Automakers gear up for a green Christmas

Paul A. Eisenstein, NBC News contribution
If the upcoming L.A. auto show are any indication, American motorists for a green holiday season.

A preliminary estimate shows more than 50 new cars, trucks and crossovers make their debut during the annual event that first big U.S. car of the year 2013 show model.

A considerable part of these new models are battery-based, including everything from conventional hybrids to pure battery-electric vehicles. But the L.A. show will become further always environmentally friendly also it out like conventional gasoline Powertrain technology.

Among the most important debuts in Los Angeles announced Honda will be its first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, insert the accord PHEV.

Ford offers a few own plugins, the fusion of Energi sedan and the C-Max Energi "People Mover."

The list of pure battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs, the new Fiat contains 500e and the Chevrolet spark EV, General Motors first fully electrified model since it from production shortly before the turn of the new Millennium EV1 drawn.

During a recent session of two-day media background showed GM some ambitious plans for the electrification programme - which began with the December 2010 launch of the Chevrolet will Volt plug ins, and that soon the spark-EV and the upcoming Cadillac ELR plug-in. All in all hopes of the producers to sell 500,000 battery-based vehicles between now and 2017.

"An important role in our technology portfolio plug-in based solutions going forward, will play," Development Director Mary Barra said global product.

Nissan may be even more ambitious. Before the end of the decade it will be to sell annually more than 500,000 battery-based vehicles, the Nissan leaf battery-electric vehicle to connect with products including the planned Infiniti LE the Chevy Volt showrooms met at about the same time in life called.

In turn the fusion and C-Max Energi plug-in be-in the part of a wave of eight advanced battery-powered vehicles, Ford plans in the next few years, according to Ken Czubay, Vice President of the manufacturer's U.S. marketing, sales and service.

But not everyone is so optimistic. Even though he will try during a smile to the debut of the 500e, Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has dubbed battery cars 'economic lemons,"a reference to the reality, the underlying technology is so expensive manufacturers have to absorb a significant portion of the price tag, to attract consumers.

By some estimates the current crop works of BEVs and PHEVs cost at least $10,000 more produce than they for - before a buyer sell in available federal and tax credits.

And even then a new study by J.D. power and Associates warns that "A very small part of the U.S. market remains electric cars if automakers can demonstrate rates lower and the economic benefits to consumers."

No wonder that the brand new Honda fit EV and Toyota RAV4-EV models, the in L.A. displayed will be sold only at a limited number of California authorized dealer for at least the next few years. Critics mock these offers as "match car," built just to meet strict zero emission vehicle, or ZEV, adopted by the California Air Resources Board, demanding mandates.

"Nobody wants to be locked out of the California market", John Mendel, the American executives at Honda, grants to one of the most important decision makers meet the ZEV rules.

Ironically is the Los Angeles Auto show even skeptics give the possibility to promote alternative battery disconnect. The new Dodge Dart Aero model comes close to the fuel efficiency of the comparatively large hybrids, note the organisers of the annual green car of the year award, which has been announced during the days of the media at the LA show.

The new Mazda CX-5 SkyActiv crossover will be also in the dispute, a different model, where the latest breakthroughs in conventional gas power is based.

And the Ford Fusion was named finalist as much for its modern, gas-powered EcoBoost engine for its hybrid and plug-in hybrid options. Only the new Toyota Prius C and Ford C-Max models, among the five finalists are solely battery-based.

The green car of the year award several times awarded in particular diesel. And past winner Audi car brings four new diesel on the LA show this year including high performance versions of its Q5, A6, A7 and A8 models. Next year rolls set to start, they are expected to provide hybrid-like fuel economy ", but without sacrificing performance" Audi of America announced President Scott Keogh.

While Californians might think their State as the greenest in the country, is the reality that they know to appreciate muscle. According to Mercedes-Benz sold whopping 25 percent of the manufacturers of high-performance AMG models in Southern California.

So, no surprise planned, in which several Debuts from the German manufacturer, which it will reveal the which ever has built the fastest production car the 622-PS SLS AMG Black series. (At the moment Mercedes committed not yet a battery-powered version of the 2-seater, the SLS E-cell, onto the U.S. market.)

New high-performance products show Bentley, Jaguar and Porsche in the LA Convention Center. But these days, one can be mean and green. Or at least, green. The new Porsche Carrera 4S get better fuel economy than the outgoing model a large bump in horsepower - also during the deployment of approximately 15%.

And BMW brings LA a version of its upcoming i8 plug-in, the first in a new line of sporty, battery-based vehicles that the battery-electric city car i3 is specified.

The LA Auto show has a tradition of focusing on green technology. But California itself has a history of the trends to sweep that finally in the rest of America. So what, at the Los Angeles Convention Center will see you nor this month likely to influence, what you drive, where you live in the coming years.

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GM calls through voice-activated tech Siri organizational units

Paul A. Eisenstein, the Detroit Bureau
General Motors is getting Siri organizational units through its voice-activated Infotainment technology. The manufacturer plans to launch the Apple iPhone popular voice-activated personal assistant technology on three of its Chevrolet models early next year.

The technology enables to do change many things of already older, less advanced voice-controlled car technologies, such as music, radio station found a driver or plugging into a target. But Siri is designed to go further to add access to an iPhone contact, for example, or review, or dates and even a local business, store or restaurant to find.

"Safe, easy, reliable and portable connectivity is a top priority for our customers and Siri complements MyLink that contribute to create an incredible driving experience that is available," said Cristi Landy, Chevrolet small cars Marketing Manager, referring to the brand's latest Infotainment technology.

The technology is offered 2014 spark EV battery electric vehicle subcompact and spark minicar, and the new in the conventionally powered Chevrolet Sonic. It will connect via Bluetooth technology for these vehicles with MyLink. And GM will now find a special Siri activation button on the steering wheel, similar to the button that already have many vehicles to enable traditional voice technologies.

The three models reach an audience usually young, tech-savvy and GM estimates that more than 90 percent of its buyers already have smartphones. But Siri could later be integrated into other models. The manufacturer announced a version of the next-generation of the ChevyMyLink system to the upcoming remake by his great Impala.

Apple Siri 4 series introduced to the latest version of the iPhone, and it is standard on all models for new iPhone 5. The manufacturer has specified, so that the function integrated also his interest in working vehicles through the addition of a special button "Siri" with manufacturers, but marketing manager Landy boasted the "Chevrolet has announced that Siri free ability in the spark and Sonic available face eyes of luxury brands,

The eyes blocked free mode is still more complex activities, which will be a distraction, such as those, could prove a motorists to consider, to take the phone or the car video screen, measures would have to.

Distracted driving an important concern among safety advocates, U.S. Department of transportation Chief Ray LaHood has, who appreciate recently more than 11 percent of all highway deaths with road distractions such as SMS can be connected. Proponents, stress, however, that controlled technologies such as Siri, distracted driving voice can be reduced.

Other automakers, including Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota allegedly work with adding Apple Siri capability. Mercedes-Benz has already a voice control feature announced the it as iPhone- as described, although it has not confirmed plans for adding a button of Siri.

Infotainment technology, especially the voice all are enabled when necessary for automakers appeal to buyers in the digital age of hope.

"We have more people coming to Ford, because they know we have better Infotainment technology," said Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co. of global marketing director in an interview with TheDetroitBureau.com.

Ford was one of the early pioneers of the technology with the sync system, which was developed through a partnership with Microsoft. But it has also found out that the infotainment systems can be both good news and bad. The manufacturer has taken sharp responses from consumers and critics for problems with the operation of its car technologies. Fiesta mini car, which should be easier to use announced Ford this week an updated version of its MyFordTouch system for the year 2014.

A critical decision makers is designed to simplify the operation of such technologies with a focus on, so that motorists can use conventional speech rather than to learn rigid command language, which perform a number of steps to an otherwise simple process how to pair a Smartphone requires.

Together with Siri feature, the system Chevy MyLink builds its ability of a driver to integrate the choice of music, such as access to different Smartphone apps. And in an other potential breakthrough, some Chevrolet models with BringGo can link Navi app based on a Smartphone, it is available for only $50, a fraction of the cost for a typical car navigation system.

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Toyota, Honda, the essentially reminds in 2012

Paul A. Eisenstein, the Detroit Bureau
Japan's two largest auto manufacturers appear in a race to achieve the dubious distinction of recalled more vehicles than any other car manufacturer during 2012 for an array of safety problems that are locked in the area fire hazards for the safety belt.

The latest issue includes 140,000 Toyota Tacoma pickups, which the manufacturer says, corrosion could strongly enough to find out that their space tires could fall off while driving. Toyota has recalled several models, including its Sienna minivan, for similar problems in the past.

The announcement comes barely a month after Toyota, that there would be worldwide due to a faulty window switch call back 7.5 million vehicles, which could catch fire, it was also 2.5 million vehicles sold in the United States the largest single recall in the history of the manufacturer. Followed by days of Honda announcement of three separate safety recalls affect 1.7 million vehicles.

The two automakers have led together in 2009 and 2010 largely the list of recalled vehicles for the last three years Toyota and Honda by its massive problems with so-called unintended acceleration in 2011 after a series of problems including defective airbags.

This year so far, according to sales figures despite such problems, no manufacturer seems to be much impetus to the U.S. market losing. Quite the contrary. Toyota and Honda have experienced some of the biggest sales gains in years - although at least some of this year compared with the previous year increases were the result of last year's Japanese earthquake and tsunami, both manufacturers fighting to leave with product shortages. Many potential customers was to wait until this year, supplies were normal again.

