Spy photos show information about 2015 Mustang

Jim Dunne, the Detroit Bureau - 1 day

It's no secret, the Ford plans to throw a big party celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Ford Mustang when it rolls out next year from the line. But has remained a secret, what looks like the 2015 Mustang.

Until now.

Model our spies captured images of elusive 2015 Mustang that some details, even if the car is rear front show. Ford is expected to be the new design to reveal some time in 2014.

Front headlight holes indicate that the lights on the front fenders, not deep into the radiator grille are set below high are. On the rear, the tail lights in the trunk are set higher. The wheels with the 5 split spokes representation appear new.

A hole in the canvas above the front wheel opening is never seen any air vent, a feature on Mustangs. Although we cannot see the rear suspension, which offers 15 model supposedly an independent rear Setup is a first for the Mustang.


Ford has the 15 model to make his debut at the New York International Auto Show 2014 election victory. After decades of the Pack in the muscle car Mustang of the Chevrolet Camaro in recent times raised above. Chevrolet hoped that sales gap greater than by introducing a freshened Camaro including a model SS during the New York International Auto Show earlier of this month. That puts even more pressure on Ford, get it right, when it launches the next-generation Mustang.

An introduction of the New York International Auto show, the car would come full circle, in a sense a few days before its official debut at the world's fair in 1964 in New York bringing the first Coupe Ford unveiled on April 17, 1964. It was an immediate success, help Ford country car design guru, Lee Iacocca, on the covers of many timeand Newsweek.

The first of the "pony cars" Mustang was an immediate success. While the icon almost 50-year run were sold more than 8.5 million Mustangs.

"Not too many cars around for 49 years have been", said David Pericak, Chief Engineer of the Mustang, built during a new event marking the millionth Mustang Ford flat rock, Michigan plant. "It is more than a car. It is a symbol. Rock 'n' roll songs and a star in films yet, "he added, and became a huge success on the track."

The first Ford Mustang for as little as $2.368 (which today would be equivalent to $17.780) was introduced as a 1964 1/2 model. Ironically during the galloping horse image that was associated with the original Ford Mustang, the car was original designer John Najjar, a fan of the most successful fighter of World War II, the P-51 Mustang. Corporate officer liked the name but thought the horses picture was better.

The fast-acting Coupe was not nearly so temperamental, surfaced as it, but with its compact, 170-cubic-inch engine and three-speed manual transmission was. That would change soon a procession of new facilities as the automakers, which rolled out a more powerful set of engine packages, and in the following years.

Copyright © 2009-2013, the Detroit Bureau

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Automakers sound off about noise rules

Paul A. Eisenstein, the Detroit Bureau 11 clock.

Whining has always been a noise, which have resisted by the world automakers in the years tangible proposals by Governments, civil society groups and consumer advocates, the cars make safe operation in congested environments.

So it is really no surprise automakers - including domestic, Asian and European companies, who generally agree with can't, pedestrian oncoming electric cars and other nearly silent vehicles complain on that blue color is all - Obama administration recommendation to alarm in unison.

The carmakers initially supported the idea but now claim of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed rules visually impaired warn using minimal noise level and are far too stressful pedestrians and other cyclists.

The rule "is too complicated and unnecessarily prescriptive. If proposed to implement it would lead, warning that louder than necessary, more than necessary, '' said creating drivers and passengers hassle and costs of the Alliance of automobile manufacturers and the Association of the global car manufacturers in common written comments to NHTSA.

Federal estimates fall will the odds on a hybrid vehicle in a pedestrian involved are 19% higher than with conventional gas - or diesel-powered vehicles. For a car-bicycle crashes, it is 38% higher.

The rules should complain gradually implemented from September 2014, but manufacturers also the timetable "is not possible", and they want to completely revise its proposal, NHTSA and publish before issuing a final regulation.

If the rules don't change, car manufacturers scrap to the stage and needed the new tones on all models as of 2018. (Some manufacturers already provide a noise-making feature, but mostly allow drivers to close the sounds, if you can find them unattractive)

NHTSA expects the proposal, approximately 23 million $ in the first year costs and estimates the more per vehicle costs $35. But automakers say that the cost of the components could be estimated five times as high as NHTSA. But still not the automakers appreciated, how much it could cost to their constant whining to replicate.

Yet automakers followed when communicating with the Government, that no cars can currently meet the requirements. Automakers are considering to make an adaptation of an existing alarm sound control module the necessary sounds. Automakers should the rules for speeds of 12.4 miles per hour or less shall apply while NHTSA proposed the rules apply to speeds up to 18.6 miles per hour. Automakers argue that warnings about 12.4 miles per hour is interfering with tire noise.

