota currently has a tarnished reputation due to recalling over eight million vehicles worldwide. The recall was due to sudden-acceleration incidents, anti-lock braking failures, and slipping floor mats.

Toyota will be facing some stiff competition, especially in the U.S. market. Due to the federal fuel-energy regulations, most auto manufacturers are racing to dominate the U.S. hybrid and electric vehicle market. The Continue Reading...

Visteon, a former parts unit of Ford Motor Company, used to be the world’s second largest auto parts supplier. Then in 2000, Visteon separated from Ford. In 2005, the company took a downhill turn due to the decline in automotive production and other factors. In May 2009, Visteon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware. It’s recorded as in re Visteon Corp., No. 09-11786. On October 1, 2010, just 16 months later, Visteon has emerged from bankruptcy protection.

Reasons Visteon entered bankruptcy

Visteon decided to enter bankruptcy protection due to several reasons.   For one, it had a consolidated debt of $2.7 billion.   For another, the decline in automotive production, especially by Ford Motor Company, caused a major loss of profits.  Visteon also had a $310 million liability due to employees’ benefits and pensions.   By May 2009, Visteon claimed it was Continue Reading...

Similar to the immortal warriors in Gregory Widen’s story, The Highlander, Toyota’s Highlander has undergone numerous changes over the past decade.  This has included using an alternative name at times.  Due to Hyundai’s Terracan SUV trademarked trim line, Toyota had to use the name Toyota Kluger instead of Highlander in Japan and Australia.  Recently, Toyota has announced that the Highlander line will be undergoing more revisions for the 2011 models.

Over the past ten years Toyota has made changes in what was standard and what was optional, and has expanded the Highlander line of models.  From the onset, Toyota has offered almost every model with a choice of engine size, 5 or 7 passenger seating, and either front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.  Most of the revisions that have taken place mostly have simply been changing what was optional one year on some models to being standard features the next year.

The models all came Continue Reading...

Brammo and Flextronics announced their new partnership on September 15, 2010.  Brammo is an Ashland, Oregon based company that is known for its plug-in electric motorcycles.   Flextronics, which is based in Singapore, is an international manufacturing company well-known in the consumer electronics industry.

Flextronics’ automotive segment will take over the manufacturing of Brammo’s motorcycles and electronics components.  Brammo is hoping this will help to make its newest electric motorcycle, the Empulsive, more affordable to consumers.  The current price ranges from $9.995 to $13,995, depending on the model purchased.

Brammo, a small company, is also hoping to use Flextronics’ footing as a multi-billion dollar international company to launch into Continue Reading...

If you own a 1997-2001 F-150 Ford pickup, you might wonder if the fuel tank is about to fall off.  Why would you be wondering this?  Perhaps you’d be wondering this because of the recent announcement made by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

On September 13, 2010, NHTSA announced it will be investigating this hazard.  The probe was opened on September 7, 2010.  NHTSA is attempting to determine whether 1.4 million Ford F-150 pickups should be recalled due to the potential rusting of the straps that hold the fuel tank in place.

According to NHTSA, one or both  mounting straps have broken due to rust in 28 of the 32 cases it has reviewed.   The broken straps caused the fuel tank to drop from the frame, allowing the tank to be Continue Reading...

General Motor’s (GM) Chevy Volt’s stunning price tag has stirred up numerous conversations this week. Everyone is wondering if the $41,000 starting retail price and low-volume sales tactics will doom the car before it even has a chance to prove its worthiness. Even with the $7,500 tax credit added in, the price is still higher than most other cars, including other eco-friendly cars like the Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius.

Everyone is comparing the Volt to the Leaf since both are plug-in electric vehicles that are being introduced into limited areas of the U.S. market in December, 2010. They are also comparing the Volt and Leaf to the Toyota Prius because it is currently the most popular hybrid car on the market. Although GM claims to be unfazed by the comparison, one GM spokesman says the comparison isn’t really fair.

According to GM spokesman Dave Darovitz, the Volt and Leaf are actually in two separate categories. Mr. Darovitz Continue Reading...

Vislab, a University of Parma systems lab researching artificial vision and intelligence, recently announced a proposed road trip test for two robotic alternative-fueled vans they have designed. The vans were originally scheduled to leave Parma, Italy on July 20, 2010 and arrive in Shanghai, China around the end of October, 2010. However, due to unexpected scheduling delays, the vans will now officially start the trip from Belgrade on July 29, 2010. Alberto Broggi, Vislab’s director, and Massimo Bertozzi, the project manager, are leading this expedition. About thirty other people are also involved in the project.

Vislab’s project is being funded by a $2.3 million grant from the European Commission’s European Research Council. Vislab’s technical sponsors, which include Plaggio, have provided some of the equipment, such as the Plaggio Porter vans. To avoid legal problems, Vislab has obtained special permission to conduct the experiment Continue Reading...

President Barrack Obama is currently encouraging Americans to take up the challenges of succeeding in the automotive green technology’s global market competition. One element of this competition is the market for advanced lithium-ion batteries and other components for electric vehicles. Other elements of the competition are manufacturing electric vehicles and charging stations for those vehicles.

President Obama wants the United States to become more competitive in the global green technology market for several reasons, but it’s partly to save America’s failing automotive industry. According to IHS Global Insight, approximately 20% of the 2030 global market for light vehicles will be made up of electric vehicles. Numerous analysts believe that whoever has the Continue Reading...

According to a press release submitted by CEO Don Runkle, EcoMotors International has now obtained the necessary financing to complete the engineering and testing of its OPOC (Opposed Piston, Opposed Cylinder) engine technology. In an announcement made July 12, 2010, Mr. Runkle stated that Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures are now exclusive investors in the company. They have invested $23.5 million in Series B funding for the development and global commercialization of EcoMotors’ OPOC engine technology.

Series B funding usually means that a business has been successfully launched and has proven its feasibility. Series B funding stages are used by companies that are past or nearly past the start-up stages of business, but need to find outside investors to finance the further development and marketing of their products. In this case, EcoMotors International has proven its viability by staying in business for two years before seeking outside Continue Reading...