Analyst Rebecca Lindland of IHS automotive no current security issues expected Toyota's way loyal buyers, drive, though, that has warned "for those people on the fence about buying a Toyota, this will affect. It could be more difficult getting new buyers into the showroom."

Work to their favor, however, have the two makers continue well in a variety of the last quality and reliability studies scored. The three sold the diagram in the latest consumer reports automotive reliability investigation Toyota brand in the United States, Lexus, Scion, and Toyota, crowned, for example. But a senior car testers for the non-profit magazine pointed out that it takes not reminded to consider in determining the reliability of the individual brands.

Who are remembered most of the vehicles that this year remains to be seen. Toyota seemed announced a massive service action on the track of NAB this dubious honor again in 2011 - to Honda in the last days of the year.

, Security checkpoints through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in fact now is more affecting almost 700,000 of its Odyssey of minivans and SUVs Honda Pilot compared to. It is far from sure that reminds those actions, leads, and even if they did, whether any announcement would come in 2012.

Meanwhile, the two Japanese manufacturers are certainly not the only ones who have had safety problems in recent months.

Chrysler Jeep brand reminds 919.000 of his liberty and Grand Cherokee SUVs this month due to a problem with the airbag. And Ford before an airbag problem for themselves, in the last month with the Fiesta subcompact. Has the larger of the two U.S. manufacturers, meanwhile, experienced a string of recalls with its popular escape SUV both older than new launched this year.

Analysts say that Ford bigger issue a general trip including the consumer reports reliability study and the recent J.D. power quality initial tour of quality charts was.

The latest Toyota recall looks Tacoma pickups in 20 States in cold weather as well as the District of Columbia between 2001 and 2004 sold. The spare wheel is stored under the truck bed in these vehicles, where the plate that holds it in position can be corroded by the contact with the road salt. The manufacturer plans to repair without cost to the consumer.

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GM acquisition of the assets of the allies in Europe and Latin America

Tom Kirsher, AP
Tummelson-GM said Wednesday that it ally to buy financial operations in Europe, China and Latin America, as it is trying build a global finance unit to low-interest car loans and increase sales.

The auto giant U.S. credit business, GM financial, will pay $4.25 billion for the Allied assets, to help better the markets compete in GM, where other car manufacturers already have their own credit. Car manufacturers with the own finance arms often subsidize loans and leasing to increase sales.

The offer, which must be approved by regulatory authorities, is expected next year phased to close. Ally, ally over the carrying amount of the assets, a bonus of $550 million the $3.7 billion in the third quarter was maintained, said in a press release.

Ally, who was GM financial arm until it was taken by the U.S. Government in the 2008 collapse of the industry, banks is the sale of assets to money to repay of the Government for a $17.2 billion rescue package. So far, ally has paid back $5.8 billion, so that a balance of $11.4 billion. The company took advantage of GMAC financial services.

The move by the recovery of a unit that was once highly profitable before the collapse, GM will help Argus said research analyst Bill Selesky. They grow in countries where the middle class is growing, also helps GM, he said.

"they believe that future growth will be largely determined by the growth of emerging countries." You think, this is where the future of car loans, higher growth regions,"he said.

GM give $2 billion to GM financial to purchase, the car maker said in a statement. The deal includes the operations of the allies in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria. Moreover, an ally of the 40-percent stake in a Chinese joint venture car financing companies.

The GM financial assets to approximately 33 billion $ double and liabilities, including debt rises to $27 billion by about 12 billion $ today, GM said in the statement.

"GM is entering the most aggressive rollouts of new vehicles in its history, and this acquisition will make us a more formidable competition that is all over the world, to provide competitive financing for our customers and dealers," said Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann.

In exchange for the bail-outs for ally, the U.S. Government has 74 percent of the ordinary shares of the lender plus $ worth of 5.9 billion of preference shares.

Ally last month its Canadian operations at the Royal Bank of Canada for $4.1 billion and a Mexican insurance business for $865 million sold. The GM deal with 9 billion have allies $ in additional cash. It could use the money to buy back the preferred shares, but Gina Proia ally spokeswoman said that no decision has been taken to repay the Government.

Privately held allies has a first public offer, more money get back looking for the Government, but that has been put on ice until conditions improve the stock market.

The acquisition by GM a further step in the direction of is its global financial arm that a profit-center before the meltdown 2008 was mortgage. At GMAC, GM sold a 51-percent stake in 2006 when it was cash-starved. The new owners, under the leadership of private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, ran into trouble in 2008 with bad mortgage loans and had to be rescued by the Government.

Ally Financial Inc. now focuses on its U.S. car loans and bank holding company company. In may, his mortgage, loan and service subsidiary, residential Capital LLC, or ResCap, applied for creditor protection, cancellation of ally of ties to the troubled unit. Toxic mortgages from the ResCap caused the most allies of the financial problems. A tender offer of $3 billion from a unit Ocwen Financial Corp. ResCap has since taken over.

GM has nearly a 10 percent stake in ally.

In the third quarter of ally a $384 million net profit, reversing a loss from a year ago, before mostly because they have no losses from ResCap.

Verbundeter business continue to be strong, said global automotive services with the loan it increase and improvement in the third quarter despite the increasing competition amongst the lenders for car loans funded.

Meanwhile, retail deposits his allies banking division rose by 22 percent, and customer accounts grew by 24 percent, the company said.

October paid back ally $2.9 billion of debt that it under a government program the hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. Bank issued, secured debt during the financial crisis. The program is independent of the rescue operation. Ally has in the past month that it intends, in December guaranteed to repay the remaining $4.5 billion through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. program.

AP business writer David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

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150,000 Tacoma pickup trucks, Toyota recalls

Bernie Woodall, Reuters
Toyota Motor Corp. is about 160,000 Tacoma mid-size pickup trucks from model years 2001 to 2004 in cold weather States and Canada Recalling, as the spare wheel could fall off.

The spare wheel in this Tacoma models is stored beneath the truck bed. Were made as the truck, Toyota said the metal plate that holds the spare tire in place not with sufficient amounts of phosphate, rust, brake was coated.

Reported two accidents, involving a Toyota spokesman said Toyota, but not to an injury, Tacoma truck vehicles.

In the course of time and in rare cases can cause corrosion of plate to crack it, the detachment of the spare tire, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. said in a statement on Wednesday.

The recall covers 150,000 truck originally 20 cold weather U.S. States and 10,000 trucks in Canada sold Toyota said.

Letters go in December to the owners of the recalled vehicles, Toyota said.

Toyota dealer replaced spare tire Assembly, if necessary, without cost for Tacoma owner.

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Californians can now fill up on algae-based biodiesel

Paul A. Eisenstein, TheDetroitBureau.com
No, you can not simply the Green foam forms on your swimming pool into the gas tank, pump, but can drivers in the San Francisco area fill now derived on the new biofuel from algae.

There are many supporters, the search replace for ways to oil with renewable fuels, although some alternatives, such as ethanol made from corn, under fire, especially in the wake of last summer nationwide drought came. But the bio-fuel system-based Solazyme, Inc. developed by South San Francisco do not tap on the food supply.

"We have a stake in the ground, put," Matt Horton, Chief Executive Officer of propel said that supplies of the fuel at four stations in the vicinity of San Francisco and want the distribution fuels as follows in California expand on "Hundreds of stations."

The algae-based fuel known as B20, d. petrodiesel blend 80% and 20% biofuel h.. 100% Biodiesel in a conventional vehicle without use and change the performance or reduction in the life of a diesel engine for this is usually the maximum drivers at a public gas station - although they pass company officials.

The biggest problem would be to price because of bio-fuel costs currently longer than the stuff to produce refined petroleum. The first four stations were $4.25 per gallon, about the same as standard diesel fuel in the San Francisco area charge.

The debut is months, part of a pilot program although it is clear that Solazyme and propel marketing remains the biofuel, when customers would agree.

Scientists around the world are looking for ways to replace oil with alternatives, which could prove, clean, renewable, and, if possible, cheaper. The most commonly available biofuel is ethanol, alcohol, which can be used in many late model cars in a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. It also serves as an additive in conventional gasoline in many parts of the country, when even at much lower concentrations.

Significant debate over ethanol has taken place, but one of the biggest concerns is that most on corn to leave the fuel production facilities. Indeed who can environmental protection agency current mandates because of lack of maize during the last summer drought without.

Proponents would like to relocate by ethanol for the food warehouse on so-called cellulosic ethanol, the composed of a variety of alternative stocks of grain chaff to waste paper. The ramp-up of cellulosic ethanol has been slow however. And in general consumers rush to ethanol pumps, regardless of its source, despite low prices, subsidized failed.

The sponsors hope that most motorists will not care, where comes from the B20 - with the exception of those who would prefer to find a supply of diesel, at least in part based on renewable energies.

A number of companies invest in the production of algae-based fuel, including Solray energy and Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, from New Zealand. Are experimenting with different alternative manufacturing methods. It would flow sewage from sources such as waste water treatment plants in open ponds. The other approach uses a more condensed method of the piping, which thinks about the primitive life form in a given footprint of the country can be saved.

As competitors, they and the Californian Solazyme then refine to consume the raw material of this "rough algae" in quantity of usable fuel that can be mixed with conventional diesel.

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To us bring 2014 smaller engine Ford Fiesta

Paul A. Eisenstein, the Detroit Bureau
Ford offers a new 1, 2.0-liter small car next year start three-cylinder version of its turbocharged EcoBoost Powertrain family on the updated Fiesta, and although no final figures for the option-saving fuel has worked, one official senior company promised that it will bring more than 40 miles per gallon.

