The Hot Wheels Camaro: no longer just a toy

By Paul A. Eisenstein, TheDetroitBureau.com

Chevrolet and Mattel have a long and prosperous relationship had. The toy company produced matchbox size replicas of the Camaro in 1968, a year after the real Chevy-Pony-Car first landed in showrooms.

On the upcoming SEMA auto show in Las Vegas, which car manufacturer is planning the favour introduction the first production version of the Chevrolet Camaro a hot wheels badge to wear.

Chevy has used for several years on its SEMA stand the hot wheels-theme. Last year, it placed a bright yellow version of the Camaro at the base of a life-size track. But now the automaker its lineup plans actually a hot wheels Edition added. It come as $6.995 upgrade on the 2013 Chevrolet Camaro and Camaro convertible. Sales will begin early next year.

For the money get making special edition flame light on metallic paint scheme, special graphics, red-lined 21-inch wheels, and hot wheels badge the fenders and trunk lid.

The hot wheels Camaro with matte black touches around the hood and taillight surrounds. And the upgrade will borrow some trim pieces from the high performance Camaro ZL1 package, including rear spoiler, grille, and front splitter.

The black leather trimmed Interior will boast wheels logo on the front seats, which are red and black seams perfect embroidered hot. The hot wheels flame is the interior door with special hot wheels Edition skirts complete the package decorate.

Standard will be Chevrolets MyLink info package.

The hot wheels Camaro can be ordered, 2SS assessed shares 323 PS or the 400-hp package with 6, 2 l L99 V-8 Chevy 2LT package with with his 3.6-Liter-V-6. The 2SS will be delivered with a dual-mode exhaust system, as well as the 2LT, equipped with a manual transmission.

Chevy can only hope, to the success of the 1: 64 to match Edition Camaros that Mattel has sold by the millions in the last 44 years. The pony car was one of the 16 original hot wheels models - a fallen, which is returned, how Camaro Chevrolet the first production car for hot wheels, which bears toys series name.

The project started in 2010 and focused first on the concept car unveiled at the SEMA show last year. The final production design for 2013 road car from one of the five sketches prepared by hot wheels Chief Designer Felix Holst taken over.

"For almost 20 years I started, design for hot wheels cars and I still have a home to go," said Holst, Vice President for creative Mattel wheels Division. "Personally, I cannot wait to open the doors and see the hot wheels Camaro sitting in the garage."

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Toyota on top in latest Consumer Reports survey

By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau
Japanese automakers – led by Toyota – dominated the 2012 automotive reliability study by influential Consumer Reports magazine.

But the study showed that European makers, notably the Audi brand, made significant gains. So did General Motors, though the other two Detroit makers didn’t fare nearly as well in the annual report by the non-profit magazine.

“Ford had a pretty bad year,” said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ director of automotive testing, noting that the Ford brand fell to 27th among the brands covered by the study while its sibling Lincoln marque dipped to 26th.

Toyota Motor Co.’s three U.S. brands led the annual reliability study, Scion in first place, followed by Toyota and then the Lexus luxury line. Mazda, meanwhile, landed in fourth position. Japanese makers have traditionally led the Consumer Reports study.

But European makers, on the whole, posted notable gains. Audi, one of the luxury brands owned by Volkswagen AG, surged upward by 18 spots and landed in the Top 10 for the first time – notably ahead of Japanese maker Nissan and its luxury brand Infiniti, Fisher pointed out during an appearance before the Detroit Automotive Press Association.

Audi’s upturn was the result of “a lot of blocking and tackling over the years,” said VW executive Marc Trahan, acknowledging that past years’ quality issues were a factor in Audi’s relatively weak performance in the U.S. market.

In contrast to its luxury brand, the Volkswagen marque slipped by two positions, falling to 18th in the new Consumer Reports study.

General Motors posted the biggest gain of any Detroit maker, its Cadillac brand rising 14 spots in the study, to 11th. Fisher suggested GM, on the whole, has been working to improve the quality of existing models and to ensure new products don’t experience the traditional first-year quality problems.

The annual survey is used to offer Consumer Reports readers a guide to vehicle reliability – but also serves as a component for CR researchers to decide which models to recommend or warn against.

Ford had no new models added on CR’s Recommended Buy list – but two taken off the influential guide, the Edge crossover using the maker’s high-mileage EcoBoost engine and the V-8-powered Mustang.

The maker might have done significantly better were it not for two key problems, explained CR auto chief Fisher: its PowerShift transmission, an electrically-shifted, double-clutch manual that has been faulted for drivability issues, and the MyFordTouch and MyLincolnTouch infotainment systems. The latter technology has suffered a variety of issues including ease of use and faulty software that can unexpectedly fail while in use.

“Our reaction is that their data is very much in line with our data,” confirmed Ford spokesman Mark Schirmer. He said Ford is aware of the two key problems and has been trying to address both – stressing that both the transmission and infotainment system issues are being addressed with “software fixes. These are not mechanical problems.”

The study reported problems for Chrysler, as well, though not quite as serious as for Ford. Many of the problems, noted Fisher, were experienced on higher-priced models, such as the V-8 version of the Chrysler 300. The less highly-contented V-6 version of the big sedan, however, remains on the CR Recommended Buy list.

One of the big surprises was the solid performance by the newly reborn Fiat brand, which scored “above average” with its little 500 coupe – and landed on the Recommended Buy list.

Overall, however, Chrysler slipped sharply in the 2012 reliability study.

Among the Japanese, Nissan and Infiniti slipped out of the Top 10, the mainstream brand falling four spots to 13th on the list overall.

Hyundai, which had made major gains in quality in recent years, slipped six positions to 18th overall.

The reliability study was based on responses to an extensive questionnaire submitted by 1.2 million CR readers. This year, about 80% of those replies came online allowing the magazine to ask more extensive questions than the traditional mail survey.

The study looked at scores of potential problems, from engine failures to wind noise to faulty infotainment systems. In contrast to some competing studies, Consumer Reports weighs problems like a broken transmission more seriously than a flaw with a vehicle’s radio. Another closely followed study, J.D. Power’s annual Initial Quality Survey, considers all “problems” equally.

One surprise, revealed Fisher, is that quality levels have remained largely the same over the last five years – a finding in sharp contrast to the results of other studies, such as the Power IQS. But there are big differences, nonetheless.

Where mechanical issues, like an engine failure, dominated the list of problems in the past, today it is more about electronic issues, such as the glitches with MyFordTouch.

And though some analysts contend that the gap between brands has largely closed, the new CR study shows that not to be the case. “There is still a huge span” between the best and the worst, stressed Fisher, noting that while 20% of the owners of the Ford Explorer SUV equipped with a V-6 all-wheel-drive powertrain reported problems, only 1% of the owners of the new Toyota Prius C had quality complaints.

The research chief cautioned that good reliability alone doesn’t mean a vehicle will get CR’s much-sought endorsement. The magazine gave a Not Recommended review to the Prius C, as well as Toyota’s subcompact Yaris. That model also did well in the reliability study, said Fisher, adding that “It does not break down, so it’s really lousy for a long time.”

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Toyota widens global sales lead over GM

Darley Shen / Reuters

A worker cleans a Toyota Yaris car Oct. 12 at the Wuhan Motor Show, China's Hubei province. Although Toyota has outsold GM so far this year, the Japanese automaker's sales are falling in China over a territorial dispute.

By Tom Krisher and Yuri Kage, Associated Press
DETROIT — Toyota has widened its global sales lead over General Motors after bouncing back from a series of natural disasters.

The company said Friday it sold 7.4 million vehicles globally in the first nine months of this year — 450,000 more than General Motors. While Toyota's sales rose 28 percent in that period, GM's rose 2.5 percent, to 6.95 million cars and light-duty trucks.

Toyota's factories were hobbled by an earthquake and tsunami in early 2011, leaving it short of cars in the U.S. and other regions. But now the company has recovered, and is building and selling more vehicles globally. Germany's Volkswagen AG is also seeing strong global sales.

GM is more concerned with profitable growth than the global sales race, spokesman Jim Cain said. Toyota has made similar statements, but executives concede privately that the crown is a matter of corporate pride for both companies. GM was the top-selling automaker for more than seven decades before losing the title to Toyota in 2008.

But Toyota faces a challenge in keeping its lead this year. Sales are falling in China because of a territorial dispute with Japan. Japan nationalized islands in the East China Sea that are also claimed by China and Taiwan. The move set off violent protests in China and a widespread call to boycott Japanese goods.

Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid, Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models, had planned to sell 1 million vehicles in China this year. But the company no longer expects to reach that number. It has not given a new target.

In September, Toyota's vehicle sales in China dropped to 44,100 vehicles, from 86,000 a year earlier. In August, Toyota sold 75,280 vehicles in China, down 15 percent from the same month last year.

Even if Toyota's China sales fall short of 1 million, Nomura Securities Co. auto analyst Masataka Kunugimoto expects them to gradually recover to 900,000 vehicles for the year.

"We don't expect this kind of drop to continue," he said. "The Chinese market is still growing."

Still, he sees GM and other non-Japanese manufacturers getting a sales boost as Chinese buyers avoid Japanese products.

Last year, Toyota's production was hit by the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan and then by flooding in Thailand. Its sales were also dented by massive U.S. safety recalls. That combination of problems dropped Toyota to No. 3 in global sales after GM and Volkswagen.

VW is closing in on GM after notching big sales gains in the U.S. this year. The maker of the Passat and Jetta cars sold 6.7 million light vehicles from January through September, up 9.7 percent from a year earlier. But VW's challenge could fall short this year because Europe's weak economy has hurt sales in that region.

