Automotive Industry
News covering the Automotive Industry at large.
503 articles in this category
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If you happen to be visiting Saudi Arabia, don't drift your rental car, you could lose your head. A popular amateur sport in the kingdom, drivers push their cars into skids at high speeds through traffic while spectators gather on the side of the road to watch and cheer, sometimes with disastrous results. Scores and scores of videos of the practice, called “Hadwalah”, are available on Youtube. In the video below, a Honda Accord is seen speeding down a highway with guns blazing out of the window
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 11, 2012 Small cars are on track to to capture the largest share of the U.S. auto market since 1993 according to Bloomberg. Sales of compact and sub-compact vehicles jumped 50% to 240,288 units last month, giving the segment a 19.3% of market share through September. That's only 1.2% off the highest market share that small vehicles ever got back in 1993. “Traditionally small cars were purchased by people who couldn’t afford anything el
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com May 2, 2013 Coda Automotive is the latest casualty in the electric car industry. Yesterday, the company sent out a press release announcing they would be filling for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the District of Delaware. "After concluding a comprehensive review of our strategic options, the Board of Directors, management team and senior lending group have concluded that focusing on the Company’s energy storage business presents the best opportun
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com January 16, 2012 A few years ago, a man by the name Scott Devin decided to build an American supercar to compete with the world’s best. So he called on a Swedish designer, Daniel Paulin to design his car. Now, being a new start-up car company, Devon couldn’t develop his own platform or an engine due to not having enough money. So, he went the donor car route for his new car and picked the Dodge Viper. Now, before you start thinking all Devo
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com May 5, 2013 With the problems that Fisker Automotive is currently going through, one of companies that is somewhat effected is VL Productions? How so? Well, VL Productions showed off a vehicle called the Destino at the Detroit Auto Show this year that used Fisker Karma as a starting point, rips out the plug-in hybrid powertrain, and slips in the supercharged 6.2L LS9 V8 from the Corvette ZR1. Planned to go into production sometime in third q
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com January 17, 2012 If you’re one of people who wants an electric car, but have the fear of not having enough power to make it through your daily drive, you might want to hear this story. A new study released by Columbia University says that 95% of daily trips could be made with an electric vehicles. The study done by two doctoral students used data from the Department of Transport’s 2009 National Household Travel Survey. The data showed 95% of
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Back in 2007, the US Congress created the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing federal loan program to allow the US Government to loan out $25 billion to car manufacturers. The loans were created to help car manufacturers to retool factories and build more fuel-efficient vehicles. But those loans have been slowly trickling out. Only $9.2 of the $25 billion set aside has been used. Also, the program has been taking a long time to approve companies for loans. So far Ford, Nissan, Fisker, and
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 15, 2012 The Tata Nano, introduced in 2009 as the world's cheapest car could be making its way to other countries. Ratan Tata, head of the Tata Group recently revealed in an interview that they are working on a redesigned version to be sold in the U.S. and Europe that could go on sale within three years. "The U.S. is a very enticing market. We are redesigning the Nano for both Europe and the U.S." The redesign will involve a larger eng
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 16, 2012 When we last checked in on the Fisker Atlantic, the mid-size sedan that would take on the 5-Series, A6, CTS, and others, was delayed from next year to sometime in 2014. A new report from Reuters says Fisker has pushed back production of the Atlantic to late 2014 or 2015, a full two years behind the original production date. "The Atlantic is really the volume car that begins to build growth. It creates a business model that is
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com January 28, 2013 Today Diamler, Ford, and Nissan announced a new partnership to jointly develop a common fuel cell system for vehicle to be ready as early as 2017. The three companies will work together on a common fuel-cell stack and fuel-cell system. Also, the partnership will participate in the adoption of global specifications and component standards, and studying the joint development of other FCEV components. "We are convinced that fue
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com January 18, 2012 According to a report from research firm R.L. Polk & Co, the average of age of a vehicle on the road stands at 10.8 years last July. The report says the average age of passenger vehicles stands at 11.1 years, while for light trucks, it’s 10.4 years. Polk says the median age of cars has been on the rise for the past 16 years because people are keeping their cars longer due to various reasons. Most recently, the economic d