"We forecasts are, that it will deliver by any of our competitors, higher mileage than any non-hybrid car," said Ford Motor Bob Fascetti, Director of operations global, during a news conference Monday.

Ford has an aggressive thrust itself as the greenest automaker, a major challenge given the market perception of the arch-rival Toyota - this is the world's most popular hybrid vehicle to market the Prius. But Ford has an array of conventional hybrids and battery-electric vehicles, with two plug-in hybrids, the fusion of Energi and C-Max Energi, due to debut at the LA Auto show rolls were later this month.

Meanwhile, the manufacturer shall continue on the rise with his high-tech EcoBoost line-up. Currently there are three versions of the family of the Turbo in the United States, a 1, 1.6-liter inline-4, a 2.0-liter I-4 and a 3, 5-liter V-6 available. The latter engine is now 42% of the Ford F-series pickup sales of purchasable option, officials conducting the company even surprised.

"The old adage now obsolete there is no replacement for displacement, is," Fascetti said.

Since the launch in mid-2009 of the EcoBoost technology, Ford has sold worldwide more than 520,000 of the motors and the demand for 2012 will be expected to be more than 270,000 after Fascetti. Ford wants to have sold worldwide until the end of 2013-equipped vehicles 1.3 million EcoBoost. Until then the different versions will line up North American available in 90 percent of Ford's.

Economy in comparison to similar size with an average improvement 20 percent fuel gasoline engines, Ford has a viable alternative to both diesel and, in some cases, hybrid technology the EcoBoost. EcoBoost makes replacing the hybrid option when starting Ford its new escape crossover earlier in the year 2012.

The new version will be the Powertrain, at least at the moment from Ford's engine plant in Cologne, Germany, be imported though it is possible to shift production in the United States with strong enough demand would be - to avoid the penalty of shipping costs and an uneven dollar/euro exchange rate.

While fuel economy is clearly a major selling point, the new 1, 2.0 liter EcoBoost engine will be also significantly more power supply - 123 HORSEPOWER and lb-ft of torque 148 - as the Fiesta 1 standard output, 6-liter I 4 makes it 120 HORSEPOWER and 112 lb-ft. The naturally aspirated engine produces 29 mpg city, highway 39 and 33 combined. To beat the best non-hybrid models now on the market, EcoBoost the 44s would have to rise by about 20 percent or more this number.

Some consumers may be initially wary of the small-displacement engine – and the historical record shows that the traditional-3 designs have had various problems with noise, hardness, and reliability. Ford has been taken a series of measures aimed at improving the 1.0-litre EcoBoost on all counts and eliminated effectively also other problems such as delay, usually with supercharged engines.

The new engine uses a small, but fast-spinning Turbo, which is tightly coupled to the exhaust manifold. It makes the exhaust fumes that "spool up" or a Turbo spin, so faster printing the less delay it builds at the start is from the State.

Previous three-cylinder engines usually with complex and heavy balance shafts were equipped, Ford a flywheel balance and pulley, inherent vibration and noise powertrains with an odd number of cylinders which effectively neutralize adopted.

Noise levels were reduced further by a rubberized belt, rather than a metal chain and passing through a reservoir.

The new 2.0-liter engine is while the smallest EcoBoost family, it is also the most demanding, after Fascetti, suggested that "while we update the other EcoBoost engines we some of the same technologies will accept."

1, 2.0 Liter EcoBoost model year Ford be mid-2013 on the 2014 Fiesta small car available. Officials indicated that it will probably carry a premium over the larger, but less technically demanding 1, 4-liter I 4 - as with other versions of offered in other products Ford EcoBoost line up.

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Americans are buckling as never previously above.

Paul A. Eisenstein, TheDetroitBureau.com
More Americans are 86% as ever, after the nation above an all-time hit of the traffic safety agency buckling record partly by a significant increase in the South.

For the dramatic decline in deaths of US over the last decade was the trend to increased seat belt use credited.

"When it comes to ensure that road, one of the most effective ways to protect and your family is a seat belt use", said Ray LaHood Secretary of the U.S. Department of transportation, adding that push the numbers will go even higher, during the upcoming holiday season.

While seat belt use is mandatory in many parts of the industrialized world decades since, the United States had a hodgepodge of laws at best and can issue yet in some States, police use tickets for the failure of the primary safety device, if a driver commits a different offense. But a growing number of States the violation a primary offense, and national efforts to motorists turned to the fasten joined.

Every State but New Hampshire requires now adult motorists to buckle this traditionally independent State in New England with the use for those under 18 thirty-two States and the District of Columbia have now primary belt laws in force.

That has a significant level of success, seat belt use a jump of only 58% only in 1994, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had.

Consumption rises and falls, NHTSA mentioned, the US average dipped to 84% in the last year down from 85% in 2010. Michigan reached a peak of 98% in 2009, but the low beam on just over 94% in the previous year.

In the latest study, Pennsylvania saw a decrease of 2.2%, less than 84%.

There are regional differences, and has in the South tend to be relatively low safety belt use. But that rose to 85% this year according to NHTSA, a 5 percentage points by 80% in 2011. Efforts seem in motorists driving to the strap on a significant role played.

The State with the lowest utilization is Massachusetts, 73.2% this year. Washington State, leads to the other side of the nation at 97.5%.

The Government Agency estimates that a one percent increase in the seat belt use saves annually 220 lives. NHTSA credits the simple device with more than 72,000 save between 2005 and 2009 - or roughly the equivalent of two years of road deaths from the current US tempo.

Although preliminary data 2012 shows a very slight increase in deaths in the first half of the year will be the interstate highway system reached the lowest U.S. traffic Toten last year since 1949, even before the founding of the American.

According to estimates of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 32.310 accident killed a decrease of 1.7% in 2011 year compared to the previous year. Marks the seventh consecutive year that the death rate has declined.

Decreased since 2005 of only fatalities by more than 25% - and measured in terms of deaths per mile dangers the figure reached its lowest level since the beginning of records in 1921, according to NHTSA.

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Toyota gets world's 2.8 million vehicles

A month after the announcement, its largest single recall Toyota has revealed some new quality problems, the safety-related repairs to a further 2.8 million vehicles - including his high-profile Prius hybrid models make it force.

The news was another blow of the Japanese giant picture despite having the latest consumer reports automotive reliability investigation landed on the supply. He is also Toyota in a position where it can again compete Honda for the dubious distinction of having is reminded with Japanese rival most of the vehicles of all manufacturers in the United States this year.

The latest recall is wave the result of a water pump problem and a steering damaged. Problems with a wide range of Toyota products by using the components of the steering system can do this. The manufacturer often shares parts for numerous models to reduce costs - but the risks this approach the possibility of widespread create reminiscent, if there is a problem. Two problems on the same vehicle can be present in this case.

Shaft of the Steering defect to the callback by 1.51 million vehicles in Japan is involved in and sold an other vehicles in other parts of the world and among the most notable models affected Compact are the Corolla and Prius, the world's most popular hybrid. About 670,000 of these vehicles sold in the United States between 2000 and 2009 model years.

About 620,000 of these vehicles can be equipped with the faulty water pump. This list not only the Prius, but four hybrid models contains, Toyota is confirmed. Vehicles may be repaired both items were sold between 2001 and 2010 in Japan, and from 2003 to 2011 in the United States and other overseas markets.

Meanwhile, vehicles only on the defective water pump are a further 10,000 Toyota recalled.

The new recall comes as a significant setback for Toyota and for a variety of reasons.

Exactly one month ago, the manufacturer announced - what is the world's best-selling automaker - its largest recall on the way again. 7,43 Million vehicles were involved, more than one-third of it in the United States, also makes it the largest recall of the world over the last 16 years.

Just these two security involved with 3.2 million vehicles, Honda now as a manufacturer in the United States the smaller manufacturers of this unwanted distinction hunts the most recalled earned repair campaigns, Toyota last year but was Toyota were top of the list in 2010, mainly as a result of the millions of vehicles that scandal involved the company CEO Akio Toyoda in the so-called "unintended acceleration", bear witness in tears before the US Congress.

The grandson of the founder Toyota, promised Toyoda to intensify focus on quality, reliability and security of the company. And there are clear signs of improvement. It has achieved on a number of studies, including the annual survey of the reliability by consumer reports, which keeps the results of millions of readers of the influential magazine but also. Three brands of the manufacturer, Toyota, Scion and Lexus, crowned, in that order in the chart.

But CR officials pointed out that it is not remembered in its results, consider despite the potential impact on the quality or reliability.

What is potentially problematic about the latest recalls is the fact that it includes products which only sold the model year 2011, after President Toyoda its touted much to fix push began to Toyota quality problems.

Despite the potential tarnishing the image damage continue to collect Toyota safety, sale that ends with the maker, forecast that it will be near the milestone 10 million mark for the current fiscal year on March 31. The win led to a tripling in the last quarter.

But Toyota before other problems, notably a boycott in the booming Chinese market, that before recently Les of the manufacturer raised its forecast for the year slightly cut turnover.

(C) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012.

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More US women than men have driving license

Paul A. Eisenstein, the Detroit Bureau
As this has clearly shown month presidential elections, there is a significant demographic change in America - and you need to check that voter roles, to confirm that not. Just looking around you on the highway.

More women than men's study now a driver's license have a new Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan or UMTRI, the gender trends in driving licences between 1995 and 2010 looked at.

The gap will show expected to continue widening the study, that the number of Americans with a driver's license has to shrink over the past 15 years was. The decline in men 25 to 29 years already twice as large as females.

"The demographic gender require large impact on the size and type of vehicle energy consumption and road safety", said Michael Sivak, co-author of the study.