GM also has problems on its home turf. Sales growth in the U.S. — its biggest market — is lagging. Sales are up 3.4 percent through September, far behind the 15-percent growth for the industry as a whole.

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Throttle problems probed in Fords, Mercurys

A U.S. government safety agency has opened an investigation into complaints that the throttles can stick on some older-model Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable sedans.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in documents posted on its website Friday that 50 drivers have complained about the problem in cars from the 2000 through 2003 model years. No crashes have been reported and no one has been hurt, according to the documents.

The probe affects an estimated 310,000 cars in the U.S. that have four-valve, 3-liter V-6 Duratec engines. NHTSA says a cruise-control cable collar can fracture at a mounting bracket and cause the throttles to stick open.

No recall has been issued yet. Investigators will determine whether the problem is bad enough to cause a recall.

Ford says it is cooperating with the agency and doing its own analysis. The company can't offer advice to owners of the cars until it determines the exact cause of the problem, spokeswoman Marcey Zwiebel said.

"Until we are able to gather more information and complete our own investigation, we cannot speculate as to what actually occurred during the reported incidents," she said.

The Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable and are nearly identical cars. Ford ended the Mercury brand two years ago.

In March, NHTSA opened an investigation into sticky accelerators in as many as 1.9 million Tauruses and Sables from the 2001 through 2006 model years. Zwiebel said the agency closed that investigation without a recall, replacing it with the one announced today. The March investigation involved a different cruise control cable part, she said.

© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Honda introduces car designed just for women

The TODAY anchors, along with Billy Bush and Kit Hoover of "Access Hollywood Live," talk about the new Honda Fit She's, a car designed specifically for women that will feature a windshield to help prevent wrinkles and will come in the color pink.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau
The auto industry has traditionally been male-dominated but Honda has rolled out a new model it claims to have specifically designed with women in mind.

The new Honda Fit She’s is a pretty-in-pink version of the maker’s familiar subcompact that offers a few niceties the maker believes will specifically appeal to distaff buyers, such as a windshield designed to block skin-wrinkling ultraviolet rays.

But will women actually care? While the new Honda subcompact may be the only car currently on the road specifically targeting women there’s a good reason. Previous feminine offerings, such as the old Dodge LaFemme, met with little more than indifference and, in some cases, outright hostility.

Priced at $17,500 – at current exchange rates – the Honda Fit She’s is currently available only in the Japanese market and it’s unclear whether the maker will roll it out in other parts of the world.

Like those vehicles handed out as prizes by Mary Kay Cosmetics, the dominant shade is pink, starting with the exterior paint and including the interior pink stitching and tutti-frutti-hued chrome bezels. If that doesn’t get the message across, Honda uses a pretty little heart to replace the apostrophe in “She’s.”

To Honda’s credit, the maker also has plans to offer the special model in an alternate hue that might best be called “eyeliner brown.”

The Fit She’s also delivers some other features women might appreciate. That includes the special UV-blocking window glass. Recent studies have underscored concerns that extended exposure to the sun while driving can be nearly as bad for the skin as spending too much time on the beach.

The Honda Fit She’s also features a “Plasmacluster” climate control system the maker claims can improve skin quality.

The decision to offer the car in the Japanese market isn’t all that much of a surprise considering the country’s more traditional sex-defined roles. As much as half of all Japanese women stay out of the workforce and still more tend to shift to homemakers after getting married. But even for those women who do join the workforce, there is more of a divide in tastes than one might find in Western countries.

That has stifled efforts by European and U.S. manufacturers who previously tried to target products directly to women. Chrysler, for one, thought it had a winner with the 1955 LaFemme. The sedan featured special storage places for hat and purse – and the driver’s seat swiveled to allow a woman wearing a skirt to enter or exit the vehicle with appropriate modesty. Nonetheless, like the few other offerings openly aimed at American women over the years, LaFemme proved LaFlop.

One might think that the U.S. auto industry would be inspired by the Honda Fit She’s. After all, women now directly purchase over a third of the vehicles sold in the States, while data from J.D. Power and Associates suggests they “influence” as much as 60% of all vehicle purchases.

Yet, just the hint of being a “woman’s car” can prove the kiss of death. Despite their tremendous flexibility and functionality, minivans lost much of their cache, noted Nissan marketing executive Tom Smith, when they become known as “soccer-mom vehicles.” Chrysler tried to counter that image when it released its latest version of the Dodge Durango by dubbing it the “man van,” but with little success.

Volkswagen blames the fall off in sales of the so-called “New Beetle” to the fact that the vehicle became known as a “chick car.” Jonathon Browning, head of Volkswagen Group of America, says the maker specifically wanted to make the latest version of the Beetle, introduced a year ago, “look more masculine.”

That doesn’t mean makers are ignoring the needs of women. Both Ford and General Motors, among many makers, have established groups of women designers and engineers who specifically consider the features and attributes of new products looking for ways to appeal to feminine needs – and avoid problems that might not be apparent to their male colleagues.

That might include door handles that can snap off long fingernails. And a number of new vehicles now feature larger center storage bins able to handle a pocketbook – while men get the added benefit of being able to tuck away their iPads and other electronic goodies.

Some makers have also introduced new colors that they believe will have bigger appeal to women buyers – though whatever their sex, studies by paint suppliers like DuPont Automotive show that silver, black and white continue to dominate.

So, while automakers clearly want to win over women shoppers, few are likely to follow Honda’s lead, especially outside of Japan. In most of the rest of the world, women car buyers just wanted to be treated as one of the guys.

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Ford closing 3 European plants, cutting 6,000 jobs

Dirk Waem / AFP - Getty Images

Ford workers comfort each other on Wednesday in front of the main entrance of Ford's Belgian assembly plant in Genk. Ford announced that it would close the Genk plant by the end of 2014. When sub-contractors are included, some 10,500 people depend on Ford Genk for work.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau
Its European losses likely to be significantly worse than originally forecast, Ford will close or sharply cut back operations at three of its European plants as part of a major restructuring meant to cope with the continent’s economic woes and the collapse of the European automotive market.

Ford now expects to lose $1.5 billion in Europe this year, a 50% increase over the already gloomy forecast it made just three months ago. With sales falling even faster than the overall market, Ford says it will cut capacity in Europe by 18%.

That will include the closure of a truck assembly plant in Southampton, England and a tooling and stamping facility in Dagenham. The maker earlier this week advised union leaders that it would close an assembly plant in Genk, Belgium.

All told, about 1,500 jobs will be lost in the UK – out of the current British total workforce of 11,500. Along with the closure in Belgium the total jobs lost to the restructuring could come to as much as 6,000, though it is possible the automaker might have to add some new employees at a factory in Valencia, Spain that will take over production of the Ford Mondeo and other models currently assembled in Genk.

“We recognize the impact our actions will have on many employees and their families in Europe, and we will work together with all stakeholders during this necessary transformation of our business,” said Ford’s president and CEO, Alan Mulally.

The former Boeing executive also oversaw a number of production cuts in the U.S. after moving to Detroit six years ago – just as the U.S. auto industry began to collapse under the weight of a faltering economy and the U.S. Big Three makers began fighting for their survival.

The situation is not much different in Europe right now. With southern nations including Spain, Greece and Italy crushed by sovereign debt problems the entire continent is in retrenchment, car sales plunging even in relatively prosperous Germany.

That has forced PSA Peugeot Citroen to seek a bailout from the French government and lay out plans to close an under-utilized assembly plant. Opel is restructuring, as well, and also plans to close one or more factories.

European automotive analysts generally agree that there are about eight more assembly plants than necessary to meet the continent’s needs – even accounting for exports. Until recently, however, makers seemed to be locked in a stalemate, no one wanting to make the first cut.

Ford expects the latest moves to reduce capacity in Europe – excluding Russia – by 18%, or about 355,000 units. The maker saw its sales tumble nearly 15% last month, even more than the overall market’s 10% decline.

Despite the worsening European losses, Mulally forecast Ford will remain in the black worldwide for 2012 – and should actually see third-quarter earnings rise a bit over the previous quarter.

The maker expects to shift production of the Transit currently produced in Southampton to a factory in Turkey also building the truck. It will add production of the Transit in the U.S. next year, as well, to replace the aging American Ford E-Van.

The planned closure of the British operations drew a sharp union rebuke, Len McCluskey, head of the Unite union said the move was handled “disgracefully,” considering that Ford had recently indicated the plant would get new work. He warned Unite would attempt to block the closures.

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Volkswagen mulls new midsize SUV for U.S.

Erik Schelzig / AP

An employee at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., works on a Passat sedan on July 31, 2012. Martin Winterkorn, the German automaker's CEO, said on Tuesday that Volkswagen is considering the production of a new midsize SUV for the North American market, and that the Tennessee facility would be in the running to make the model.

German automaker Volkswagen AG is considering the introduction of a new midsize SUV for the North American market, and its existing Tennessee plant is a contender for building it.

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn told reporters in New York on Tuesday that a decision on whether to build the new model will be made soon, but probably not before the end of the year.

"If we produce the car, Chattanooga would certainly present itself as an option for doing the whole thing," Winterkorn told reporters in German. But he said other locations would also be considered to build the SUV, which would come in between VW's existing Tiguan and Touareg models.

Volkswagen subsidiary Audi in April announced plans to build its first North American plant in Mexico. Volkswagen executives have said that decision was based in large part on Mexico's wider array of trade agreements that would help spur exports.