The sound should be audible sounds in a range of road and background, when the vehicle at low speeds on the road.

Want a new meeting with NHTSA talk car manufacturers about ways to the US regulations to harmonize with those in Japan and the European Union. The producers note that require continuous noise at low speeds or when stopped at a red light in conflict would stand with what Japan and the European Union plan. Regulators there have called this proposal "unacceptable due to noise pollution worry."

Copyright © 2009-2013, the Detroit Bureau

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GM talking with Facebook about advertising again

By Ben Klayman and Gerry Shih, Reuters
Although the two companies remain far from reaching an agreement, Facebook executives have assiduously courted the world's largest carmaker. One source said Facebook was not pushing for GM's immediate return, but offered to provide data showing the effectiveness of the website's paid ads.

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg sent GM Chief Executive Dan Akerson an e-mail urging the company to reconsider its decision shortly after the third-largest U.S. advertiser pulled its ads in May, a move that undermined confidence in Facebook on the eve of its highly-anticipated initial public offering, according to sources who were not permitted to speak publicly because the talks are ongoing.

At a global advertising conference in Cannes, France, last month, Facebook global sales head Carolyn Everson sought out GM's global marketing chief Joel Ewanick to continue face-to-face talks, leaving open the option of GM returning to the fold, sources said. Facebook offered the same information it provides to all of its big advertisers, but did not offer any concessions.

GM and Facebook declined comment. The news was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Three days before Facebook's May 18 IPO GM said it was dropping paid ads on the website because they had little impact on consumers.

The decision by the carmaker, which spent $10 million on Facebook in 2011, was the first highly visible crack in Facebook's strategy and underscored doubts about whether advertising on Facebook works better than traditional media.

GM emphasized at the time that it would retain its Facebook pages, for which it paid no fees, to market its cars and trucks.

People familiar with a meeting that took place before GM's announcement in May said Facebook officials failed to convince GM's top marketing executives of the value of Facebook's paid ads.

GM, which ranks behind Procter & Gamble Co and AT&T Inc in advertising spending, spent $1.1 billion on U.S. ads last year, according to ad-tracking firm Kantar Media. Overall, GM's spending on advertising rose 5.2 percent last year to $4.48 billion, according to the automaker's annual report.

It spent about $271 million on online display and search ads excluding Facebook advertising, Kantar said.

GM previously said it spends about $40 million on its Facebook presence, but only about $10 million of that was paid to Facebook for advertising. The remaining budget covers the creation of content and the advertising and media agencies involved, the newspaper said.

GM also announced in May it would not advertise in next year's Super Bowl because it was too expensive. Ewanick has led a consolidation of GM's ad agencies globally that is expected to save the Detroit company $2 billion over five years.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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Honda frets about civic mileage judgment

A car manufacturer of the worst nightmare. Honda is worried that it could out there be more Heather Peters, order it in small Sue advertising due to mileage claims.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, msnbc.com of mysteries

Honda is for a possible flood of legal challenges bracing, if the California courts maintain that a recent judgment a award of almost $10,000 to woman who claims that 2006 civic delivered promised hybrid significantly lower fuel consumption as the manufacturer you.

Heather the only Honda is by no means the owner window sticker upset through the gap between the mileage on the civic and what the car actually in use. But they decided a very different approach to other owners, many of whose legal claims in a class action were now consolidated in a court in San Diego.

The 46-year-old Peters, himself a former lawyer, decided to take their dispute to a Court of small claims procedures in a suburb of Los Angeles. During Peters says she realized that that they lost to additional fuel costs and a lower buy-back value if the money that she insists in able to gather all, she felt, that she would always have a better chance of a sensible choice in the small claims procedure.

Such dishes are usually used for smaller disputes - and she that the individual can sue a multinational company, without overlooking a group of legal experts - or invoices that would far exceed the maximum exposure that ranges runs the use of lawyers, which means bar normally from $2,500 to $15,000 depending on the State.  In California the CAP is $10,000 and Peters received $9.867 this month by superior court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan.

Before the trial the Civic Hybrid owners complained that while her car at 50 miles per gallon was assessed, "do they not say, if you do your air conditioning and you remain in the stop-and-go traffic, you, 29, will get 30 miles per gallon."

In court, a Honda representative, technical specialist Neil Schmidt, was that it was not the company to blame. He argued that written just the numbers set Honda by the EPA, the Government fuel-economy tests carried out.