While the right to vote in most of the country by the time that won, rolled Henry Ford his first model T, efforts to the women of the street little momentum during the early 20.Jahrhundert still had earned women not saying Margaret Walsh, author of "Sex and the car in the United States."

"they were outnumbered in the minority," writes Walsh "and your driving style often mocked men." However, it added, "could see women as men, the benefits of a freer movement."

In the 1950s the driving test - had given millions of women, although only half reach driving age in the Eisenhower era, when women to stay at home and were expected to raise a family, had received a license yet.

But when the idea of women's Liberation began to bite, the trend in gear shifted. In 1995, the number of women with a license was only slightly behind 87.4 million to 89.2 million men. And vice versa, even the gap up to the year 2010 with 105.7 million licensed 104.3 million American women compared to men.

The UMTRI study finds that the gap varies according to age. There was a remarkable decline in recent years the number of teenagers who get their licenses. Almost every fourth, which didn't bother 19 year old, as of 2008, the Michigan research group in a study published discovered last summer compared to one in eight back in the 1970s.

Meanwhile, the new report UMTRI, that while the share of men aged between 25 and 29 licenses receive has fallen 10.6 per cent in the last 15 years, it has fallen only 4.7 per cent among women shows.

Men are still dominated by older drivers. This probably reflects the fact that it slightly more men by a ratio of 105 to 100 in the United States than women born. But the ladies after 70 years catch up because men are less likely to live so long - with a life expectancy of 75 years, compared to 80 years for women. The UMTRI study shows older women hang their licenses longer.

Margaret Dunning landed in the headlines after 102 this year - and driving is still 82 years had 740 Roadster the Packard. Describes himself as "just a farm girl", they have learned how go at 8 and was officially licensed by 12, after the death of her father.

As to why fewer men their license get, experts show on a variety of factors, including the economy: vehicles are specially designed for insurance companies in recent years much more expensive become.

Sampson suggests that the rise of the Internet and the increased use of Smartphone technology in the game can be. "Virtual Contact", he said, "reduces the need of actual contact."

On the other side can see women getting a license and a car as a sign of liberation.

But who is really more the better driver? Different studies come up with contradictory results.

Would suggest a 2011 UMTRI study published in the journal traffic injury prevention found that female driver run far more into each other much higher rise than are likely to be pure coincidence. Crashes with two women were "over-represented" according to Sampson.

Then again, one found 2011 MetLife Auto & home safety American pulse survey that women receive fewer cards for reckless driving and accident about 50 percent less often than men die.

Bad driver jokes aside, it seems that most women detect who is doing a better job on the road. According to the new study by MetLife 51 percent of women believe they're better drivers with only 25 per cent men; the rest are undecided. Show in men, which included the streets, only 39 percent say they govern in the survey with 26 percent on their female counterparts.

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Sandy is discussed on car insurance experts suggest.

Paul A. Eisenstein, NBC News contribution
If Superstorm Sandy smash New York coast two weeks ago in the Metro, NJ devastated everything in its path from the houses on Staten Iceland, the roller coaster on the Boardwalk of Seaside Heights, the winds and waves.

Were caught in the deluge, tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of cars. Some came from flooded Manhattan garages float. The roofs of others could barely submerged shipping are seen at the port near the city of Newark. Still more were thrown and rolled in communities such as Atlantic City, Breezy Point and sea bright, amid the wreckage of homes, boats and businesses wrapped up.

Just how many vehicles in the disaster are captured, remains to be seen, and the count can take months. Billions to the total damage could it from what to expect will add to one of the most expensive storms ever to strike of the United States - but experts are already discussed whether Sandys car toll come anywhere near what those was seen in other recent disasters, in the 2005 hurricane Katrina.

A preliminary estimate by the National Automobile Dealers Association suggests the tally could reach 250,000 vehicles, were significantly lower than the 600,000 experts say Katrina claims. But preliminary data suggest the damage may be far less than initially feared - a speedy review of data by the associated press search of claims only 31,000 with four major insurance companies, the New York region from late last week submitted the.

"It's not anything near what we're talking about the Katrina situation," said James Appleton, President of the New Jersey coalition of automotive retailers, AP.

The Coalition is about 500 N.J. dealers, but there are more than 1,500 showrooms in the NY TriState region. And including the shipping Portal are the busiest for car manufacturers on the East coast near the city of Newark, Port Elizabeth,.

"We had nearly 5,000 cars in Port Elizabeth, N.J., and a little more than 1,000 more cars in dealer has up and down the East Coast, which are not for sale and must be destroyed", said Dave Reuter, head of U.S. spokesman for Nissan. "Naturally, there customers cars that were damaged, too, but will take it to determine how many."

More than a dozen Fisker Karma plug-in-hybrids and with at least a Toyota Prius hybrid caught, while the flooding fire, a problem now believed to short-circuit out of salt water caused by batteries of vehicles. Fisker reported around 320 of its new model were due to flooding, lost everything in everything in Port Elizabeth. A further 4,000 Toyota and Lexus models were now also in the shipping center on the outskirts of Newark, waiting for the delivery to the dealer. All in all were lost an estimated 14,000 new vehicles in New York area ports.

Automakers are likely to avoid scrap most or all these vehicles, later with problems they should unexpected flood problems to develop. Industry officials warn that it is, were possible to dry a car submerged every vehicle, its engine and other mechanical main components, probably later learns problems, whether premature corrosion, faulty electrical and electronic systems or simply musty odors and mold, which can not be curbed.

The concern is that dealers and consumers, not can try especially those whose losses caused are covered by insurance to repair their vehicles and push them back into the market.

"A car, with the engine under water for a long time in a flood was never the same", said Carl Sullivan, who has experience of vehicles to the destination, almost two decades a California-based team of car inspectors check.

Insurance insurance therefore are related crime, including the resale of vehicles, to write off the insurance companies after storms so far fewer claims than at the same time, logging after Katrina, the title according to the national insurance Crime Bureau show.

But experts warn that it is weeks before the full extent of the damage - in many cases is known as car dealers and vehicle owners are still struggling with more serious topics such as the destruction of the homes or businesses could be, even months. In many parts of the affected coastline, it is quite possible that any homeowner, choose experience from the storm only to a house under water or wind damaged sit one had or more vehicles are also affected.

Experts such as target of the Sullivan warn that the problem finally used could reach impact car buyers away from the storm. Note that fraudsters junked vehicles take minimal repairs, make and they then move to the country, register them in States where washing off their title notations such as "Junked" or "Flooded" register.

Sullivan said that it is difficult to detect a flood damaged vehicle may be; Once, he found only by a few dead fish to discover hidden under a seat. But he suggested several important steps, such as:

In search of water or condensation in the headlights or taillights.

Mud in the seat belt latch or seat track.
Water in the trunk.
Corrosion in unusual places, such as on the top of the shock towers.
A musty smell or mold.
Buyers can also be affected when in fact, destroyed "Worst Case" meet the number of vehicles by Sandy forecasts prove. Used car that have executed prices at or near record levels in recent months. That is in large part due to the low sales of new vehicles during the recession led to a lack of relatively new, "previously owned" vehicles.

A burst of demand in the coming months could mean that "We can see anything from $200 to $600 in higher prices for good" "depending on", how much is needed, cautioned Ricky Beggs, editor in Chief of the black book used car, vehicle prices are tracked.

He expects strong demand for pickups and vans, in the coming months come as replace contractors not only damaged vehicles, but add to their fleets, to the mammoth task help new take over much of the mid-Atlantic coast.

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'Green' car makers look for boost in second Obama term

Paul A. Eisenstein , NBC News contributor

President Barack Obama’s support for the 2009 auto industry bailout turned out to be critical to his successful re-election bid.

And with Obama re-elected, at least one segment of the industry is breathing a bit easier, as manufacturers of so-called “green” cars count on continued support in the form of federal subsidies and tax credits.

But it remains to be seen how far Obama will go in supporting green cars in his second term. The industry has been struggling for sales in a marketplace that still overwhelmingly supports traditional internal-combustion vehicles, despite volatile gas prices and big federal tax incentives for electric cars.

Even if Obama decides to spend more political capital on the industry, he is likely to run into opposition from the Republican-controlled House.

The Electric Drive Transportation Association, which represents makers of hybrid and electric cars, said it “looks forward to continuing its work with President Obama and the newly elected Congress to advance technology innovation that will diversify our transportation fuels.”

The industry had been caught in the crossfire of the presidential campaign, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney signaling a disdain for green energy championed by Obama, especially if it required financial backing from the federal government. He opposed credits for wind energy and signaled opposition for tougher mileage standards, backed by Obama, that would push average fleet standard to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Pressure from House conservatives all but froze a program intended to help fund the development of high-mileage, alternate power vehicles – especially after the failure of solar cell manufacturer Solyndra, which had received over $400 million in government loans. California-based Fisker Automotive had its low-interest loans frozen, forcing it to delay launch of its second model, the Atlantic, as it set out to raise cash through traditional channels.

Tesla Motors, another Silicon Valley start-up, is under pressure to pay back its government loans as quickly as possible, putting pressure on that maker’s balance sheet even as it struggles to ramp up production of its new Model S battery-electric sedan.

The battery car market has gotten off to a sluggish start, with total sales in the U.S. barely reaching 20,000 units last year.

As for plug-in cars, the Chevrolet Volt has sold about 19,000 units nationwide as of the end of October, meaning it is likely to barely reach half its 45,000 unit target for 2012.

Sales of the Nissan Leaf, a battery-electric model, have declined, with sales of just 6,791 in the first 10 months of 2012, compared with about 10,000 sold in all of 2011.