Winterkorn in prepared remarks lauded VW's experience in building Passat sedans at the Chattanooga plant that opened last year and stressed that the U.S. remains a pillar in the company's global growth strategy.

The $1 billion Chattanooga plant is expected to build 180,000 vehicles next year and has a maximum capacity of 220,000 in its current configuration.

Winterkorn said Volkswagen expects that all Volkswagen brands, including Audi and Porsche, will set a record sales of 500,000 vehicles in the U.S. this year. VW-branded vehicles sales grew 37 percent through September to 323,000.

Volkswagen announced Wednesday that third-quarter profits grew 58 percent to $14.8 billion, thanks to an accounting boost from its takeover of Porsche. The company reported strong sales in the U.S., its home market of Germany and in China.

Winterkorn was in New York on Tuesday to receive an award from Johns Hopkins University's American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. In his speech, Winterkorn acknowledged difficult economic conditions in Europe, but said he was optimistic about the automotive sector.

"Regardless of what happens in the near future, in the medium and long term this industry is a growth industry," Winterkorn said. "Worldwide and in America."

The company strategy of becoming the world's largest automaker by 2018 remains in place, and "the United States has a crucial role to play on this journey," he said.

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Nissan points out that altimas in United States loose for steering screw

Nissan Motor Co is 13.919 its top-selling Altima sedans according reminded in the United States because screws that can have improperly tightened during production, could be the risk of a crash increases security to U.S. regulators.

The Altima are limousines of the model from the 2012 and 2013 and Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., from May 10 to July 26, Nissan North America were in that said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"The theme of vehicles produced be link bolts and two power steering can screw with four cross rack, which is not turned on were the right specification," Nissan regulators in a letter said NHTSA showed on its website.

As a result notice the screws loose can shake while driving, the letter States and driver rattling noise.

There was no mention of any injuries or crashes due to this problem on the NHTSA web site.

Until September, percent of the vehicles were sedans in the U.S. market 27 selling Nissan Altima.

The Altima to September sales by 17 percent compared to the previous year to 234.040.

Altima owners are urged to bring their cars into Nissan dealerships, said where the screws of the correct specification will be rotated to NHTSA. The cars are protected guarantee.

"On the basis of the technical judgment found that if a loose screw completely falls out, the driver may occur problems controlling the direction of the vehicle," said Nissan NHTSA.

Nissan, said workers the problem that on 26 July, on the last day of the parties in the callback with the potential problem at the location Canton of produced vehicles were noticed during a routine test.

On 21 September, Nissan, confirmed that some of the subject vehicles at dealers. On 3 October decided there was a safety defect and a recall would be carried.

Nissan NHTSA said owners begins to be notified on 29 October.



Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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Americans buy fewer new cars lifetime income

Anne Rippy / Getty Images

American consumers will buy significantly less new cars in the course of their lives, says a new study.

Chalk another one for the recession and how it has changed life in America. Now fewer new cars in the course of their lives expect new analysis of the automotive research that shows solid Polk Americans to buy.

On average, we buy almost four fewer new cars at the time each of us hits 76 years old, the age, when Polk believes most people are done buying new vehicles.

"The days when you purchased a vehicle for 4 or 5 years are probably over,", said Anthony Pratt, Polk Director of forecast.

How much have things before the recession since changed? Pratt analysis is here.

To buy new, but not so often

We have talked longer clinging to their new cars for some time about Americans and the reasons have been well documented. Cars last longer and as their prices gone, people are less inclined to taking a monthly payment. Since the recession, they have the length of time a new loan pay off stretched. In other words, people expect six, seven or eight years after they buy it now in your car.

That is a dramatic change from established generally in the automotive industry. For years buy automakers on Americans on average a new car or truck-counted every three or four years. Some of that was due to our vehicles, showing their age earlier.

"When we were younger, we had vehicles from the need to replace out." "This not the case is more", said Pratt. "The vehicles have a much better quality, so really they are much longer, there is no need to replace vehicles."

Less chance for automakers to keep and stealing from customers

Because Americans are now forecast to buy fewer new vehicles in their lifetimes, this means that automakers have less chances to steal customers.

"Conquest buy", if a customer of a brand switch a brand to another brand is persuaded, has long been an important part of the building, sales and market share. This is won the Korean car manufacturer in the United States, such as the Japanese automaker and recently, market share

That's harder, with people on their new cars that last longer. In the past you would start looking for a new car every three or four years, and if you perhaps begin look at several brands not only that which you drove.

Conversely, as we longer between new car what we want or need to buy already, can change in a new model more the years pass. As a result Pratt said, the brand that on the road we are possibly not the type of vehicle, or styles, we want for the next phase of our lives.

"It is more difficult to keep a buyer especially if they have changed phases in their lives," said Pratt. "Their needs for a vehicle may have changed, so they can abandon the brand, which have sold for many years."

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Auto bailouts on firing line at presidential debate

Paul Sancya / AP file

The Obama administration's bailout of General Motors was one of the hot-button issues dividing President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney during Tuesday night's presidential debate.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, NBCNews contributor
This week’s second presidential debate focused on a wide variety of issues from the economy to foreign policy, and the health of the auto industry was one of the most significant topics touched on by President Barack Obama and his GOP challenger Mitt Romney.

The two couldn’t be further apart on the subject of the 2008–2009 bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. The Democratic president touted the Treasury-funded rescue of the two automakers, which the Republican challenger has long opposed.

But while he once supported clean energy programs, Romney has also come out against the government-funded, low-interest loan program that has helped fund a number of battery makers, automotive startups and other green firms. In the first presidential debate in Denver, he referred to several firms by name, dubbing California battery-car startups Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive “losers.”

There’s no doubt that the Department of Energy's loan program has picked some clunkers, notably the solar panel maker Solyndra, which received $527 million before going bankrupt. This week, another firm that was helped out by the Energy Department also filed for Chapter 11. But the results may turn out better when it comes to Massachusetts-based A123 Systems.

A producer of lithium-ion batteries, A123 is one of many once-hopeful suppliers stung by a slower-than-anticipated ramp-up in demand for battery-electric vehicles. Its situation was complicated by manufacturing issues and a costly recall earlier this year. But A123’s doors aren’t closing. After rejecting a potential rescue bid from China, it has instead agreed to sell its auto business to mega-automotive supplier JCI.

“We believe the deal makes very good strategic sense,” writes Rod Lache, senior automotive analyst with Deutsche Bank. If anything, under the new — and well-funded — parent, he contends, that automotive battery operation could now do even better. The purchase by well-run JCI “should likely allay customers’ concerns” about whether A123 would be able to survive an ongoing shake-out in the battery market.

Meanwhile, the sale of A123 comes as good news for one of the companies Romney cited by name: Fisker Automotive. The California plug-in hybrid maker is one of A123’s most visible customers and was hurt by the battery-pack recall. But Fisker was facing the possibility it might run out of batteries by next year if A123 had folded.

Nonetheless, the fate of Fisker remains far from certain. Its first product line, the Karma, got off to a slow start that led the Department of Energy to freeze its $529 million loan after the automaker had drawn only $193 million of that cash.

That has complicated plans to develop a second, lower-cost and higher-volume model, the Fisker Atlantic, that will be much more critical to the automaker’s bottom line. Fisker officials have privately complained that they’re caught in the crossfire due to the politicization of the Department of Energy loan program and have been scrambling to replace that money with private funds. They’ve raised about $300 million this year, but new Fisker CEO Tony Posawatz this week told investors the launch of the Atlantic will be delayed to 2014 or even 2015 — leading some to question the company’s future.

As for Tesla Motors, its outlook is also up in the air, depending upon whom you ask. Founder and CEO Elon Musk — a PayPal pioneer who also runs private space firm SpaceX — has acknowledged production of the new mainstream battery-electric vehicle, the Tesla Model S, is way behind schedule and that is putting a serious strain on the company’s finances with few other sources of revenue to tap.

Up to speed
Nonetheless, Musk and others at Tesla insist they will be up to speed and in the black by next year when a second product line, the Model X crossover, debuts. Tim Draper, a legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur and early investor in the firm, is so confident he recently told Detroit to “create something different because you’ve lost the electric-car battle.” Asked what they might turn to, he suggested, “flying cars.”

While the Department of Energy loan program might be controversial, the real point of contention between Obama and Romney concerns the bailouts of GM and Chrysler. Both companies were surviving on lifelines thrown to the automakers by President George W. Bush when Obama took office. Obama eventually approved the rest of what turned into an $84 billion rescue.

Romney called for both carmakers to be cut loose, despite his family ties to Michigan. He continues to insist he opposes the bailout, although the former Massachusetts governor has also taken credit for nudging the Obama administration into pushing GM and Chrysler through managed bankruptcies before approving further cash aid.

Bailout proponents insist the rescue effort saved as many as 1 million jobs. And they have some significant momentum on their side as the auto industry gains credit as one of the leading factors in the revival of the U.S. economy. Between them, Chrysler and GM have also added tens of thousands of new direct and indirect jobs since their rescues as their sales increase.

Chrysler, the smaller of the two automakers, has shown a 24 percent sales gain this year — about 10 points ahead of the overall automotive recovery. It's doing so well that Chrysler could be the financial foundation for its Italian partner Fiat SpA, which is struggling during the collapse of the European car market. That’s doubly ironic considering that Obama approved a rescue of Chrysler only after Fiat agreed to take it over.