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com May 9, 2013 Another company that was a part of the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program has suspended operations. Vehicle Production Group or VPG Autos has suspended production of their wheelchair-accessible MV-1 van and laid off nearly all of its 100 employees back in February. This news is only coming to light this week thanks to comments by former VPG Autos CEO John Walsh to USA Today. Walsh explained that VP
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com January 29, 2013 Ray LaHood, the Transportation Secretary of the Obama administration announced today that he would be stepping down. "I have let President Obama know that I will not serve a second term as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It has been an honor and a privilege to lead the Department, and I am grateful to President Obama for giving me such an extraordinary opportunity," LaHood wrote in an email. LaHood has
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com May 10, 2013 While the midsize sedan market as a whole remains the single largest segment in the U.S., sales of the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry are shrinking due to the rise of crossovers. "While the segment is still growing year-over-year, it's nowhere near what it was growing last year as the industry was launching a lot of new midsize cars," said Bill Fay, the U.S. head of the Toyota brand. The rise of crossovers are being fueled by th
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com January 19, 2012 Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that a prototype of the all-electric Model X crossover will be revealed on February 9 at Tesla’s design studio in California. Originally to be shown at NAIAS, the Model X will use the Model S sedan’s aluminum-intensive platform. Power is expected to go to all four wheels possibly by utilizing the Model S’s electric drivetrain at the rear wheels while adding one to two electric motors up fron
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 20, 2012 (Author’s note: This is a new thing I’m trying out with the news coverage. Let me know what you think about this. -WM) Everyday, I go through a number of stories that I will post on Cheers & Gears. However, a good number of stories that I have picked out don’t make it onto the page during the week and either get posted next week or never. That’s about change with the arrival of the Cheers & Gears’ Weekend Edtion. Its w
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 2, 2012 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened investigations into the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze and the 2010 Jeep Wrangler for engine fires. The government agency received two complaints about fires on the Cruze and eight for the Wrangler, with some owners reporting their vehicles were completely destroyed. In the two complaints for the Chevrolet Cruze, both reported the fires began while the vehicle was in motion.
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Drew Dowdell - January 19, 2012 - CheersandGears.com One of the limitations of current wind turbine technology is the limited amount of power generated per turbine. Large scale installations are required to match the power output of just the smaller coal buring powerplant. The largest wind turbines in the world produce about 5mw of power while the average coal fired power station produces around 500mw. Simple math can tell you that 100 of the largest wind turbines we have would need to be buil
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 22, 2012 Earlier this month, we reported that four states; Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon were complaining about Tesla and their stores. "Tesla's factory-owned stores present unfair competition for rival dealerships, are inconvenient for consumers needing repairs and, if left unchallenged, ultimately threaten the franchise system," said a report in Automotive News. Tesla didn't see a problem with their stores. "We do wha
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com January 31, 2013 J.D. Power and Associates recently released their 2012 U.S. Navigation Usage Satisfaction Study and the results aren’t that surprising. Consumer happiness dropped 13 points in the study’s 1,000-point scale to 681, one of the lowest scores J.D. Power has ever recorded in the six years the study has been taken. Even worse was the overall satisfaction in voice controls, scoring 544 points out of 1,000. Even worse news for autom
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 3, 2013 Ever wonder why more automakers are jumbling letters and numbers together to name vehicles? Its because there are less names that automakers can legally use around the world. "It's tough. In 1985 there were about 75,000 names trademarked in the automotive space. Today there are 800,000," said Russ Clark, director of marketing for Chevrolet. "The truth of the matter is, across the world, there is hardly a name or a letter that h
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 10, 2012 In 1939, Oldsmobile introduced the first automatic transmission dubbed Hydra-Matic. Hydra-Matic came four forward gears and a reverse gear. Fast forward 73 years and we have vehicles with six, seven, and even eight-speed automatics. And then there is the talk about vehicles getting nine and even ten speed transmission. This of course has the peanut gallery making comments of when we're going to see an eighteen-speed transmission.