Recent months have seen a flood of new green entries from makers like Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Ford, with still more coming to U.S. showrooms by early 2013. That includes pure battery-electric offerings like the Toyota RAV4-EV and Ford’s plug-in hybrid C-Max and Fusion Energi models.

With so many makers struggling for viability in what is still a niche market, Obama’s re-election was “the best thing” possible for the industry, said analyst David Sullivan of AutoPacific.

“If there was a change in Washington, DC we were likely to see less government incentives for (electric) vehicle purchases or charging stations,” said Sullivan. “The barrier to entry would have been that much harder for consumers, making it just that much harder for (the industry) to succeed.”

Battery vehicle sales would all but certainly slide even further were the federal government to eliminate or reduce tax credits worth up to $7,500 on qualifying vehicles. And there is significant hope among industry leaders that Obama will push for the expanded incentives he had proposed earlier this year.

That could include raiseing the maximum tax credit to $10,000. Obama also has proposed providing the tax credit up front, rather than forcing consumers to wait for tax time to get the refund.

It remains to be seen whether the White House will renew the call for expanded incentives or try to renew the low-interest loans for the auto and energy industry – though that seems unlikely in the near-term with Congress and the White House facing the need to address the so-called “fiscal cliff” before year-end.

Even so, there remains guarded optimism that battery vehicle sales will do better in the year to come. The continuing rise in fuel prices – despite occasional downward blips like the country is now experiencing – should lead more motorists to look for alternatives. And with still more products coming to market, the auto industry will be glad to oblige.

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Chrysler recalls over 900,000 Jeeps for airbag issue

Paul A. Eisenstein, TheDetroitBureau.com

Chrysler is recalling over 919,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Liberty SUVs worldwide due to a potential defect that can cause their airbags to unexpectedly inflate while the vehicles are being driven.

A total of 775,000 older versions of the two Jeep models will be impacted in the U.S., along with 49,000 sold in Canada, 22,000 in Mexico and the rest distributed to other global markets. While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the problem has not led to any accidents there have been a number of minor injuries caused by the inadvertent airbag deployments.

The latest recall adds to the growing tally of safety actions related to airbag safety defects. Ford, Honda and Hyundai are among the list of other makers who have been affected in recent years.

NHTSA reports that the Jeep problem involves Grand Cherokees produced in the 2002 through 2004 model-years, and Liberty SUVs produced in 2002 and 2003. According to the safety agency, the problem has been linked to a defective part in the computer used to control the airbags.

Under normal circumstances, airbags rely on a network of sensors that indicate when and where a collision has occurred – and on more recent models, sensors also detect the severity of a crash and where occupants are sitting in the vehicle. The Jeeps involved in the recall may see their front or side-impact airbags inflate even if they aren’t involved in a collision. Pre-tensioning seatbelts may also be triggered.

A Chrysler spokesman noted that the problem has occurred in less than three-hundreths of a percent of the Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee models on the road.

Nonetheless, after completing a year-long investigation, NHTSA determined the problem occurred 215 times, causing 81 minor injuries – but while the inadvertent airbag deployments have not been linked to any crashes, the safety agency warns that drivers could be startled into losing control of their vehicles.

Chrysler says it plans to notify owners by January and repairs will be made to the electrical system at no charge to consumers.

Automotive manufacturers have seen a number of airbag issues pop up in recent years forcing them to recall large numbers of vehicles. In July, Hyundai recalled 220,000 Sonata sedans and Santa Fe SUVs from the 2007 to 2009 model-years because sensors designed to protect small children in an airbag deployment might not work. The maker also recalled nearly 23,000 late-model Sonatas for a separate airbag problem.

Ford announced the recall of 154,000 Fiesta models due to airbag problems last month, and the maker previously called back 1.5 million vehicles – including 1.2 million F-Series pickups – due to unexpected airbag deployments.

Honda, meanwhile, has recalled over 2.5 million vehicles sold through the Honda and Acura brands because they could deploy with too much force, sending deadly shrapnel into the passenger compartment. The problem was linked to at least two deaths.

Because of the potential dangers, NHTSA has put a high priority on discovering and fixing airbag problems.

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After storm, 250K autos headed to scrap heap

Reuters

Superstorm Sandy may consign as many as a quarter of a million new and used cars and trucks to the scrap heap, a loss that could eventually lead to a spike in new auto sales, automakers and dealers said.

So far, automakers have reported that some 16,000 brand new vehicles will have to be scrapped due to the killer storm that flooded coastal areas in New Jersey and New York. Many of them were stored at the port of Newark when Sandy hit.

That figure may grow once the two biggest automakers by U.S. sales, General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co, announce how many vehicles they lost due to Sandy. By Wednesday, nine days after Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, neither GM nor Ford gave estimates of vehicles that are a total loss.

Sandy, one of the largest storms to strike the United States, left more than 8 million homes and businesses in the Northeast without electricity. All but a handful of New Jersey and New York auto dealerships were back in operation by Wednesday, some operating on generator power.

At least 121 people were killed in the storm's rampage through the Northeast, including 80 in New York and New Jersey.

Some consumers with damaged vehicles may need to replace them with a new car, which automakers have said will boost sales eventually, said Mark Schienberg, president of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association.

But, Schienberg added, because of the distress caused by Sandy's wrath, "Right now, I don't think car sales are on the top of everybody's mind."

Last Thursday, Toyota Motor Corp, No. 3 in U.S. auto sales, said that 30,000 of October industry sales were lost due to less customer traffic or delayed purchases by consumers.

Each of the major automakers said they expected those sales to be recovered later in November or in December.

Six of the leading eight automakers in terms of U.S. sales said on Wednesday that at least 16,000 new vehicles were damaged, and the lion's share of those will have to be scrapped.

Counting cars in consumer hands increases the total loss estimated to at least 266,000 vehicles.

"We believe that between 100,000 and 250,000 vehicles currently in operation could be removed from used vehicle supply once all is said and done," said Laurence E. Dixon III, senior analyst with the National Automobile Dealers Association.

That compares with the 325,000 cars flooded during Hurricane Katrina, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Deals abound
All major automakers are offering some form of financial relief, allowing owners to defer payments for up to three months for customers in areas hardest hit until the end of the year.


Nissan Motor Co will offer employee pricing and discounted financing for Nissan and Infiniti vehicles in areas hit by Sandy through January 2. Nissan has 225 dealerships in the affected areas.

GM, Ford and Chrysler are each offering $500 cash toward the purchase or lease of a new vehicle for those who lost one from the same automaker because of the storm.

Hyundai, which lost 400 new vehicles to the storm, will cut the cost of a new replacement vehicle by $750. Toyota also announced on Wednesday that it would delay monthly payments for three months to people in affected areas who need to buy or lease a new vehicle because they lost a Toyota or Lexus in the storm.

Honda Motor Co sent out 500,000 emails to its customers in the storm-hit region, and will handle deferred payments and lease extensions on a case-by-case basis, said Chris Martin, company spokesman.

New vehicles too
Nissan will have to scrap 6,000 new cars and trucks, the most of any automaker, according to Travis Parman, Nissan spokesman.


Toyota is next with at least 4,825 vehicles damaged, most of which will have to be scrapped, said Jana Hartline, Toyota spokeswoman in California.

Several carmakers lost vehicles stored at the port of Newark in New Jersey, including Toyota, which had about 4,000 new vehicles stored there.

Green car startup Fisker Automotive said it lost more than $33 million worth of luxury Karma plug-in hybrids, 330 sedans priced at more than $100,000, at Newark.

Auto dealers and the automakers in less densely populated areas of the country are able to store cars and trucks on their own lots. But in the New York-New Jersey area, space is at a premium, so a high number of vehicles are stored at the port rather than being shipped to dealerships, Schienberg said.

GM lost an undisclosed number of new Chevrolet Spark subcompact sedans that were at the port that had been shipped from South Korea, the company said.

The losses could have been higher, said Jim Cain, a spokesman for GM, who said many dealers moved cars and trucks away from coastal areas ahead of the Sandy's arrival.

Jim Appleton, president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, said auto dealers moved to higher ground when they could, having learned their lessons from Hurricane Irene which struck the state in 2011.

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Mileage flap could cost Hyundai, Kia millions

Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau

Forced to restate mileage claims after a government audit, Hyundai and its Korean sibling Kia could be in a world of financial hurt – even as they struggle to overcome the potential damage to their image which, in recent years, has put an emphasis on delivering industry benchmark fuel economy.

With several lawsuits already filed and more likely, Moody’s Investors Service has warned that the ultimate cost to the two brands could reach $100 million in the U.S. While other analysts aren’t ready to embrace that specific number, there is clear consensus the damage may be costly and long-lasting.

Together, Hyundai and Kia “will incur additional annual costs of about $100 million until the affected models are largely scrapped,” warns the ratings agency in a new report. It also noted that despite the size of that figure, it comes to less than 1 percent of the Korean automaker’s total earnings.

Both Hyundai and Kia have put an emphasis on fuel economy in recent years, together advertising more than a half-dozen models delivering highway mileage of at least 40 mpg. Or so they claimed until last week before an audit released by the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal agency overseeing fuel economy standards and vehicle testing.

Spurred by complaints about the real world mileage some Hyundai and Kia products produce, the EPA conducted an audit showing that the figures for 13 models – accounting for the sale of 900,000 vehicles in the U.S. since 2010 – were overstated by anywhere from one to six miles per gallon.