General Motors' story is a mixed one, though investors have given the maker an increased vote of support despite some serious, ongoing issues.

GM sales are up this year, though not quite keeping up with the overall market revival. But it is the powerhouse in key emerging markets such as China. Its biggest issue is Europe: GM's Opel subsidiary will post its 14th year of red ink in 2012 with no clear turnaround in sight.

That was a key reason for the sharp downturn in GM stock following its November 2010 IPO. But over the last three months it has staged one of the market’s stronger rallies, rebounding from barely $18 a share to nearly $25 a share. Upcoming third-quarter earnings could determine whether it maintains that momentum.

And the pre-election announcement will likely only add to the sniping between Obama and Romney. The latter has insisted he would have immediately sold the Treasury’s remaining shares over the summer, which would have meant billions of dollars more losses than if the White House walked away today.

Nonetheless, GM would have to climb all the way to $54 a share for taxpayers to break even on the bailout, so the president seems in no rush to sell those shares despite the ongoing debate.

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Car to honor 10th anniversary of '8 Mile'

Jason Decrow / AP file

Chrysler is releasing a special version of the 200 sedan to to honor the 10th anniversary of the release of the iconic hip-hop movie, "8 Mile," which stars rapper Eminem.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, TheDetroitBureau.com
Chrysler is taking its “Imported from Detroit” campaign a step further with two special edition sedans planned to celebrate the Motor City’s musical heritage.

The maker will release a special version of the 200 sedan — which received its big send-off during a 2011 Super Bowl commercial starring rapper Eminem — designed to honor the 10th anniversary of the release of the iconic hip-hop movie, “8 Mile.”

A second special edition, this one based on the bigger Chrysler 300, will be tied to the release of the new Broadway show, “Motown: The Musical,” the maker’s global marketing chief Olivier Francois revealed during an interview with the Detroit News.

“We needed to give Detroit credit for what it really does stand for,” said the 51-year-old French-born executive, who took over marketing operations for Chrysler as the U.S. automaker became part of a Euro-American alliance with Fiat SpA.

Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has encouraged emphasizing the maker’s U.S. roots — even moving a small team of workers from Chrysler’s suburban headquarters to a newly restored office building in downtown Detroit.

“We’re the Detroit kids,” suggested Marchionne during a recent conversation.

But the highest-profile effort was launched with a much-discussed two-minute Super Bowl spot featuring the music and face of rapper Eminem — who had traditionally declined to lend his work to marketing efforts.

Since then, Chrysler has used the “Imported from Detroit” campaign to both promote mainstream products like the 200 sedan as well as a line of merchandise.

Chrysler officials believe that they have gained momentum over the last several years — marked by this year’s 24 percent percent overall sales increase — by promoting “buzz packages.” They will show off an assortment of them during the upcoming aftermarket event, known as the SEMA show, held in Las Vegas over Halloween week.

One of the most recent packages is dubbed the 300C John Vartos edition, developed with the cooperation of the Detroit-based fashion designer. More such packages “will continue to be deployed from us,” Chrysler VP Reid Biglund told the paper.

The 8 Mile Edition Chrysler 200 will debut as that groundbreaking feature, which gave Eminem a mainstream audience, celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Specifics of the special hip-hop and Motown models haven’t been released — though Chrysler recently gave dealers a sneak peek during a preview in Las Vegas.

Whether Chrysler will do a third break-out Super Bowl spot is still being discussed, Olivier told TheDetroitBureau.com last week, though it appears the maker is leaning toward that. But he cautioned Chrysler “may not” use a big name celebrity in anything it would come up with. “The cars are the stars,” he emphasized.

Whether Eminem would play a part in the launch of the 8 Mile 200 sedan is also unclear, as is whether Chrysler will turn to any classic Motown stars for the introduction of the Motown 300.

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It is an ATV! It's a boat! It's both, and it works great

AP/Carlos Osorio

The new Quadski, a one-person motorboat that also drives on land, is being billed as the first commercially available, high-speed amphibious vehicle by its maker, Michigan-based Gibbs Technologies.

By Bryan Laviolette, TheDetroitBureau.com
We fire up the Gibbs Quadski — the world’s first production, fast amphibian — and head straight for the water. Just as the tires start to get wet, we instinctively grab the brake lever because, well, wheeled vehicles aren’t supposed to go in the water.

But then we remember that this wheeled vehicle is different. The fact that the Quadski can roll into the water is precisely what makes it special.

As a Gibbs marketing representative said, “that’s when the magic happens.”

After pushing a button to raise the wheels — the key feature that transforms the Quadski from land vehicle to boat — we squeeze the throttle lever and in as little as five seconds after entering the water, we’re planing across the lake where we tested the vehicle.

Gibbs, founded by New Zealand industrialist Alan Gibbs, has been developing what it calls High Speed Amphibian technology for 15 years. But after teasing enthusiasts for years, it is finally going to start making one model of the long-awaited vehicles.

The Quadski can hit 45 mph in the water, the same on land. And a transition between the two takes as little as five seconds. That’s what Gibbs has said the Quadski would do and finally is ready to deliver after years of promises and premature production plans.

A year ago, we had a chance to take a quick spin on a Quadski prototype and came away thinking that it needed more pop “out of the hole.” Problem solved. Gibbs completely redesigned the jet and impeller propulsion system, making it bigger to provide more thrust.

Now, the Quadski feels powerful from rest. It gets up on plane quickly and easily achieves top speed. Power comes from a 175-horsepower 1.3-liter four-cylinder lifted straight out of a BMW K1300 motorcycle.

The ride is smooth, and the Quadski feels well-balanced, although our test drive was on a mirror-smooth lake, so we can’t say how well it handles in rough water. It carves smooth turns, although the shallow V-shape of its hull results in it not being able to turn as well as the best-handling personal watercraft.

One of the most controversial aspects of the Quadski is Gibbs’ insistence that it doesn’t need four-wheel drive. Will the Quadski be able to hoist itself out of the water on slick or steep transition zones? Unfortunately, our test didn’t include any difficult spots on which to test the Quadski.

AP/Carlos Osorio

The Quadski zips across the water. It's equally at home on a lake or on a trail.

Gibbs says that rear-wheel drive — with a limited-slip differential — combined with the jet are more than enough to push the Q up any suitable landing.

Now, let’s check out the other half of the Quadski equation. It’s time to put the wheels back down and see what it can do on the trails. As easy as it is to go in the water, it’s just as easy to exit. After coming off the plane mode, toggle the wheels down. Because the jet is always engaged, we can still power through the water until the wheels reach land and help propel the vehicle out of the water.

All-terrain vehicles require far less power than personal watercraft, but the Quadski uses the same 1.3-liter BMW four-cylinder nestled under the seat for propulsion on land. At one point, Gibbs said its solution was to cut engine power while on land to 20 percent, but it is not currently publicizing that number. How much horsepower does the engine produce on land? The company won’t say.

Despite the cut in power, the Quadski accelerates quickly and easily hits its 45 mph top speed. Even with the limited-slip differential and the reduced power output, the the Q still willingly kicks out its tail end under power.

The ride is very smooth, and the single-seat Quadski always feels stable. At 126 inches in length and 63 inches wide, it ought to.

Gibbs uses BMW’s constant-mesh six-speed manual transmission, but mounts its own automated clutch. Shifting is by a toggle switch on the left handlebar. There is no full automatic mode. Computers prevent the operator from over-revving the engine.

Does a vehicle with a 45-mph top speed need a six-speed transmission? Not really. Three speeds would be plenty. In water mode, the Q uses third gear.

Gibbs has been using a Polaris Sportsman 800 as a chase vehicle at its test site. The smaller Sportsman’s engine achieves 54 horsepower and doesn’t feel as quick as the Quadski, suggesting the Gibbs machine is probably producing about 80 horses while on land.

Many buyers will be tempted to try to eliminate the governor and coax the full 175 horses out of the engine on land. Better get an advanced computer-engineering degree, because you’re going to need it. Gibbs Chairman Neil Jenkins described the Quadski as tamper-proof.

The cut in power does not stop the fun on land. Even with a limited-slip differential, the Quadski allows some tail-out antics in turns.

Here’s what the Quadski is not: It is not the ultimate rock-hopper all-terrain vehicle. And it’s also not going to out-handle the most extreme personal watercraft. But it is a better ATV than any other personal watercraft, and it is a better personal watercraft than any other ATV.

Criticisms? The Quadski features a single large dial for speed with an LCD readout in the lower-right corner for other information such as tachometer readings and gear number. The LCD is virtually unreadable while moving. Gibbs officials said production versions would have a more legible LCD, but it’s still too small to see easily. A separate analog tachometer would be more useful.

Then again, even making reduced power on land, the Quadski is rarely wanting for power, so being in just the right gear isn’t all that important.

Also, there are several exposed screws on the body. While it’s a matter of taste, the Quadski would look better with hidden fasteners.

But nothing detracts from what the Quadski represents. Instead of having an ATV and a personal watercraft, you can now have one vehicle that is both.

Without getting off the vehicle, you can go from fishing in the middle of the bay to riding the trails. Instead of leaving your personal watercraft at the beach of a remote island, go farther on a Quadski. Forget the trouble of trailering and launching a personal watercraft; you can drive into the water right at the beach. Instead of storing an ATV and a personal watercraft on a trailer, you store one vehicle.

While the exact price has not been set, Gibbs announced it will be “about” $40,000. The company will begin taking orders at gibbssportsamphibians.com next week. Deliveries will begin in November.