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 4, 2013 The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to release their results of fuel economy audits done on twenty vehicles. Christopher Grundler, head of the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality tells Automotive News the audits looked at a specific portion of the test cycle known as the coast-down test. The coast-down test has a vehicle run up to 80 MPH and then is allowed to glide to a stop. This test measures the ae
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com May 16, 2013 During a congressional hearing on crash-prevention features yesterday, the National Highway Traffic Administration's administrator David Strickland told the hearing that NHTSA was considering a new mandate to require new vehicles to be equipped with an automatic braking system. Automatic braking systems uses either or both radar and cameras to monitor the road for vehicles and objects then apply the brakes if the system detects
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersansGears.com July 12, 2012 From the we're a bit skeptical on this file; Autocar had the chance to talk with Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen. von Holzhausen told the magazine that work on a new model has begun and will be an entry level model. “The third model will continue to drive down the price point as fast as possible,” said von Holzhausen. von Holzhausen goes onto say the new model will have more distinctive styling than recently released
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com February 3, 2013 The U.S. Department of Energy announced a updated strategy to promote green cars and lower the costs over the next nine years at the Washington D.C. Auto Show on Thursday. One part of the original strategy which stated a goal of having a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 has been eased off. "Whether we meet that goal in 2015 or 2016, that's less important than that we're on the right path to get many millions of
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 27, 2012 Everyday, I go through a number of stories that I will post on Cheers & Gears. However, a good number of stories that I have picked out don’t make it onto the page during the week and either get posted next week or never. That’s where the the Cheers & Gears’ Weekend Edtion comes in. Its where the stories that gotten forgotten about during the week get their due. In this second edition, we’ll be covering, Two New Honda
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- Hyundai
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com February 5, 2013 The trend of automakers downsizing engines and adding turbochargers to add performance and increase fuel economy has drawn the ire of Consumer Reports. The publication recently tested eleven different vehicles and found that with rare exception, “the turbocharged cars have slower acceleration and no better fuel economy than the models with bigger, conventional engines.” Consumer Reports highlights the Ford Fusion which can
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com May 21, 2013 This maybe somewhat hard to believe, but German luxury models are cheaper than their Korean counterparts in South Korea. For example, a BMW 528i is around $64,000 in South Korea while Kia's flagship K9 is around $76,400. A difference of $12,400. Consumers in South Korea are taking notice of this and are going towards the Germans. Why are the German vehicles much cheaper? Lowered tarrifs. Thanks to a trade pact introduced back in
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 9, 2013 Don't own a vehicle? You are not alone. In fact, the number of people who don't own a vehicle is increasing. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials released a brief that states the number of American households that don't own a vehicle has seen a uptick. Starting in 1960, the number of households that didn't own a vehicle declined steadily, reaching a low of 8.7 percent in 2007. But since that tim
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 17, 2012 The current Suzuki SX4 is going on six years and its beginning to show its age. Suzuki knows this and is working on the next generation SX4. Some new spy shots show how much progress Suzuki has made on the next SX4. The next SX4 appears to be much larger than the current model, thanks to larger greenhouse. Other design changes include a new grille and headlamps. There also appears to be a large intercooler that is hiding behind t
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com January 26, 2012 Volvo is searching for a new partner to develop new small cars. CEO Stefan Jacoby told the Financial Times the company is open to any partners to help in development of compact models in an effort to drive down production costs. "We are open for partners. We are open for collaboration in a win-win situation for sharing platforms, for sharing engines, and for a general higher scale of economics," Jacoby said. Jacoby added th
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 31, 2012 Back in August, we reported on the rumor that AM General would be offering a kit kit of the C-Series HMMWV, or Humvee. This week, AM General has come out and announced they will be selling a C-Series HMMWV kit. The C-Series HMMWV kit includes a frame, painted body (your choice of either khaki, dark military green, or sand), cooling package, wiring harnesses, fuel tanks, seating, front and rear Torsen differentials, and top. The
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 10, 2013 Aston Martin's most questionable vehicle, the Cygnet city car has been canned after being on sale for three years. A source tells Reuters that the decision was made after the company only sold 150 Cygnets. The Cygnet was a Toyota iQ city car dressed up in Aston Martin clothing. The brand hoped to move 4,000 units per year to "environmentally conscious city dwellers". The Cygnet was also a move to help Aston Martin reduce their
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The Fisker Atlantic, which debuted this week at the New York Auto Show, could built somewhere else besides their facility in Wilmington, Delaware. "The whole plan has changed," said Fisker CEO Tom LaSorda to Automotive News. "Wilmington is our primary site…but there are other options. We have to look at what's best for the company and the shareholders." LaSorda went onto say that a decision on where the Atlantic will be built will be made by the end of summer. This would cause another delay on