The Koreans insisted the mileage gap was not intentional but rather was the result of errors in their own testing procedures. After issuing a mea culpa, they also announced a plan to reimburse owners based on the added cost of fuel for their vehicles – adding in another 15 percent to cover the expense of having to bring those vehicles in to Hyundai and Kia dealers for odometer checks.

For someone clocking 15,000 miles a year, the result could be payouts of more than $80 a year for some models. Hyundai and Kia are promising to continue issuing reimbursements as long as the car is in the original owner’s hands. Considering the length of time many buyers today hang onto their vehicles, that could mean eventual payouts of as much as $500 or more per affected automobile. And if that were the case with all 900,000 vehicles, the payout bill might approach $500 million.

“Our focus is on making it right for the customers. We’re honestly not so focused on that cost,” Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik asserted during a media conference call late last week.

In reality, the typical payout is expected to be far less. Indeed, cautions analyst Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics, “For many owners, punching two hours out of their day to go to a dealer for a $60 debit card won’t be worth it.”

For the moment, Hall insisted trying to put a price tag on the fiasco would be like “trying to pull numbers out of the air,” though he agreed, “it is going to cost them.”

And other factors in the long-term payout could dwarf the cost of handing out debit cards to owners of vehicles like the 2012 Kia Soul – whose mileage rating has been cut by 6 mpg.

For one thing, there will almost certainly be fines imposed by the EPA. And the Federal Trade Commission could weigh in if it determines the makers violated advertising rules.

Then there are the legal bills. Even before last week’s disclosure, Hyundai had been sued by a consumer group that had insisted the maker’s mileage claims were inflated. This week, three Hyundai owners in Ohio filed another lawsuit seeking to recover damages and legal fees. It’s almost certain more lawsuits will follow and may very likely morph into one or more national class action cases. If successful, the bill for the Koreans could climb into the tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars.

But analyst Hall warns that the for-now “incalculable cost” could be the way the flap impacts Hyundai and Kia’s image. One may never get a clear sense of the damage to their brand images, as there’s no direct correlation between image and sales. But if mileage brouhaha reduces the number of potential buyers who consider their products, that will soon become obvious – and translate into lower sales.

That may be where the real numbers start to add up.

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Auto industry helped tilt vote toward Obama

Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau

Even as analysts pore over the data trying to get a clear understanding of what led President Barack Obama to victory on Tuesday, there’s a growing sense that the auto industry played a significant role, especially in the key battleground state of Ohio.


One of the most bitterly fought presidential campaigns in decades revealed significant strengths and weaknesses of both candidates. But as so often happens, external events – such as Superstorm Sandy – and campaign missteps, including “inaccurate” last-minute claims about General Motors and Chrysler, may have had as much of an impact on key voters as the debates, the endless political commercials and the long lists of endorsements claimed by either side.

Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than in Ohio, where voters’ decision in favor of the president was reported by the various TV networks as pushing Obama to re-election shortly after 11 p.m. EST. CNN’s chief political analyst John King, who repeatedly parsed the results from swing states down to the county level, noted that while much of Ohio was “red,” the color assigned to Republicans, “the industrial north is solidly blue” in a corridor that took in automotive manufacturing centers such as Toledo and Cleveland and its suburbs.

Those are traditionally Democratic strongholds, but would the vote have been so lopsidedly in favor of the president’s re-election, or would turnout have been quite so high if the auto industry had not been a central topic in the campaign?

Indeed, did former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney only ensure the loss of Ohio in what many critics have described as a “desperate” last-minute “scare campaign” claiming that Chrysler’s Jeep brand was getting ready to move all of its production from the U.S. to China?

That was the question that popped up repeatedly as TV talking heads watched the returns flood in from Ohio – in particular, the northern Ohio region that reversed earlier, downstate voting favoring the Republican challenger.

NBC News was among many media outlets that examined the claims about Jeep and GM jobs that candidate Romney and his campaign made in the final week. The coverage was harshly critical – and so was the unprecedented blowback from the two automakers. None other than Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne declared “inaccurate” the Romney claims in a letter to employees that was also released to the media.

GM, which was also lumped into the last-minute GOP campaign strategy, went even further, with spokesman Greg Martin declaring that the Republican hopeful was operating in a “parallel universe,” adding that the continued use of a clearly false claim was “campaign politics at its cynical worst.”

It may take weeks to parse the exit data and subsequent polls, but in the hours after Ohio was placed in the blue column, a number of on-air analysts were suggesting the Romney campaign claim about Jeep clearly backfired.

But the auto industry was at the heart of the presidential campaign almost from the moment then-candidate Obama claimed victory the first time, in the November 2008 election. That election came as the U.S. economy was sliding into the worst economic slump since the Great Depression – and as it became apparent that at least two of Detroit’s Big Three would slip into bankruptcy, perhaps transforming a deep recession into a full-fledged depression.

It was Republican President George W. Bush who began the bailout of GM and Chrysler – tapping into so-called TARP funds originally set aside to rescue the nation’s banks when Congress failed to approve an automotive bailout. But the lame-duck Bush left it to his successor to decide how far to go to keep the automakers afloat. And in the months after his inauguration, Obama approved additional funding that would eventually add up to $84 billion.

The new president defended his controversial and widely unpopular move, insisting it was necessary to save at least 1 million jobs and shore up a faltering economy. However, Romney, the man who would become Obama's 2012 opponent, insisted failure was a reasonable option for the two automakers in a series of speeches and op-ed pieces for publications including the New York Times.

In the more than three years since the full bailout was authorized, the topic has remained a controversial one. “It wasn’t right. The government shouldn’t be stepping into the economy like that,” lamented Dennis George, a Florida entrepreneur who lost a significant amount of money on GM stock after the automaker’s 2009 bankruptcy.

Even today, polls show a sizable percentage of Americans agree with claims the bailout went too far, numbers that tend to jump whenever reports suggest the Treasury will likely lose billions of dollars once its final stake in GM is sold off.

But opposition has generally softened, those same polls show, with the rescue effort generally viewed as favorable by a small majority of Americans today. And in key automotive states, it likely worked to the advantage of the incumbent president.

“When you save the jobs and the pensions and the neighborhoods of millions of middle class Americans (like me) they remember,” said GM executive Tom Wilkinson in a Facebook quote following the news of the Obama victory.

The final Electoral College numbers may show that the path to victory would have been complete without Ohio, but winning that state certainly helped the Obama campaign and underscores the way the auto industry has been a central facet in the bitter 2012 campaign from start to finish.

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American Suzuki files for bankruptcy protection

The Associated Press , Staff

BREA, Calif. - American Suzuki Motor Corp. on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it will cease selling automobiles in the U.S. as part of a plan to restructure its business.

The company, based in Brea, Calif., is the sole distributor of Suzuki Motor Co. vehicles in the continental U.S.

In documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California, the company estimated that its debts and liabilities range from at least $100 million to as much as $500 million.

It also said it has between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors.

American Suzuki Motor said it has enough cash to operate during the restructuring and intends to honor all car warranties and buyback agreements. It will work with its car dealerships to help them transition into parts-and-service operations. In some cases, the dealerships will be shuttered, it said.

Once it exits bankruptcy protection, American Suzuki Motor said it will focus on selling Suzuki motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and marine outboard engines.

It said that it is exiting the car business because of slow sales, unfavorable foreign exchange rates and high costs due to U.S. regulatory requirements.

It sold 2,023 vehicles in October, which was up 5 percent from the same month last year. Its Grand Vitara sport utility vehicle posted a 64 percent jump in sales last month, although American Suzuki did not say how many of them were sold. In May, the last month it provided a breakdown of its sales, it moved 474 Grand Vitaras, while its biggest seller was its SX4 small crossover, of which 1,101 were sold.

The bankruptcy and reorganization are unrelated to its parent Japan-based Suzuki Motor Corp., which intends to buy the American subsidiary's remaining businesses and automotive service operation.

The reorganized company will retain the American Suzuki Motor name, the company said.

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Auto mileage claims getting greater scrutiny

Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau

Watch TV for more than an hour in prime time; pick up a newspaper or magazine; or check the ads that pop up while you’re searching the Web. Odds are you’re bombarded with ads pitching the latest fuel economy numbers from one manufacturer or another.

“Mileage has become the number one concern of American motorists,” Ford Chief Operating Officer Mark Fields noted earlier this year.

But are those numbers valid? That’s the question motorists – and regulators – are left wondering in the wake of the revelation, last week, that Korean makers Hyundai and Kia had inflated their own mileage figures by as much as 6 mpg on 13 separate models. The Environmental Protection Agency is apparently getting ready to review other makers’ mileage claims. Meanwhile, even numbers that meet government scrutiny are coming under question because of the way the industry is promoting mileage in advertising.

The EPA, which oversees fuel economy testing and sets rules for how the results may be listed by manufacturers, underscored the significance of the Korean mileage scandal by noting only two other products have been found to use false mileage claims since the beginning of the millennium.

But has the industry generally lived up to the rules – or have regulators simply been lax in enforcement of guidelines that allow automakers to influence the final figures shown on their so-called Munroney window stickers and used in prime time advertising?

That’s apparently a question the EPA is now asking itself. The agency noted that the audit that snared Hyundai and Kia is part of “an ongoing investigation,” hinting that the figures used by other makers will now face close scrutiny.


“This is the first time where a large number of vehicles from the same manufacturer have deviated so significantly,” announced the EPA in reference to the problem at Hyundai and Kia – which will now see the makers forced to restate mileage for 900,000 vehicles sold in the U.S. since 2010.