Now here’s the problem for everyone who doesn’t live in the eastern United States. With a plan to build just 1,000 of the machines in the first year, Gibbs will limit sales to just five or six dealers, all of which will be east of the Mississippi River. It expects to have as many as 20 dealers within a year.

As a new manufacturer building a product unlike anything else in existence in a new factory, the company wants to make sure the Quadski performs up to expectations before it ramps up production to 5,000 to 6,000 per year. The price is likely to come down as the company realizes economies of scale. How far could the price come down? Gibbs would like to get the price to the high 20 thousands.

Gibbs has been working on its High Speed Amphibian technology for 15 years. After years of broken promises and $200 million in development costs, the company is finally ready to put one of its amphibians into production.

The Quadski is just the start. The company is also taking orders for its Phibian, a 30-foot amphibian aimed at first responders. Variations on the Quadski are also expected.

And once it can clear more significant regulatory hurdles, the company will build an amphibious car, called the Aquada. In fact, the company originally developed its HSA technology for the Aquada, but decided to focus on other vehicles while the Aquada is mired with regulatory problems related to fundamental problems that make it impossible to meet all government regulations at the same time.

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EPA can slash the use of ethanol in gasoline

By Paul A. Eisenstein, the Detroit Bureau
The EPA can be shifted from the use of ethanol to reduce to drought affected holdings corn.

Only months before, was the EPA press hard to expand the use of ethanol in gasoline supply of the country, but in the wake of the severe drought this summer, and can course return to soon the agency actually trim due to lack on corn used to produce the renewable fuel.

Senator Orrin Hatch, an influential Republican of Utah, calls for the EPA to reduce the ethanol requirements, as have 200 members of the House and the Governors of eight corn-producing States this week. After a former President George W. Bush signed 2007 law 15.2 billion gallons of ethanol would this year with the plan, more than twice as 2022 used.

But the viability of this plan came under sharp control, as yesterday, the U.S. Department of agriculture forecast farm grain output forecasts next year global corn stocks are 5.4 percent - the lowest level in 39 years strongly declined. The USDA warned that only 23 percent of the American corn crop yields in "good" or "excellent" form, are compared to 70 percent in the past year.

Sent the prices for corn, the spiral upwards. Luke and others hope that by at least reducing the potential demand for corn stocks for fuel demand price - level can use which could in turn drive a spiral of inflation rates to prevent a total U.S..

"In the face of the maize shortages and escalating prices on the widespread droughts in the United States brought, I urge you to exercise your cancellation authority, to modify the corn-ethanol requirements for renewable fuel standards" hatch wrote in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Ironically were Luke and other demands energy now on the EPA on ethanol use again from proponents of the 2007 independence Securities Act - you both reduce dependence on foreign oil while American farmers through the better use which was renewable fuels mandating aimed also rely.

In the passing of the EPA, was expected to draw 5 billion of ethanol in the fuel supply for 2007 but 15.2 billion gallons this year reached the sliding scale. And it will peak at 36 billion gallons by 2022.

The law was designed to reassure skeptics who thought that even in good times on the farm too much corn into fuel would be redirected. 2022 A full 21 billion liters ethanol are from so-called cellulose production come. Still under development, new production facilities have turned to a variety of alternatives to corn, of waste paper up to grain chaff, normally not in the food supply are used.

The EPA has fought ironically, ways expectations - find the demand of consumers for ethanol to meet the mandate, as has afterwards although subsidies keep the price per gallon below the regular unleaded gasoline.

The Agency has increased the amount of ethanol in regular gas in use. And last year approved rules, produced such fuels in older cars, before the industry upgrade their fuel systems began to tolerate use of alcohol-based fuels would require. Ethanol, like other alcohols is highly corrosive and decision makers now use special stainless steel or modified synthetic fuel line and engine components to withstand damage. Critics continue to deny claims EPA, that the recent increase in the ethanol content sure for older vehicles and other products - ATVs, chainsaws - petrol run on are.

While a number of countries join the call of total ethanol reducing use this coming year, including the Governors of Maryland and Delaware, where large poultry operations could by increasing children's beds of hard hit are not every echoes this sentiment.

The Michigan Farm Bureau is the request to oppose. In fact, some farm States hopes see corn prices in the coming months to help who could put some farmers out of business offset lower yields in their local cultures. A report in the Detroit News pointed out that Michigan five ethanol refineries 98 million bushel corn annually used - compared to a combined 70 million for livestock, feed, milk and poultry.

The EPA is expected to ruled with in early November on the ethanol waiver request.

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Colors for 2012 are America's favorite car...

BMW

This white BMW is very popular among car buyers the color this year sporting.

By Dee-Ann Durbin associated press
If you this year a new vehicle bought, chances are high it was white or silver.

Twenty percent of cars and trucks that have built for the model year 2012 white color, making it the most popular color worldwide. Silver is close behind, at 20 percent, followed by black at 19 percent. Grey and Red follow to five round the top.

The most popular color for the second consecutive year is white to silver in 2011 to overtake. The annual rankings are body supplier PPG Industries Inc., compiled a company headquartered in Pittsburgh, allows the colors to General Motors co., Ford Motor Co., BMW AG, among others.

The rankings are skewed somewhat by the large number of pickup trucks on the market. TRUCKS accounted for 55 percent of North American production in the first eight months of this year after the automobile Ward, compiled data. Every fourth cartridge produced is white, because entrepreneurs often use as a work truck and paint logos on it. In contrast, 19 percent of midsize cars in North America are made white.

White, which was popular in the 1980s a comeback as a modern, tech color thanks partially Apple Inc. all white stores and shiny white gadgets, make, said Jane Harrington, PPG Manager color styling for car companies. Manufacturers make more varieties of white, from the flat, bright Pearl White white on many vans to the cream of the luxury SUVs.

Silver rose in popularity as high-tech color starting in the 2000s. Popular remains, because it underlines every angle of a car, said Harrington.

"Silver great looks on each design," said Harrington.

Grey and black - rental got increasingly popular as buyers during the downturn stopped and bought vehicles, who expected to hold them for a long time, Michelle white and other "Web-safe" colors - silver, Killen said GM lead designer for outer coatings colors. They were some more daring colors on the market, like the one on the Ford Fiesta or bright orange on the Scion iQ magenta suspicious towards.

"Buyers want to buy a color, the one you will not tired grow over a longer period," said Killen.

Color settings are dependent on geography. Here you will find other Red vehicles in North America. Overtake silver in popularity in Europe, black and grey. Driver in Asia such as tan and gold, but not green. Only about 7 percent of the cars in each region are blue.

PPG, developed for mobile phones, laptops, airplanes and houses also colors, based his automotive coatings on trends that it looks in fashion, interior design, and other areas. Harrington saw color in Paris to show, for example, many purple at a recent home so that she helped to develop a violet grey colour for cars. PPG launches result colors to automakers three or four years before publication of the model and automakers two sit down on colors or three years earlier a model goes on sale.

Harrington predicts that customers more Brown and orange watch in the next two years, particularly on luxury cars. Brown - reminds people of leather or a rich Cup of coffee - reminiscent of luxury around the world. Earthy colors are also attractive for drivers worried about the environment.

As in model years 2015 and 2016 the PPG shows 64 future color options on automakers this week. Among those are al fresco, a Silver metallic with a green tint; Glacier, an icy gray with a violet blue tone; Elixir, a metallic mixture of silver and magenta.

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Toyota recall derailed car manufacturer of the recovery efforts

CNBC Phil LeBeau has the details on the massive recall of non-functioning power switch window car manufacturers.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, NBC News Aikens
It would have been a good day for Toyota. With sales surging after last year's dismal decline, expected that automakers received word, that their owner loyalty of the highest in the industry for the first time since 2009 was.

But even as consulting firm Experian Automotive, the new owners of loyalty data free Toyota had an own announcement: a new recall with 7.5 million vehicles through a potential fire hazard. Not so random, 2009 was the year the the Toyota in the embarrassing unintended acceleration scandal got involved, which eventually forced about 14 million cars remember it together with other security-related issues.

An another embarrassing setback for the Japanese could prove the new recall, which sold 2.5 million Toyota and Scion brand cars, trucks and crossovers includes in the United States, after aggressive on their brand image to rebuild giant, which is paid with clear double-digit sales gains in the United States

The announcement comes as Toyota faced an another potentially serious setback. Toyota slicing with many Chinese consumers boycott of Japanese products because of the dispute over ownership of a chain of islands in the East China Sea temporarily through the half production in the today's largest passenger car market in the world.

How much the latest recall the perception of the brand Toyota will have remains to be seen. It is clearly an embarrassment, industry analysts agree, for more vehicles than any other single global callback for the 2009/10 actions, relating to Toyota's sudden acceleration problems.

In this respect it dominates callback headlines in recent months has almost every auto manufacturer Chevrolet, Ferrari, .said Rebecca Lindland, Chief auto analyst at IHS automotive, the steady drums hit.

"Toyota has to vary a very loyal owner base, and this (latest recall), will not," said Lind country. "But for those people on the fence about buying a Toyota, this will have." "It could be more difficult getting new buyers into the showroom."

Loyal shoppers have the double-digit growth fueled the Toyota sales in the first nine months of the year 2012. For September, demand jumped to products that the manufacturer of three U.S. sells brands 41.5 percent.

Toyota loyalists
A large part of the business came from Toyota Loyalists, of which many waited due it during the product-lack of 2011, the March earthquake and tsunami, which shut down almost the Japanese auto industry.