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 19, 2012 With the advent of ever-tightening fuel economy and emission standards, no automaker is safe, not even boutique luxury automakers like Aston Martin. Consider this, besides the Aston Martin Cygnet which is a Scion iQ in drag, the rest of the Aston Martin lineup comes with either a V8 or V12 engines. Aston Martin has reduced the emissions of its engines by 25% over the past six years, but that might not be enough. Aston Martin head
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 9, 2012 A new study published by R.L. Polk said only a third of hybrid owners bought another in 2011. The study showed that only 35% of hybrid owners bought another. Take out the most popular hybrid, the Toyota Prius and the number falls to 22%. Brad Smith, director of Polk's loyalty management practice told Automotive News the biggest problem for hybrid vehicles is the advancements made with conventional gas engines. "The premium pr
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com May 31, 2013 With automakers and researchers testing autonomous cars more and more, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration put its regulatory hat on and announced guidelines that outline the recommended rules for the vehicles and drivers. NHTSA in its guidelines says it recognizes five different levels of vehicle automation. Those five levels are, Level 0 - No Automation: Driver is in complete control of the vehicle Level 1-
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 15, 2013 On the face of it, sales for new vehicles haven't been better. Total sales for new vehicles could reach 15.5 million this year and some analysts believe that 2014 will see total sales reach 16 million vehicles. But with increase in sales, warning signs are appearing in automotive loans and leases which could put an end to the increases. Automotive News that the average loan length has gone up to 65 months (about five and a half
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com January 30, 2012 Just as we got to the point of everyone agreeing that 54.5 MPG was an attainable goal for 2025, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has decided to change things up. CARB has ruled to enforce the 54.5 MPG rule and to will also require at least 15.4% of all cars sold by any major automaker in the state to either be fully electric, plug-in hybrid, or hydrogen fuel cell by 2025. Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air R
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 10, 2012 The self-driving car; a dream that has talked about and tested for many years. But the dream could be a reality by 2020 according to a former GM R&D Chief. Larry Burns, former head of GM’s r&d division spoke yesterday at University of Michigan Robotics Day said predicted that self driving vehicles will be on U.S. roads by the year 2020. Burns goes even farther, saying the tech needed for self-driving will be available
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 16, 2013 Back at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, Aston Martin rolled out a very polarizing crossover concept with a name that hadn't been since the late eighties; Lagonda. Quick history lesson: Lagonda was brand that got its start back in 1906 building luxury vehicles. In 1947, Lagonda was paired up with Aston Martin and would continue building vehicles till the late fifties. Since that time, Aston Martin has used Lagonda as a model name fo
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com January 30, 2012 The U.S. Treasury Department revealed in a new report to Congress that it will lose more money than expected on the 2009 bailout loans given to Chrysler and General Motors. The Treasury now expects to lose $23.77 billion on the $85 billion bailouts, up from the $23.6 billion losses estimated last fall. Most of the increase in the projected loss is due to GM's stock price declining over the past six months. GM's stock price a
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 16, 2013 Range Anxiety. A condition that still plagues electric vehicles. But it isn't limited to prospective customers who are worried about not having enough juice, it has now spread to rental customers. A number of rental car agencies have now started offering electric vehicles. This allows consumers to try an EV. But renters are returning the EVs much sooner and exchanging them for gas vehicle. “People are very keen to try it, but t
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Update: The case against the Mercedes Benz Executive has been dropped. One of the latest possible “illegals” has been arrested in Alabama for not carrying his driver’s license under the new anti-illegal immigration law. The problem? The suspect is also an executive manager for Mercedes Benz. From the AP: Prior to the new law, a person driving without a license would not be arrested, but instead received a ticket and a court summons. Mercedes Benz’s first U.S. assembly plant, built in 19
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 26, 2012 This week, Tesla announced that it's considering boosting production of its Model S sedan to 30,000 units in response to a waiting list that stretches for 10-11 months. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a conference call with analysts that the company is expecting to sell 5,000 Model S sedans by the end of 2012, with 20,000 sales expected next year. That could increase to 30,000 with the addition of a second shift. Currently, Tesla has
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com February 1, 2012 2011 was a good year for the domestics. Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors saw their market share grow. But, a new report from Bloomberg says the Big Three could see a drop in 2012. Sales for 2012 are expected to grow from 12.8 million vehicles last year to 13.6 million, but competition from the Koreans and a recovery of the Japanese automakers mean those sales sales aren't likely headed to the Big Three. Bloomberg asked fi
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After finishing contract negotiations with the big three, the UAW is turning it’s focus back onto president Bob King’s goal of organizing at least one non-union plant by the end of the year. Foreign automakers have so far resisted the idea of unionizing. But the UAW believes they have a shot. King said to reporters on a conference call that the union has set aside $60 million to achieve their goal. The plan is for the UAW to have organizers at dealers hand out leaflets and other informational m
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 21, 2013 It has been a few months since we had any update from VL Automotive, the group who showed off a Fisker Karma with 6.2L LS9 V8 from the Corvette ZR1 called the Destino. Back in May, Bob Lutz said plans for the Destino were safe, despite the problems Fisker Automotive were having at the time. This past week, Lutz gave an update on where VL Automotive stands. Lutz tells Automotive News that VL currently has 25 Karmas on hand and t