The Koreans have also promised to reimburse owners for their extra fuel costs in the form of debit cards that will be issued once a year. Meanwhile, several officials at Hyundai and Kia confirmed the likelihood that the revised mileage numbers, ranging from 1 to 6 mpg, may result in lower residuals and trade-in values. That, in turn, could lead to lawsuits by owners seeking reimbursement for likely losses.

The two makers responded quickly to the EPA announcement last week, issuing mea culpas and promising to stand behind consumers who purchased the affected vehicles.

In a teleconference with journalists, officials tried to explain what happened once Hyundai revised its own mileage testing approach in 2010. “There are hundreds of different parameters that can affect” the results, said Sung-Hwan Cho, president of the research and development operation shared by the two automakers. To make it more efficient and consistent, he added, “We (added a) few more steps and (processes), which is different from what EPA has generally recommended, so that’s where this errors – procedure errors happened.”

Hyundai’s problems were not entirely unexpected. The automaker’s fuel economy claims have been questioned by a number of automotive reviewers. And the numbers were often criticized by a group called Consumer Watchdog – which Hyundai until now had dismissed as inaccurate.

But the manufacturer isn’t alone. At a time when fuel economy figures seem to be climbing rapidly, even as makers also claim sharp gains in horsepower and performance, there are growing concerns about the accuracy of such assertions.

Part of the problem is that, “We do a lot to ensure we get the best numbers possible out of the EPA tests,” said a senior industry engineer asking not to be identified by name or company since he spoke without permission.

The EPA uses a rigid testing procedure that requires specific stops and starts. The rate of acceleration from a stop is clearly defined, as is the amount of time used to simulate city and highway driving. Makers can readily duplicate those procedures and, with the power trains in today’s cars all controlled by microcomputers, a maker can program the system to maximize mileage when driven in the manner used for EPA testing.

Ford has come under fire for problems with the PowerShift transmission in small cars like the Focus and Fiesta, in part, it admits, because it tuned the gearbox to deliver maximum mileage while sacrificing driving comfort.

Such actions are usually acceptable to the EPA. What would get an automaker in trouble is testing vehicles that have been tweaked differently than the production version of the same cars or trucks – or supplying the EPA with false data, as happened with Hyundai and Kia.

Even if federal investigators determine the Koreans were unique, and that other automakers have played by the rules, the debate over fuel economy will likely continue. For one thing, critics contend the EPA test itself isn’t necessarily a valid reflection of the real world. Indeed, the agency occasionally tweaks the process to make sure it reflects what motorists will actually get. That happened just a few years ago when it became apparent that hybrids were routinely getting excessively high EPA ratings.

The other issue that critics cite is the way manufacturers advertise mileage. It’s become common to hear numbers of more than 40 mpg for compact sedans, and even midsize models are nudging up to the 38 mpg mark, figures reserved for hybrids just a few years ago.

But makers typically only promote highway mileage ratings while ignoring the city number. For most motorists, the combined figure would more accurately reflect what to expect in daily use.

“We have to be competitive,” and that means advertising the biggest number, Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik told TheDetroitBureau.com prior to last week’s revelations. But he’s not alone. While most industry officials admit that the figures they advertise overstate real world expectations, they say they can’t switch unilaterally. Without the government stepping in, the optimistic highway numbers will continue to be the ones used in the headlines.

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Toyota profit jumps, raises full-year forecast

TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. nudged its full-year net profit forecast up to $9.7 billion, even as it put the cost of recent anti-Japanese protests and a slowing economy in China, the world's biggest autos market, at lost sales of 200,000 cars.

Sales at Toyota and its two Chinese joint ventures almost halved in September and October amid often violent protests in a dispute over ownership of islets in the East China Sea. Honda Motor's China car sales more than halved last month, while Nissan Motor's fell 41 percent.

Toyota said on Monday the impact of the drop in sales would cost it 30 billion yen off its full-year net profit. It sold around 900,000 vehicles in China last year.

While Honda last week cut its full-year net profit forecast by a fifth to take account of the China damage, and Nissan is expected to follow suit when it releases its July-September results on Tuesday, Toyota has found room to revise its forecasts higher as it traditionally gives more conservative earnings guidance and relies less heavily on China sales.

China accounts for around 12 percent of Toyota's sales, compared to Nissan's 27 percent and Honda's 20 percent. The backlash in China against Japanese goods allowed Hyundai Motor <005380.KS> and BMW to pick up market share.

Toyota increased its net profit forecast for the year to end-March to 780 billion yen, up 2.6 percent from its previous guidance. It said full-year operating profit would be 1.05 trillion yen, up a touch from its earlier forecast for 1 trillion yen.

July-September net profit more than trebled to 257.9 billion yen ($3.2 billion) on solid sales in North America and Southeast Asia, beating an average estimate of 228.8 billion yen from six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. A year ago, Japanese manufacturers were still reeling from the March earthquake and tsunami.

"It's uncertain when sales will recover in China. It's unlikely to happen anytime soon ... I think the market hopes for a recovery in January-March, but I don't really see what's going to drive that," said Kei Nihonyanagi, autos analyst at Barclays Securities in Tokyo.

Big in U.S.
In its biggest market, the United States, Toyota's sales rose 16 percent in October from a year ago, giving it and its Lexus luxury brand a 13.9 percent market share, up from 12.3 percent. Toyota said it hopes to sell 2 million vehicles in the United States, a market it sees growing to 14 million vehicles.


The Camry was the third-best selling vehicle in the United States in October after Ford's F-Series pickup truck and GM's Chevy Silverado, and led the mid-sized family sedan category ahead of Honda's Accord and Nissan's Altima.

Toyota and its group companies sold a total of 7.4 million vehicles worldwide in January-September, beating GM and Volkswagen to be the top selling carmaker. Toyota was the world's biggest automaker from 2008 through 2010, and could this year regain top slot after recovering from a series of crises - from the global financial meltdown and damaging recalls to natural disasters and the China row.

Toyota on Monday trimmed its forecast for global sales in the year to end-March - excluding those at its Chinese joint ventures - to 8.75 million vehicles from a previous 8.8 million.

Shares in Toyota, valued at nearly $135 billion - almost as much as Honda, Nissan and Hyundai combined - are up by a quarter this year, easily outpacing Honda's 4.5 percent gain, while Nissan is flat. Ahead of Monday's results, Toyota rose 2.2 percent to their highest close in 6 weeks.

Time to change
Toyota, which blazed a trail for mass producing quality cars but then tripped up by expanding too fast into the U.S. muscular SUV and truck market at a time when the yen, too, was rising, has been on a relentless cost-paring binge. Investors now want to see real signs that Toyota is fixing its core problem. As the company's president Akio Toyoda puts it: having to make "ever-better cars".


Satoshi Ozawa, an executive vice president, said Toyota expects further cost cuts during the current second half, and predicts a 300 billion yen improvement in profits from the cuts.

While Toyota is again making money, profitability in its core car business is much lower than its financial services unit, which brings in just 5 percent of revenue, but a quarter of operating profit.

"We are changing a lot from what we were. We want to prove how we have changed through our products, and we want to ask everyone to wait a little bit more," another vice president, Mitsuhisa Kato, said in August.

"It's tough for Toyota to dominate the market again with its current product line-up. It needs to improve overall product attractiveness, including design and ride quality," said Masatoshi Nishimoto, autos analyst at IHS Automotive in Tokyo.

More aggressive
One sign of change is Toyota's more controversial designs tested on recent models. For example: the "spindle grille" on some luxury Lexus models - a prominent grille pinched in the middle - gives the car a bolder, more aggressive look.


"We are starting to think about how we can produce cars that stand out, rather than cars that are accepted by everyone but have no unique identity," said Toyota designer Ryo Ikeda.

Another is the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA), a new framework to build better cars and cut costs by developing multiple models simultaneously to use more common parts. Shared parts mean suppliers can produce a larger number of fewer parts, cutting the unit price. The framework focuses on three platforms, each carrying 8-10 models, Toyota employees said.

The first car to be fully developed by the TNGA will be the revamped Prius for late-2014 release, followed by the subcompact Vitz and the next generation Camry around 2016, analysts said.

As the global market evolves, Toyota is looking to strengthen its foothold in emerging markets, and plans to double its China sales to 1.8 million cars by 2015. It has positioned Southeast Asia as a "second mother-base" after Japan.

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Fixing cars now often means updating software

Dan Carney , NBC News contributor

It used to be that when cars left the factory, automakers had nothing further to do with them unless the manufacturers had made some terrible mistake in assembling them. In such cases, there would be a dramatic recall in which the defective or incorrectly installed part was replaced.

Computing devices, in contrast, get “recalled” almost weekly, as manufacturers issue software updates that correct flaws, address new challenges like a new virus, or tweak functions to satisfy customers.

Now that cars have as much computing power as they have horsepower, it should come as no surprise that they are getting software updates too. Few cars have the persistent Internet connection most computers have, so these updates won’t go out to the cars automatically.

Instead, drivers typically bring their cars to their dealers for updates. Do-it-yourself-oriented Ford owners can perform their own updates from flash drives. Taking the car to the dealer sounds like a hassle, but owners can schedule the software update at the same time as their oil change, thereby taking care of both maintenance issues at the same time.

Or, in the case of tech enthusiasts looking for the latest thing, they can take care of the old petroleum-era maintenance when they rush to the dealer for the latest digital update.

Just as computer and consumer electronics companies have telephone help centers to guide customers in their products’ use, so too do car companies. When those call centers notice a large volume of calls from customers complaining of the same problem, it points to the need for a change as to how a particular device works in the car.

In the case of the navigation systems in General Motors’ cars, the steps to cancel a navigation route were not obvious to most users. So those drivers frequently pressed the On-Star button to connect with the company so they could learn how to stop the continual voice prompts.