But with an industry-leading loyalty of 47.3 percent, according to Experian, Toyota has filled yet its exhibition rooms to keep up with new customers. And that was where the situation with Toyota's safety record get risky back in the limelight, said art Spinella, CNW marketing.

It happened not as CEO Akio Toyoda is not to, at least, according to Toyota. Aggressively grilled by a Congressional Committee in 2010, the grandson of Toyota founder promised to increase efforts of the manufacturer quality control and change that long said a corporate culture critic, tried to conceal safety problems.

The latest recall has made impact on a variety of different models before the unintended acceleration scandal. And the new safety campaign underscores a challenge that all manufacturers are, as they try, making economies of scale increase through the exchange of component-in this case one broken window power switch-in a wide range of products.

Yet warns "this on the number of people that Toyota was considering a vehicle would chip away could," Spinella.

Ironically, when Toyota takes an image hit it not his arch-rival Honda benefit. Although import buyers often cross-the two brands shop, has Honda safety problems of its own. The smaller manufacturer announced three separate recalls, affecting 1.7 million vehicles alone last week. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed a new investigation, which could lead to the recall of 600,000 other Honda products.

By the unintended acceleration problem and other problems such as excess corrosion had his vans Toyota recalls more vehicles than any other manufacturer in the US market in 2010. Due to a late December campaign service, Honda, snapped that dubious distinction of its rivals last year. Now, it's a toss-up, could landen-of the two - up or down, if Sie--this list for 2012-dear.

The latest Japanese recalls good news for Hyundai and Ford, the vehicles, which most frequently shopped could turn out to with the Japanese leadership, cross, Spinella said.

But those who expect a sudden collapse in Toyota sales are probably wrong, be demonstrated, said Lind country. "they go, everything in power to compensate for the effects", she predicted that Toyota roll out powerful marketing strategies and what incentives are necessary.

However, if quality and safety image warned Toyota observers continue to be tarnished, it could win steadily his ability, eroding older customers to replace new buyer, which could no longer be in the new car market.

(To determine whether your call is involved in, go to Toyota recall Web page.)

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Fake airbags may not inflate, safety says watchdog

The Obama Administration has issued a public warning that millions of vehicles that have undergone repairs after a serious crash could pose severe safety risks due to the use of counterfeit replacement airbags.

The government estimates that “tens of thousands of counterfeit air bags” are now unknowingly in use in American automobiles.

“We want consumers to be immediately aware of this problem and to review our safety information to see if their vehicle could be in need of inspection,” said a statement by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood issued ahead of today’s formal announcement.

Counterfeit components have been a plague on the auto industry for decades and the list of affected parts is a large one, covering just about everything one might find in an automobile, from sheet metal to lug nuts. But some fake parts can prove particularly dangerous – such as airbags that either won’t deploy or might improperly inflate during a crash.

“Air bags in particular play a central role in keeping drivers and passengers safe in the event of a crash,” said Administrator David Strickland of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Each of a vehicle’s airbags is designed to operate in a specific way and may inflate to varying degrees depending on the severity of a crash. The fakes that the government is warning about likely will not function properly if they work at all.

Recent tests of 11 fakes found that the majority either failed to work or inflated improperly and some actually threw shrapnel as they inflated.


NHTSA says that it believes the vast majority of replacement parts are genuine and that “this issue affects less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet.”

The challenge will be to find the affected vehicles. The government’s automotive safety agency has released a list of 100 models most at risk, a mix of Detroit, Japanese and European models including such mainstays as the Ford Focus, Toyota Camry and Volkswagen Jetta.

The counterfeit airbag issue reportedly only involves vehicles that have been repaired within the last three years, and does not involve either original factory equipment nor repairs made by certified new car dealership repair shops.

Those who have had their vehicles repaired by independent service shops may be at risk. And the government is warning that consumers who might have tried to purchase replacement airbags through the Internet may be at particular risk.

Vendors have been known to offer counterfeit bags for as little as $50 while factory originals may cost as much as $1,000.

The government has been investigating the problem for a number of years and intercepted a shipment of 68 counterfeit bags heading to an address in Chattanooga, Tenn., in September 2008. They were identified as replacements for Audi, BMW, Lexus and Toyota vehicles.

Last February, Chinese businessman Dai Zhensong pleaded guilty in federal court and was sentenced to 37 months in jail in connection with that scam. He was one of three owners of Guangzhou Global Auto Parts International Group, based in Guangzhou, China, which the government claimed in a court filing “specializes in the production of counterfeit air bags.”

Another 1,163 fakes were intercepted during an August raid in North Carolina conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Automakers, trade groups and insurance organizations have been increasingly vigilant in trying to stamp out the problem of fake auto parts. Actions by General Motors alone resulted in the seizure of $250 million in counterfeits since 1985. Meanwhile, the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association estimates as much as $45 billion in business could be lost to counterfeits worldwide.

In some instances, the problem may just result in cosmetic issues – a fender that doesn’t quite meet factory spec shape, for example. But fake oil filters can cause engine failures. And the government is warning counterfeit airbags could lead to injuries or death.

The government will warn owners of vehicles on the list who have had airbags replaced after a crash to go to a certified dealer to have the devices checked. Such inspections, the government says, could cost as much as $100 as they would not be considered part of a vehicle’s warranty.

NHTSA warns that the initial list of vehicles could “evolve over time,” as it learns more about the problem. And the number of fakes in use on U.S. roads could prove higher than initially reported.

The initial “At Risk” list includes:

Acura
2009-11 TSX

Audi
2006-09 A3, A4, A6, A8, Q5, Q7

BMW
2007-11 X5, E70, E60, E61
2008-10 5-series, 528i, 535i
2004-07 5-Series, 525i, 530, 535, E60, E61
2007-11 E90, E91
E92, E93 (unspecified years)
2007-11 X5, E70
2004-07 525i, 530, 535
2011-12 X3

Buick
2010-11 Lacrosse

Chevrolet
2011-12 Cruze
2006-10 Aveo
2011-12 Volt
2012 Camaro

Ford
2012 Focus
2005-09 Mustang

Honda
2003-12 Accord
2006-11 Civic
2002-11 CRV
2007-11 Fit
2009-11 Pilot
2009-11 Insight
2009-11 Crosstour
2011 Odyssey

Hyundai
2007-11 Elantra
Genesis (unspecified years)
Sonata (unspecified years)

Infiniti
2007-11 G35, EX35

Kia
2010-11 Soul/Forte
2004-09 Spectra

Land Rover
2012 Range Rover Evoque

Lexus
2006-11IS250, IS350, IS-F
2003-08 GX470
2007-09 RX350
ES350 (unspecified years)

Mazda
2004 Mazda 3
2010-12 Mazda 3

Mercedes
2009-11 C, GLK
2010-11 E350, E550
2007-08 S550
2006-09 ML
2009-10 GL, ML

Mitsubishi
Outlander (unspecified years)

Nissan
1992-2002 Quest
2010-11 Quest
2009-11 Cube
2007-11 Versa
2009-10 Murano
Altima (unspecified years)

Subaru
2008-09 Forester
2008-09 Impreza
2008-09 Outback
2010-11 Legacy

Suzuki
2007-10 SX4

Toyota
2002-06 Camry
2012 Camry
2009-11 Corolla, Matrix
2007-11 Yaris
2004-11 Highlander
2004-11 Sienna
2004-11 Tacoma
2010-12 Prius
2003-11 Tundra
2003-06 Sequoia
2003-10 Land Cruiser
2004-10 Highlander
2004-09 4Runner
2007-09 Solara
2005-11 RAV4

Volkswagen
2006-10 Jetta

Volvo
XC60, XC70 (unspecified years)
V70, S60, S80 (unspecified years)

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Used Car Prices Keep Sliding, but for How Long?

A salesman helps a customer shop for a used car at Novato Ford in Novato, California.The great run-up in used car prices we’ve seen over the last years is over.

It has been for some time.

The latest numbers on wholesale prices the dealers are paying shows not only how far prices have dropped, but also raises the questions of how much further they could slide.

Few are predicting a major drop off from here, but if you’re holding out hope that used car prices will continue pulling back that trend is working in your favor.

According to the wholesale auto auction firm Adesa, here are the average prices for September and how much they have dropped in the last year.

The change in wholesale prices may not seem like a lot, but they reflect a steady decline.

One that many believe will continue as the pent up demand in the market continues to drive owners of seven, nine, even 10 year old cars and trucks to upgrade with a new vehicle instead of a used one. The gap in pricing between new and used remains small enough that many buyers looking for an upgrade are deciding to buy new instead of going with a three or four year old used model. And as financing has expanded to include more buyers with subprime and deep subprime buyers, many who used to be boxed out of the new car market are now finding more options.

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World's largest auto callback for 16 years keep Toyota

David McNew

Toyota is to recall more than 7 million vehicles over a faulty window switch.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, NBC News Aikens
Updated 13: 43 UTC: Toyota Motor Co., still in recovery mode after a series of problems that plagued its global activities in the past three years announced on Wednesday it is sold with reference to 2.5 million vehicles in the United States because of a potential risk of fire.

The recall affects 7.43 million vehicles worldwide sold under the Toyota and Scion brands. This is the largest safety technical service action that the manufacturer has announced since it is a series of recalls with regard to the risk of unintended acceleration began at the end of 2009. Toyota led this and other security issues to recall 14 million vehicles in 2009 and 2010.

It is the largest single recall because Ford Motor Co 7.9 million vehicles in 1996 withdrew.