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 12, 2012 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced has announced plans to update the agency's current vehicle safety standards to include a mandatory brake-throttle override system. The system would ensure that the brake will overpower the gas pedal when the two are applied at the same time and bring the car to a stop. The hope is to curb the amount of unattended acceleration cases. The new standards will apply o
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com November 5, 2012 Tesla announced their third quarter results today and it was a mixed bag. The company announced a $110.8 million loss, a figure that's significantly higher than last year's $65.1 million loss. Tesla partly blames the loss on a slower-than-expected roll-out for the Model S, which went into production in July. Tesla says they have increased production of the Model S from 100 vehicles per week to 200. The company expects to be buil
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com November 5, 2012 We knew the day was coming, just when was the question. Now, that day has arrived. Earlier tonight, American Suzuki Motor Corporation has announced they would be filling for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and close up their automotive division. "In evaluating its position in the highly regulated and competitive U.S. automotive industry, ASMC determined that its Automotive division was facing a number of serious challenges. These challen
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com February 14, 2013 After the whole Hyundai-Kia mileage fiasco, the EPA says it will be conducting more fuel economy audits. Jeff Alson, a senior EPA engineer said at a conference about the government’s 2025 fuel economy standard that the agency performs “routine audits” of manufacturer's mileage claims, but does admits more can be done. “We’ll probably do more of that in the future than we did in the past,” Alson said. Alson also told the c
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 16, 2012 To say Suzuki is hurting would be a large understatement. The brand is showing many signs of trouble which include, Suzuki's first quarter sales totaled 6,561 vehicles, a drop of 2% over last year. Meanwhile, in the same quarter, the market rose 13%. Suzuki skipped the Los Angeles and Detroit Auto Show Suspended their social media activity (i.e. Facebook & Twitter) two months ago Steve Younan, the top U.S. produc
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com November 7, 2012 Hurricane Sandy was the largest storm in the Atlantic in US history, and the economic damage is beginning to come into view. Automotive News is reporting that around 15,000 new vehicles will be scrapped due to storm damage. About 40% of those are Nissan and Infiniti vehicles that were determined to be unfit for sale. Toyota is next with the possibility of having to scrap close to 4,000 vehicles. Other automakers that have annou
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com June 11, 2013 Pickup Trucks continue to be the lifeblood for the American automaker's financials. A very good thing since truck sales seems to be in very good health - in fact Automotive News says that truck sales are arguably healthier than they were pre-recession, despite the volume is still below pre-recession levels. How? The per-unit profit has increased massively, outpacing the industry average by more than double since 2005. Edmunds say
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com February 6, 2012 Do you want a billion dollars? Well, all you need to do is build 60,000 cars that get 100 MPG and the U.S. government will send a check your way if a new bill is passed. Representative Dan Lungren ® of California's 3rd Congressional District has introduced a bill into Congress called the Excellence in Energy Efficiency Act of 2012. If the bill is passed, the legislation would have the Secretary of Energy "establish a program
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 28, 2013 California and seven other states have signed a new pact that hopes to increase the number of zero emission vehicles on their roads to 3.3 million by the year 2025. Joining California in this pact are Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, and Vermont. The seven states have already adopted a rule like California where by 2025, 15 percent of vehicles sold must produce zero emissions. To help get to
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 18, 2012 Shelby has been synonymous with the Mustang since the late sixties with the GT350 and GT500. Since the two got back together in 2007 with GT500, Shelby has been reestablishing itself as the halo car producer for Ford. But Shelby is looking to expand. Autoblog talked with Shelby president John Luft about what the future holds for the company. Luft said the company is looking at whether to branch out to other vehicles in the For
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 28, 2013 Consumer Reports has released this year's Auto Reliability Rankings, and not surprisingly Japan is on top. The top three in the rankings are Lexus, Toyota, and Acura. Following them is Mazda in fifth, Infiniti in sixth, Honda in eighth, and Subaru in tenth. That doesn't mean there weren't any surprises. Audi jumped four places to forth, while Volvo climbed a massive thirteen spots to seventh place. GMC was the only American bra
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 18, 2012 New analysis from TrueCar, an online research firm, shows the average transaction price of new cars are on the rise. TrueCar looked at sales data from last month and found that the average price was 30,748, a rise 6.9% over the previous year. So why the increase in average price? The answer lies in the options list. Consumers are ticking more boxes on the list like never before, with the average new car being very close to “f
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com November 13, 2012 The news of Suzuki automobiles leaving the U.S. has left their dealers with a choice, either take a cash settlement or take Suzuki to court. Last week, American Suzuki Motor Corporation was authorized by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court to borrow $45 million dollars as part of a settlement with dealers. The settlement would give dealers a cash settlement, and a new contract giving the dealers the rights to operate as parts and service