As a result, GM will reprogram the navigation system to make canceling a route simpler, according to Mark Harland, manager of GM’s connected customer team. “In the next generation (of the software), there will be a pop-up 'cancel route' or 'delete route' button on the screen,” he promised.

When the company notices that many customers are having the same problems using its products, they quickly perform triage on the problem to determine what can be done immediately to help and what solutions will need to wait for future software updates.

There is normally a “cadence” to the release of software updates that come out once or twice a year, he said, and solutions need to fit into that cadence. That approximately matches the oil change interval, so it shouldn’t pose a new burden on drivers.

At Chrysler, one of the biggest sources of customer headaches has been the challenge of pairing a phone with the car via Bluetooth wireless technology, reported Mike Long, head of Uconnect product development. Chrysler also wanted to see more detail on navigation maps, even when zoomed out. Consequently, in 2013 the software update will ensure that those maps gain that additional detail, Long said.

And all companies with products that use voice control have run into trouble with customers who have difficulty using the system. Chrysler’s solution will be to pop up an on-screen menu showing some of the choices of phrases available to drivers at the time.

The company hopes such a “teleprompter” will prove less distracting to drivers than a furious driver trying to figure out an unclear menu system.

The Ford guys have already done a software update to their MyFord Touch software, a change that saw the ambient temperature display on the central infotainment screen disappear. The cars show the outside temperature on the instrument panel also, so this display was thought to be redundant.

Responding to customers who let the company know they liked having the display there, the companies returned the temperature display to the central screen in the latest update, said Alan Hall, communications manager for technology at Ford. “We just launched that software update in September, so now customers can choose to have the temperature display configured “on” or “off,” based on their preference,” he said.

That sounds like the kind of “recall” drivers won’t mind.

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Fuel consumption in some Hyundai, KIAS overvalued

Paul A. Eisenstein, the Detroit Bureau
The two major Korean automobile manufacturers in the United States active realised that exaggerated the fuel consumption of vehicles such as the Hyundai Elantra and Kia Sorrento of less than six miles per gallon delivered.

Discovered while the environmental protection agency, Government now faces sanctions the makers, could add a routine monitoring of up to millions of dollars in fines. You have promised to refund money to the purchasers, but also face could the same complaints, with affected the other makers are to promote inaccurate mileage or performance numbers.

"Consumer confidence on the window sticker to help, informed decisions about the cars that they buy," said Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator of the EPA air quality Office. "EPA investigation help consumers and level playing field between the automakers protect to ensure."

The audit was triggered by a dozen complaints by the Agency the Federal fuel economy rules monitored. The driver said that it gave up a large gap between the mileage ratings their vehicles known as Monroney sticker and what they actually provided in real use shown.

Office of the Agency in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where mileage test is performed, led EPA results with the paperwork, to compare, written by Hyundai and Kia.

A total of 900,000 sold in the United States could, according to the EPA, be affected, led the 13 different models. These include seven different Hyundai: Elantra, Sonata hybrid, accent, Azera, Genesis, Tucson, bike service and Santa Fe models. Six different KIAS were influenced: soul, Sportage, Kia Sorrento, Rio and Optima hybrid.

The manufacturers claim that it their internal testing procedures changed in 2010, leading to the problem. They claim that vehicles, before produced then not their mileage would have adapted.

Most of the models numbers were from one to two miles per gallon have overvalued, but funky KIA soul his claims by a full 6 mpg to adjust.

"We are very sad about these errors," said Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik, add, "we went to make this right."

Meanwhile excused Michael Sprague, the head of marketing for Kia Motors America, also pointed out that both decision makers is customer to reimburse the difference in fuel economy numbers.

The news comes as a major embarrassment for both manufacturers. Mileage has become last month - an industrial battlefield with gas prices nudge record levels several times this year - and briefly exceeding records in California. Hyundai and Kia have aggressively their efforts to improve the mileage, with many of its models leading their segments - supports at least until now.

It is not uncommon for vehicles to deliver mileage, which varies from the EPO test. The Government uses a test cycle which should reflect real-world conditions, but on the road, such things as height, road conditions and driver can have a big impact behavior. The Agency occasionally fit his tests as it did a few years ago, to make the results for hybrid vehicles consistent with real results.

But it is rare for automakers, mileage on their stickers Monroney oversubscribed. It has happened only twice since 2000, according to the EPA.

Hyundai and Kia executives say that they plan to exhibit new window stickers in a few days.

They plan also owners, based on how much they drive, calculation, that are against the cost of fuel and add 15 percent of the total to reimburse. A driver in Florida, the watches of 15,000 miles per year, could get a debit card, for example, $88. And Hyundai and Kia will continue to pay, as long as they have the vehicles for drivers.

In view of 900,000 vehicles affected by the news the first payment could add up to $10 million and finally reach in the hundreds of millions.

The EPA has yet not to disclose, that Hyundai and KIA paid the fines. Measures to take if she feel that intentionally mileage overvalued the Koreans claims in their advertising could another government authority, the Federal Trade Commission.

The impact to the makers reputation remains to be seen, but they might additional legal challenges confronted, as have some other manufacturers who have confirmed, to confuse numbers.

Mazda settled with consumers, after it admitted that the PS ratings the RX-8 sports car fell short. And Honda settled a class-action lawsuit over the driving performance of early Civic hybrid models. The manufacturer fought and a high-profile challenge in small claims court, but won.

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Car sales strong despite Superstorm sandy

Paul A. Eisenstein, NBC News

Though the industry clearly took a hit, most car manufacturers escaped largely the devastation of the Superstorm Sandy in much better shape than the eastern part of the State.

October great was actually for some manufacturers Volkswagen its best U.S. sales month in almost 40 years, reporting, while General Motors its best October since 2007 to the industry collapse had. However, others felt the pinch, Nissan one of the few year compared to the previous reporting downturn the the Japanese manufacturer clearly the blame on the natural disaster.

Other factors played through in October, including political uncertainty, which some buyers, to delay a trip to the exhibition space led. Other buyers apparently still promoted by improving the economic news, but have.

"It is absolutely a hurt us,", said Nissan General brand manager Al Castignetti, referring to Superstorm sandy and the manufacturer's modest 3.2 percent decline for October.

Like its competitors Nissan had a strong month for me but saw sales begin to slide, as residents of the East Coast began hunkering down for the duration. Now, the manufacturer must the prospect 65 dealers in New Jersey, to New York and Connecticut alone closed because of storm damage or lack of power. The showrooms of Nissan is usually 40 percent sales in the Northeast, a region that 27 percent of the U.S. total volume of manufacturer contributes to.

But Nissan is by no means alone. Kurt McNeil, sales manager at GM, suggested, "Probably half of our dealers in the State of New Jersey still without power are" like he on Thursday with reporters said.

Actually put down during the storm more acute in November - especially with authorities, the warning makes a large part of the reason a week or two fully restore – assume a positive side for the industry could possibly.

Preliminary estimates are that several hundred thousand vehicles were badly damaged or destroyed, and probably need to be replaced. In some cases, whole car dealerships, as well as a great of the taxi fleet in Northern NJ liquidation under water.

"they need to be replaced.", said Ricky Beggs, Vice President of the black book, tracked a service, the vehicle pricing and availability. He expects to see strong demand going forward for the pickups and vans used by contractor and repair to replace crews - with the storm damaged not only vehicles but "because there is demand for services, to repair the damage caused by the storm so someone, a car would now possibly two."

But he also warns that the demand created by the Superstorm have used car prices, which was already at or near record levels almost year-round swimming, as well push prices for new vehicles could.

While Nissan appears most gone in negative territory due to Sandy, that decision makers were firmly in black, from the modest 0.5 percent profit at Ford Motor Co., the 22 percent increase of Volkswagen, the German manufacturer shortly before an October record reported set nearly decades four ago, when it was still the nation dominant import brand.

Other Japanese manufacturers, particularly Toyota and Honda, saw a bit of a slowdown from the torrid pace of the last few months - Honda by 8.8 percent, Toyota 16 percentage-but more about finally have created pent-up demand, by Japan's own natural disaster, the March 2011 leads to earthquakes and tsunami severe inventory shortages for this country's automakers be satisfied.

Chrysler, was enthusiastic on the other side with his 10 percent jump that officials praised company their 31 month of Jahres-Over annual sales gains marked.

GM McNeil was optimistic enough, out there, that even with the short setback by the storm U.S. sales probably meet or exceed the manufacturer's optimistic forecast, about 14.4 million vehicles for all 2012. Meanwhile, Chrysler, said that he expected that total volume reach 14.7 million in the year. Despite of the storm streaming, preliminary data suggest that by October seasonal sales annual rate, or SAAR, adapt in 14.9 million come may.

And probably cut after the storm, that's total sales for the month of somewhere between 1 percent and 3 percent, or 20,000 to more than 30,000, according to an estimate by LMC automotive forecasting company.

"We the losses of recent days will pick" echoed analyst Joe Phillippi, AutoTrends consulting, speaking by phone from his native New Jersey not expected, makes more than two weeks again.

Other factors appear to have come in the game last month. GM McNeil warned that many fleet buyers "wait from this period of political uncertainty before they return to the market."

He referred to the latest increase in U.S. housing starts, on the other hand call, the "a turning point", which is noticed in the automotive industry. Housing and auto sales are usually closely linked. This time, car have led the national recovery - without the "tailwind" of housing. So if the industry is also on the rise, McNeil came to the conclusion, it's even a better reason why "we are confident (automotive industry) have a strong fourth quarter and will grow next year."

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