Many of the vehicles, which also involved the new Toyota recall were problems again one or more times by unintended acceleration.

The latest recall is the result of a problem with a possibly defective power Windows switch on the driver's side of the affected vehicles, which the manufacturer says, "a ' notchy' or sticky feeling can occur during operation." "If commercial lubricants to the switch in an attempt that 'notchy' or sticky feeling address be applied, could the switch Assembly or smoke melt and cause that a fire under certain circumstances."

Toyota previously announced recalls for various models, in which similar window switch and in February the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it would open an investigation of the issue. But at that time only 830,000 Camry and RAV-4 models were, while the model year 2007 sold.

Risks manufacturers like Toyota to face underline the massive size of the new callback, if they share basic components on a variety of vehicles, the hope to improve production economies of scale.

The vehicles of the latest recall involved in the United States:

2007-2010 Camry sedans, about 938.100 vehicles 2007-2009 Camry hybrids, about 116.800 vehicles; 2007-2009 RAV4 frequency switches, about 336.400 vehicles; 2007-2009 Tundra pickup about 337.100 vehicles; 2007-2008 Yaris small car, about 110.300 vehicles; 2008 Highlander SUV, about 135.400 vehicles; 2008 Highlander Hybrid, approximately 23,200 vehicles; 2008-2009 Scion xD models, approx. 34.400 vehicles; 2008-2009 Scion xA models, approximately 77,500 vehicles; 2008-2009 Sequoia SUVs, approx. 38,500 vehicles; 2009 Corolla compacts, about 270.900 vehicles; and2009 matrix crossover; about 53.800 vehicles.
To determine whether your call is involved in, go to Toyota recall website. The manufacturer estimates the inspection and repair process takes a little longer than an hour and includes the dismantling of the main switch and, if necessary, the application of a special fluorine grease.

NHTSA received more than none are 200 reports of problems in connection with the defective switch including fire, but it known crashes or injuries. At least 39 similar problems reported in Japan, where Toyota 460,000 were recalled vehicles.

A further 1.39 million vehicles are subject to the new recall in Europe, while the massive security campaign covers also Australia, China and other parts of Asia and the Mideast.

In the US market the Toyota announcement is the largest recall of the year and could revive concerns about quality control at a manufacturer, usually at the top of the charts. Such concerns plagued the manufacturer during much of 2009 and 2010 and officials including President Akio Toyoda have been hauled before Congress to explain the massive recalls, in connection with the issue of unintended acceleration.

Toyoda has repeatedly promised since this scandal began, is to note the ramp up the quality control of the manufacturer, and it, that all the vehicles produced by the latest recall affected during or before the model year 2009. However, will the new service action put back an unwanted spotlight on the maker.

Toyota had recalls more vehicles than any other manufacturer in the United States involved in the year 2010 and came just before that dubious award to achieve again in 2011. Late in the year, however, a large recall put Honda at the top of the list. In fact reminded Honda 1.7 million vehicles in three separate service actions last week - although NHTSA an investigation over possible problems relating to another 600,000 vehicles started.

While there are scores of recalls this year yet, with every brand of Chevrolet, Ferrari, with today's announcement, it seems that Toyota and Honda again in an unwanted race to lead the callback list for 2012 are.

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Car sales rise in September, but truck sales dip

Bill Pugliano / Getty Images

Chrysler reported a 12 percent increase in sales last month, its best September showing in five years.

By NBC News staff and wire reports
UPDATED 12: 42 p.m. EDT: The Big Three U.S. automakers, Ford, Chrysler and GM, reported a mixed bag of sales in September on Tuesday, with car sales revving up, but truck sales moving into lower gear.

Japanese automaker Toyota reported a large sales increase.

Of the three largest U.S. automakers, Chrysler fared the best, posting a nearly 12 percent rise in sales last month, its best September in five years. Chrysler said its increase was due to new models, low interest rates and a stable U.S. economy. It sold 142,000 vehicles, led by the Dodge Avenger midsize sedan, which saw sales jump 89 percent from a year earlier.

GM reported a 1.5 percent increase in sales, as a big jump in car demand was offset by falling truck sales. Ford seemed to suffer from the same issue; it posted flat sales as truck sales fell 7.6 percent, largely because of the discontinuation of the Ranger small pickup.

The Ranger was a strong seller last September. Sales of the F-Series large pickup were up 1 percent over last year.

Ford said sales of SUVs were up 8.7 percent. The new Ford Escape small SUV saw a 14.5 percent jump and the Explorer large SUV was up 19 percent.

Car sales were up 1.6 percent, led by strong sales of the Ford Focus. Sales of the outgoing Fusion midsize sedan dropped 37 percent as Ford began shipping a new version of the Fusion to dealerships.

GM said last month was its best September since 2008. The company said new models boosted car sales by 29 percent. But sales of the Chevrolet Silverado, GM's top-selling vehicle, fell almost 17 percent from a year ago.

GM sold more than 210,000 vehicles in September. It was led by the Chevrolet Cruze compact car with a 43 percent increase. Chevrolet Sonic subcompact sales were five times September of last year.

"Passenger cars have been the launch point for a broad and deep GM product offensive," said Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations.

The company expects total U.S. auto sales to hit an annual rate of 14.5 million for September. That would make it the second-best month of the year. Chrysler estimated U.S. industry sales in September, including medium and heavy trucks, would reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14.9 million.

Meanwhile, Toyota said vehicle sales rose 41.5 percent to 171,190 last month, besting its 32 percent in gains year-to-date. The results reflect Toyota's recovery from inventory shortages last year after the March 2011 earthquake in Japan.

Analysts forecast a 14.5 million sales pace in September, according to a Reuters poll. Attractive financing offers, cash incentives on trucks and pent-up demand fueled September sales.

Last month, incentives on trucks averaged more than $3,000 a vehicle compared with $1,888 for cars, according to TrueCar.com.

"Going forward with our current product lineup, record-low interest rates and a stable U.S. economy, we remain optimistic about the health of the U.S. new vehicle sales industry and our position in it," Reid Bigland, head of U.S. sales for Chrysler, said in a statement.

Sales of the company's new Dodge Dart, introduced earlier this year, continue to rise. Chrysler said it sold 5,235 Darts in September, a 72-percent jump from August.

Fiat brand sales totaled 4,176, the highest monthly mark ever in the United States, Chrysler said.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Honda recalls 573,000 Accords to fix faulty hoses

The Detroit Bureau

Honda will have to repair nearly 600,000 Accords due to the latest fire-related recall.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau
Honda appears to be well on its way to again leading the market in terms of the number of recalled vehicles. The maker has confirmed more than 625,000 of its Accord and Acura TL sedans will be impacted by the latest service action due to a potential fire hazard.

The new development actually expands on an earlier recall involving 52,613 of the Acura models sold during the 2007 and 2008 model-years. The maker has now added another 573,147 Accords equipped with V-6 engines marketed during the 2003 through 2007 model-years.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the power steering hoses in those vehicles could deteriorate prematurely and lead to a leakage of fluid. If that comes into contact with hot engine parts, such as the catalytic converter, the fluid could catch fire.

So far, federal regulators say they have received one report of an actual vehicle fire – which did not result in injuries.

The midsize Accord and the Acura TL share many common components – a practice widespread in the auto industry and one that often leads to recalls involving numerous different nameplates. The Accord itself is the second-best-selling passenger car nameplate in the U.S. An all-new model was recently introduced for the 2013 model-year.

Honda intends to notify owners of the latest recall this month and will make repairs at no cost to consumers. However, the maker has cautioned that due to a need to produce replacement parts in such large volume the repairs might not be completed until sometime in early 2013.

Owners can find out more about the recall by contacting Honda at 800-999-1009 or NHTSA through its vehicle safety hotline at 888-327-4236.

While Honda has built a significant reputation for quality over the years, the maker has experienced a spurt of safety-related recalls in recent years and led the list among all manufacturers in the U.S. market last year. At the current pace it is on track to top that list again in 2012.

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Downward sales spiral plagues Europe's automakers

Remy De La Mauviniere / AP

Opel hopes its new model, the Adam, will help to reverse the company's 14-year-long long history of losses in the European marketplace.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, NBCNews contributor
Despite its miniscule size, the new Opel Adam will make a big splash when it debuts at the Paris Motor Show this week.

Named for the German automaker's original founder, Adam Opel, the three-door auto is the first in a wave of 23 new models the manufacturer plans to bring to market during the next four years — a product assault parent General Motors can only hope will reverse what is now Opel’s 14th year of sinking deep into the red.

But Opel isn’t the only European automaker in trouble. France’s Peugeot is expected to seek a bailout from the French government. Senior officials at Italy’s Fiat — partner to Detroit-based Chrysler — last weekend met with that country’s top government officials to discuss “strategic options.” And even Daimler AG has cut its earnings forecast and downsized production plans for the rest of the year, warning that the situation in Europe is spiraling downward faster than expected.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association, or ACEA using its French initials, expects 2012 to bring the market’s worst sales in 17 years. Industrywide, car registrations dipped 8.5 percent for August. And only Volkswagen, among major manufacturers, posted a sales gain — largely by including Porsche results in its corporate numbers.

Sales have been plunging in the southern European markets hardest hit by the Continent’s economic slump, notably Italy and Spain. But even the economic powerhouse is sliding downward, with ACEA reporting that German registrations dropped 4.7 percent last month.

Jonathon Poskitt, senior automotive researcher with British-based LMC Automotive, says the situation is a “deteriorating picture” with “no quick turnaround likely.”