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 19, 2012 The diesel car, once considered the dirtiest and worst powertrain in America, is making a large comeback. According to statistics gathered by the Diesel Technology Forum, diesel vehicles sales are up 35% in the first quarter of 2012. A trend since diesel sales were up 27% the year before. By comparison, the overall U.S. auto market is up 13.% in the same time, and hybrid sales increased 37.2%. In the big picture, diesels capt
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com October 30, 2013 The U.S. Treasury's sell off of General Motors stock isn't faring so well. According to a new report from The Detroit News, the U.S. Treasury has reported a $9.7 billion loss on the $49.5 billion bailout of GM back in 2009. This figure comes from the quarterly report from the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program to Congress. The U.S. Treasury original stake in GM back in 2009 was around 60.8 percent. S
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com November 15, 2012 The National Transportation Safety Board announced their 2013 Most Wanted safety list which is used to "increase awareness of, and support for, the most critical changes needed to reduce transportation accidents and save lives." On this year's list, the NTSB put "Collision-Avoidance" technologies to be standard on all new vehicles. What the NTSB means by "Collision-Avoidance" technologies are features like rear-end collision w
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 20, 2012 The bad news is solidering on at Fisker Automotive. A few weeks after showing the new Atlantic concept, the company let go twelve people at their Delaware plant. This is second time this year that Fisker has laid off people at the plant. Back in February, Fisker laid off twenty-six employees due to the company not meeting the Department of Energy’s contractual milestones for their loans. Today, Fisker employs only a small main
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com June 19, 2013 Another automaker bites the dust. Carbon Motors, the company behind the futuristic E7 police vehicle has filled for chapter seven bankruptcy (i.e. liquidation) last Friday. The Indianapolis Business Journal says the company's bankruptcy paperworks lists liabilities of $21.7 million and assets of just $18,976. Those assets include one E7 prototype, some furniture, books, and intellectual property. Carbon Motor's business plan hi
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com August 2, 2012 According to research firm Baum and Associates, American buyers are taking a liking to diesel vehicles. Through June of this year, 61,214 diesel-powered vehicles have been sold in the U.S., an increase of 27.5%. That number might not sound like a lot, but sales of diesel vehicles are steadily climbing. From April to June, Diesel vehicles saw increases in sales ranging from 14.4% to 28.2%. This news comes in the face of the high
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 22, 2012 Ex-Saab CEO Victor Muller on-again, off-again affair with the sports car company he started, Spyker appears to be back on. During Muller’s tenure at Saab, Spyker was put up for sale to the highest bidder. A few companies were interested, but none bit, which has become a blessing in a disguise. Since Saab has bid adieu, Swedish Automotive has changed its name to back to Spyker. Now, Muller has some big plans in store. De Tel
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Aptera Motors, the company behind the odd looking, three wheel electric vehicle called the 2e has announced today they're closing up shop. In a letter written by Aptera Motors President and CEO, Paul Wilbur, Aptera was unable to raise enough money from investors to keep it going until it received a $150 million loan from the Department of Energy's Advance Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program. "This is a difficult time for everyone connected with our company because we have never been clo
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By William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com February 24, 2013 Four months after Hurricane Sandy blasted the East Coast, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) announced its revised estimates for the number of vehicles damaged in the storm's wake. The new total of vehicles damaged in Hurricane Sandy stands at 250,500 vehicles. This number is well above the estimate put out by National Automobile Dealers Association which say that 200,000 vehicles could be damaged. The majority of
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com June 24, 2013 The federal mandate for new vehicles to come equipped with backup cameras has been delayed, once again. According to Automotive News, the mandate has been pushed back to 2015 due to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration examining the cost of implementing this mandate. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, said in a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., that more analysis on how mu
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com August 6, 2012 If you're one of those people who wanted a H1, or the actual wartime vehicle that inspired it, have we got some news for you. After a twelve year break from the civilian market, AM General is reportedly set to offer a kit-car of the C-Series HMMWV, or Humvee. The kit will meet U.S. government regulations and has been made possible by a deal with GM. The kit will include a body with 2,800 installed rivets, chassis with springs
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Saab seems to be the cat of the automotive industry with the number of lives it has. Last we heard from the Swedish company, the company was waiting on approval on a deal with Pang Da and Youngman. However, General Motors was concerned with the deal due to technologies used in Saab vehicles ending up in competitor hands. Now, a new deal to save Saab is in the works. Saab's parent company, Swedish Automotive is in talks with Youngman and a bank in China (possibly Bank of China). The plan accor
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com February 10, 2012 The House Science Committee approved a bill on Tuesday that bars the EPA from going forward with E15 till further studies are done. The bill sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), was passed by a 19-7 vote as members voted along party lines. Automakers and and corn growers have clashed over E15, which is made from 15 percent corn-based ethanol biofuel since 2010. The EPA has allowed E15 use in 2001 and newer vehicle
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com August 7, 2012 New legislation introduced into the House and Senate this week aims to end rental car companies renting or selling vehicles that are under recall. The legislation, co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) want to prohibit the rental of vehicles under a safety recall. The bill was introduced after two people were killed in 2004 when their unrepaired recalled Chrysler PT Cruiser,rented fro
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com November 21, 2012 Last week, the Massachusetts Superior Court denied a request from the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association for an injunction against Tesla to stop them from running a store in Boston. The lawsuit filled on October 16th argued that Tesla violates Massachusetts' licensing, consumer protection and franchise laws since the company runs their own stores. If granted the injunction, Tesla could only use their storefront
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com February 10, 2012 Last night, Tesla introduced their next vehicle, the Model X. Based on on an extended platform of the 5+2 passenger sedan, the Model S, the Model X is a seven passenger crossover EV. Design of the Model X takes a Model S, enlarges it, and adds the back end of the BMW X6. The signature design feature of the Model X is what Tesla is calling falcon-wing doors, a two-piece articulated gullwing door. The trick with the falcon-wi
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com February 10, 2012 Earlier this week, Fisker announced they had temporarily halted work on Nina family sedan at the Fisker Automotive plant in Wilmington, Del. The temporary halt is due to Fisker and the federal government hashing out new terms of the company’s $529 million Department of Energy loan. The halt has caused Fisker to layoff 26 people at its Delaware plant and a number of contract engineers at Fisker's Anaheim, Calif., headquarters
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com November 24, 2012 (Note: The weekend edition is back from its long vacation, mostly due to me being busy with other things. Sorry about that. Anyways, enjoy. -WM) Everyday, I go through a number of stories that I will post on Cheers & Gears. However, a good number of stories that I have picked out don’t make it onto the page during the week and either get posted next week or never. That’s where the the Cheers & Gears’ Weekend Edition c
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com June 28, 2013 Here's a story that we're filling under the 'wait and see' file. Reuters is reporting that the Peugeot family, which currently owns a 25.4-percent stake in PSA Peugeot-Citroën automaker and 38.1 percent of voting rights is willing to give up its stake and try to revive a tie-up with General Motors. "GM faces the same overcapacity situation with Opel, and that's why PSA is trying to convince them to merge the two. The Peugeot famil
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G. Noble Editor/Reporter CheersandGears.com Friday, 10th February, 2012 If you're waiting for the sting of high gas prices to go away soon, you may be in for one hell of a long wait. Gas prices are back at a national average of $3.48 a gallon -- a whole 36 cents more than the average during February of last year -- and are set to climb an entire 60 cents or more by May. Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information service expects prices to top out at $4.05 a gallon, although some markets could se
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com December 6, 2011 Earlier today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee it plans to hold a hearing in late January on the Volt battery issue. "It gives us great concern that recent reports indicate important safety information may have been omitted in testimony before our committee just a few weeks ago. This is a serious situation that our committee will look further into," said Jeff Solsby, a spokesman for the committee. The he
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 1, 2013 If you been looking at used midsize trucks and wondering why the prices are somewhat high, a new study has an answer to that. According to Black Book, the deprecation rate is much lower on midsize trucks than the whole used car market. In June, used cars as a whole saw a deprecation hit of 1.3 percent. In that same time, midsize trucks saw a 0.7 deprecation hit. Look over the past year and the margin grows wider. Used cars deprecat
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com February 11, 2012 Former President George W. Bush spoke this week to a gathering of auto dealers. During his speech, Bush defended his decision on bailing out Chrysler and General Motors. "I'd do it again. I didn't want there to be 21 percent unemployment," Bush told dealers. Bush told dealers he believed in the free market and in normal conditions, automakers and other businesses should have been allowed to fail. "If you make a bad decisi
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com August 9, 2012 Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors have been making great strides in quality. J.D. Power and Associates' recent Vehicle Dependability Study saw Buick, Ford, and Lincoln above the industry average. Also, Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet, and Ram trucks all ranked above average in J.D. Power's Initial Quality Study. However, there is still many people who view these three as inferior vehicles. A new poll from Harris Interactive says that o
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In the Math solving all of our problems file; the LA Times is reporting that MIT has developed an an algorithm that can determine whether a driver will run a red light within milliseconds.Their research is being published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. The group did tests at an intersection in Christianburg, VA with 15,000 vehicles passing through. Their results with the algorithm was correct 85% of the time, which is reportedly the most accurate that ha
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com August 10, 2012 Suzuki's presence in the U.S. is, um lackluster. However in other parts of the world, Suzuki is a major player. So whenever the company shows off a new vehicle or concept, that means its not for the U.S. However, a vehicle that will make its premiere at the Paris Motor Show could be arriving to the U.S. Suzuki has released two teaser images of the S-Cross concept, a small crossover. Suzuki says that the S-Cross has a "Emotion x
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 3, 2013 Hydrogen, the fuel that automakers say will be available within ten years and doesn't, got some big press yesterday. General Motors and Honda announced a new partnership that will see the co-development of a next-generation fuel cell system and hydrogen storage technologies by 2020. The partnership will also look at reducing the cost of shared components that come from this and contribute to building an infrastructure for Hydrogen.