Compared to the U.S. automotive slump of 2008 and 2009, Europe actually isn’t faring so badly. The American market fell from a peak of more than 17 million vehicles in the previous decade to barely 10 million by the time it bottomed out. But there’s a big difference, analysts and industry leaders stress. In the U.S., the industry moved aggressively to respond, largely through factory closings and job cuts. General Motors and Chrysler, in particular, emerged from their own 2009 bankruptcies collectively shuttering a score of assembly and component plants.

By comparison, relatively little has been done in Europe other than sound the alarm. Even before the sovereign debt crisis began, Europe was laden with overcapacity. By some estimates it now has at least eight more assembly plants than are needed.

Fiat did shutter one grossly underutilized facility on Sicily, but other makers are so far only discussing their options.

“I cannot be the guy who cleans up the mess,” Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne recently grumbled, “but the mess needs to be cleaned up.”

Part of the problem, Marchionne and others complain, is that German manufacturers have resisted calls for a unified response to the European automotive crisis, especially Volkswagen, which has managed to sidestep the worst of the situation — and which has declared its intent to become one of the world’s largest, if not the top-selling, automakers before the end of the decade's.

But as the situation worsens, some other automakers are being forced to act even if there are dangers associated with moving unilaterally.

Opel is arguably the most troubled of the European marques with various analysts forecasting that losses for the year will come to between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. Morgan Stanley’s influential analyst Adam Jonas last month issued a report arguing that, "We believe the time has come for GM to find a new home for Opel."

For its part, GM continues to put together a rescue plan, one that will see both the addition of new products and the contraction of production and manpower. But the latter goal is limited by both government regulations and union contracts making it extremely difficult to reduce capacity.

GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky has won some minor concessions from the normally militant union IG Metall, however, by sharing internal data on the crisis but even then, the union will permit the closing of just one plant — and only in 2014.

Peugeot is also pushing to close a plant, though the French government is warning that such a move might forestall any aid to the fast-sinking maker.

“The pain needs to be evenly distributed across Europe,” said Marchionne, and a number of manufacturers are now calling for the creation of an automotive czar — not unlike the one who oversaw the GM and Chrysler defaults — to bring everyone to the table. But, so far, that idea has gained little traction on the government side.

And so, for the moment, automakers are frantically searching for individual solutions while unions are looking for ways to minimize the impact on their members and national governments continue to drag their feet.

The biennial Paris Motor Show, which begins with two days of press previews today, could thus be critical to everyone.

The new Opel Adam will be just one of at least 50 to 60 new products planned for introduction at what is formally known as the Mondial de l’Automobile. In more normal times, auto shows have a tendency to excite motorists and spur them to head for showrooms. But whether that will happen this year is uncertain. Shoring up the European economy remains a work in progress, at best, and it’s uncertain new sheet metal can offset the impact of the ongoing negative headlines.

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Security complaints plagues many popular car models

BMW Group

The Mini Cooper is one of the most complained-about auto models sold in the U.S., with concerns over steering comprising 41 percent of all Mini complaints lodged by consumers.

By Michael B. Sauter and Samuel Weigley, 24/7 Wall St.
Last year, the government received nearly 30,000 complaints from car owners concerned about potentially dangerous defects with their vehicle. Since 2007, the department responsible for auto safety — the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — has received more than 130,000 complaints.

The reports range from unintended acceleration to malfunctioning air bags. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed complaints recorded by the Traffic Safety Administration since January 2007 to identify the 10 car brands with the most safety complaints relative to the number of vehicles they sell.

Following receipt of a complaint, the Traffic Safety Administration determines whether a particular vehicle has a real, widespread safety issue. If it does, the agency works with manufacturers to issue recalls. While these recalls can force manufacturers to address safety concerns, they also serve to alert consumers to problems. According to several experts interviewed by 24/7 Wall St., once consumers become aware of a recall, they are much more likely to complain about the model to the Traffic Safety Administration.

In an interview with Panee Segal, senior manager of Data Syndication and Support at Edmunds, she explained that many drivers submit complaints about their cars because they discovered a problem through media coverage. Referring to the recalls issued by Toyota in 2010, she said, “the media will uncover a story — say for instance the floor mats and stuck accelerator — and consumers will become aware of the NHTSA being an avenue for consumers to file complaints. Consumers read the story and say ‘Hey, I have that complaint, too. Let me send in a complaint for the government to be aware of.’”

24/7 Wall St. reviewed the car models of the brands that received the most complaints recorded by the Traffic Safety Administration, based on data provided by online automotive information resource Edmunds.com. In nine out of the 10 cases, well-publicized recalls had been initiated on these vehicles. The Prius — part of Toyota’s unintended acceleration fiasco — was the brand’s most complained-about vehicle. Similarly, the Murano, Nissan’s most complained-about vehicle, had a 360,000-vehicle recall in 2009 due to air ducts that caused the engine to stall.

The effects of recalls, especially well-publicized ones, can be devastating to brand sales and perceived safety. In the first quarter of 2010, Toyota experienced a steep drop in sales following the company’s massive recall. According to a Consumer Reports annual study on consumer identification of auto brands, Toyota’s safety score fell substantially after the incident.

Shaking an image of inferior quality is hard to do, according to Jeff Bartless, deputy editor for Consumer Reports, even when the problem is not related to safety. Brands that are perceived to have general, nonsafety-related mechanical problems are also more likely to be considered unsafe, Bartless explained. As a result, these cars receive complaints regardless of recalls. Volkswagen and Jaguar, two of the cars with the most complaints — have been considered unreliable for years.

According to Bartless, while the Traffic Safety Administration bases recalls on safety risk, the car brands with the most complaints also develop issues that require repair unrelated to safety. “Certainly, the more a car breaks down — it is unreliable, problematic, and expensive — that’s definitely going to shape people's perception, depending on the nature of the problem,” he said.

Edmunds provided 24/7 Wall St. with a comprehensive list of safety complaints issues to the Traffic Safety Administration by brand and model between Jan. 1, 2007, and Aug. 31, 2012. Included were the most commonly complained about vehicle for each brand over that period, as well as the most common type of complaint given for each brand and model. 24/7 Wall St. also consulted Consumer Reports 2012 Car Brand Perception Report.

1. Mini

Complaints per 100,000 vehicles sold: 410.1Year-to-date car sales: 43,632Year-to-date complaints: 275Model complaint leader: Cooper
The Cooper, which represents more than half of the brand’s total sales, was the most complained-about Mini model, with concerns over steering comprising 41 percent of all Mini complaints. In 2010, the Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the 2004 and 2005 Cooper models following complaints that power-assisted steering often fails. Then in January of this year, parent-company BMW recalled 235,000 Minis following complaints to the Traffic Safety Administration of fires due to the overheating of the vehicle’s water pump. According to ConsumerReports.org, the Mini brand was tied with Scion and Ferrari as the worst brands for consumer perception safety.

2. Jeep

Complaints per 100,000 vehicles sold: 386.1 Year-to-date car sales: 325,945 Year-to-date complaints: 1,321 Model complaint leader: Wrangler
Wrangler, which represents roughly 30 percent of Jeep’s total sales, received the most complaints since 2007, with the fuel emission and exhaust system the source of the most common complaint. Jeep’s parent company, Chrysler, announced in May that it was recalling about 87,000 2010 model Wranglers after the Traffic Safety Administration noted that debris could get trapped in the exhaust system, potentially leading to a fire. Just a month later, Chrysler recalled approximately 347,000 Jeep Libertys due to concerns that the lower control arms in the SUV’s rear suspension can rust and cause the vehicle to crash. According to ConsumerReports.org, Jeep’s overall brand perception dropped between 2011 and 2012, but it was in the bottom 10 in both years.

3. Chrysler

Complaints per 100,000 vehicles sold: 292.3 Year-to-date car sales: 216,616 Year-to-date complaints: 693 Model complaint leader: Town & Country
Following the discontinuation of Dodge’s Grand Caravan, the Town & Country will be the sole minivan made by the Chrysler Group. But of the complaints about Chryslers to the Traffic Safety Administration since the beginning of 2007, no vehicle was more frequently mentioned than the Town & Country. The most common complaint was related to the car’s brakes, with drivers reporting premature wearing of pads. Chrysler’s sales were down by nearly 60 percent between 2007 and 2011.

4. Jaguar

Complaints per 100,000 vehicles sold: 240.5 Year-to-date car sales: 8,546 Year-to-date complaints: 15 Model complaint leader: XF
The Jaguar model with the most complaints was the XF, with 17 percent of complaints for that car involving the powertrain. Jaguar recalled about 18,000 X-Type cars in October 2011, which included the XF, due to problems with software. The company released a notice to customers, stating that there could be problems disengaging the cruise control. Sales of the XF were down 40.2 percent between 2008 and 2011.

5. Dodge

Complaints per 100,000 vehicles sold: 231.6 Year-to-date car sales: 344,556 Year-to-date complaints: 1,437 Model complaint leader: Grand Caravan
The Dodge model with the most complaints since 2007 was the Grand Caravan, with the most common issue being the interior electronics and hardware. In October 2011, Chrysler Group, the parent company of Dodge, announced it was stopping production of both the Grand Caravan and the Avenger. CEO Sergio Marchionne told Automotive News that Chrysler would release a crossover between the Grand Caravan and Avenger for 2013. Dodge’s market share has dropped in the past year, falling from 5.2 percent in July 2011 to 3.1 percent in July 2012. Sales were down 37 percent between 2007 and 2011.

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