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com November 27, 2012 After a controversial exit from General Motors that has left a lot of questions, former CMO Joel Ewanick has found a new temporary home at Fisker. Automotive News reports that Fisker has hired Ewanick as its interim chief commercial officer while they search for a replacement. Ewanick takes the place of former CCO, Richard Beattie who retired on Monday. "We would like to thank Richard for his valuable contribution in helping
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The UAW has dropped their plans to organize a foreign automaker plant. Previously, the UAW vowed to organize one foreign auto manufacturer on U.S. soil by year’s end. "We're shifting our strategy a little bit. We are not going to announce a target at all. We are not going to create a fight," said UAW President Bob King. King's announcement comes a few days after UAW spokeswoman Michele Martin said the union wouldn't meet it's goal to unionize a foreign plant by year’s end. Organizing one fore
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com April 29, 2012 This past week at the SAE World Congress in Detroit, Google says that self-driving cars can be on U.S. roads within the next few years. We don't know what it's going to take to show its safer than a driver. It's much sooner than the next decade," said Google project manager Anthony Levandowski. Levandowski revealed that Google is in talks with auto makers and suppliers about working with them on the technology. "All options
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com February 14, 2012 Tesla’s first car, the Roadster had to bow out last year due to Lotus choosing to end production of its own Elise and Exige sports cars, which the Roadster was based on. Since then, Tesla has promised a sequel to the Roadster, but it might be a long wait. Inside Line spoke with Tesla Chairman and CEO Elon Musk about the next Roadster. Musk said he's decided to hold up on a replacement roadster for now. The reason isn’t tech
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The past few years have been tiring if you happen to be a millennial. There has been countless articles talking about how this group are not buying houses or vehicles. Of course, the reason is that millennials don't have the money (saddled with more debt, having entry-level salaries, etc). But that is changing. According to a report from Bloomberg, millennials are beginning to head out to the suburbs, and purchasing houses and cars. The reason? They're having their baby boom. According to d
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February 14th, 2012 - Drew Dowdell - CheersandGears.com Michiganers will soon be able to get around a little faster without risking a speeding ticket. The US Department of Transportation has approved Amtrak to run 80 miles of the 97 mile section between Kalamazoo, MI and Porter, IN at 110mph, the first such service outside of Amtrak's North East Corridor. This move comes after the successful implementation of Incremental Train Control System (ITCS) along this section of the route. The two route
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com May 1, 2012 From the Twilight Zone file: USA Today reports that 6.5% of new vehicles sold in the first quarter were equipped with a manual transmission, which is more than double of vehicles sold with them in 2007. It's also the highest amount since 2006 when 7.2% vehicles were sold with manual transmission. The take rate is more impressive when you take into account that 19% of the 2,360 different models on sale offer a manual. The increas
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 10, 2013 Convertibles have a small slice of the new car market. That slice seems to shinking even further. According to data from R.L. Polk, sales of convertibles last year barely reached one percent. That's a major drop when compared to convertible sales of 1.6 percent in 2009 and 2 percent in 2006. In all, 151,636 convertibles were registered last year. While that is an increase in number of registations over the past few years, it still
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com August 14, 2012 A new study conducted by Maritz Research finds that 11.4% of new car buyers are skipping the test drive. The implication for skipping the test drive are due to more consumers doing their research on the internet (8 out of 10 consumers the study found) and the universal dislike of the car sales practice. "I just find it quite fascinating and a little baffling. As cliché as perhaps it sounds, there's that new-car smell that needs
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William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com December 9, 2011 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed today a new rule that would make all keyless ignition systems operate in the same manner. The proposed rule would require the system be able to turn off the engine regardless of the position the gear selector is in. The rule would also reduce the number of seconds someone has to hold the button to turn the engine and have an audible warning if the driver tries to sh
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William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com August 14, 2012 Almost two months ago, the vehicle line director for the Chevy Volt, Tony Posawatz announced his retirement. Posawatz worked at GM for more than 30 years at GM. Posawatz was one of the key people overseeing the Volt. Few people at the time expected him to jump back into the industry. Fast forward to today and Tony Posawatz is now the new CEO of Fisker Automotive. He takes over from current CEO, Tom Lasorda who only became Fisker