"We have no other choice," Schmidt said.  "We have put the numbers on the label."

The EPA restricts only manufacturers such as Honda, at the upper end. You can book any number on the car so called Munroney sticker above what the Government has been achieved tests. But a manufacturers such as Honda can a smaller number, it decides to do so. With regard to competitors probably their own figures to maximize, if at all only a few car manufacturers always with anything other than the EPA release gone. The part is noticed Dave Sullivan, an analyst at AutoPacific, Inc., as it was thought in general this legal using the Federal Republic numbers cover,.

But the argument can no longer keep.  Honda the only manufacturer is not suing optimistic mileage numbers. Others, including Toyota, have also put legal heat. The EPA has now its own testing procedures in order to fight. In 2008 it completely revised its processes in a strong jump in mileage figures for gas-electric vehicles such as the Honda Civic Hybrid led.

Peters said the ruling in their small claims suit "a victory for Honda Civic owner everywhere." She created in the meantime other owners not convince a website, "DontSettleWithHonda.org," settlement to adopt a proposed class-action lawsuit, which is governed on an other California judge in March. This agreement would only $100 to $200 in cash each owner along with a $1,000 discount certificate good for purchase of another product offer Honda.

Critics have frustrated argued that the settlement really is a possibility, the Japanese manufacturer, owner again in its showrooms. The case of plaintiff lawyers have also been criticised as they are, get a profit of $8.5 million for their work.

A statement by Honda said, "we do not agree with the judgment in this case, and we want to raise an objection against the decision." The timing this ground of appeal is uncertain.

But a source in the company said that manufacturer is clearly concerned about the possible precedent, which can be set when the Peters case is allowed, are available. It raises the possibility, could that hundreds of Civic Hybrid owners, see little to gain from the class action settlement and more opportunities in taking into account their own claims of the local small courtroom claims.

The industry also attention is a Ford Executive said, asking, be identified not by name. While automakers routinely complain the legal climate they pull a class action suit often countless local suits.  And small claims actions put a strict limit on their legal authority that usually a potent tool in resolving consumer complaints.

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GM recalls about 20,000 Cadillac SRX globally

General Motors Co said it is recalling almost 20,000 Cadillac SRX crossover vehicles, mostly in China and the United States, due to potential transmission defects.

GM's Chinese joint venture, Shanghai GM, is recalling 9,862 of the compact luxury SUVs in that country, while GM is recalling 8,789 in the United States. A small number in 20 other countries are also affected, a GM spokesman said.

Shanghai GM is a joint venture between GM and SAIC Motor Corp.

The vehicles affected in the recall are from the 2010 and 2011 model years, and were built at GM's Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico.

GM, in a letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said it received a customer letter in June alleging unintended vehicle motion in a 2011 SRX as the customer tried to shift between park and drive and then back to park. The customer reported that he stopped the vehicle with the service brake and then set the parking brake.

GM said in the letter to NHTSA that it found in some cases the transmission shift cable was not properly routed in the vehicle's engine compartment. A deeper investigation by the automaker found potential claims dating back to the fall of 2010.

A GM spokesman said there have been no reports of accidents or injuries in any countries affected by the recall.

In a separate announcement, GM said on Wednesday it is recalling 3,150 Chevrolet Captiva crossovers sold to rental car agencies in the United States for a power steering overheating issue that could lead to an engine compartment fire. The model years affected are 2011 and 2012.

The Captivas being recalled also were built at the Ramos Arizpe plant.

If the vehicle is inadvertently driven with the transmission in manual mode and left in first gear for a prolonger period of time, its power steering fluid may overheat and cause a leak that could result in a fire, GM said. There have been no reports of fire.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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GM deal with union: It's all about jobs

Jobs — and not necessarily cash, or new benefits — have proved to be the centerpiece of the new four-year contract agreed between the United Auto Workers union and General Motors.

That’s not to say the deal doesn’t include some financial benefits designed to salve the frustrations of GM workers, who have made major concessions over the past four years to help revive the long-troubled automaker.

Among other things, the union has revealed, the new, four-year agreement includes a $5,000 signing bonus, $4,000 in “inflation protection” and another $3 an hour for second-tier employees earning half as much as veteran line workers.

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But the agreement appears to have nonetheless held GM’s overall labor costs in check, industry analysts believe, and even offers the opportunity to improve productivity and lower costs still further at the automaker, helping the Detroit-based giant justify its plans to add more products — and more jobs — in the United States.

The union will now focus on selling the deal to Chrysler and Ford. If the UAW can succeed in that endeavor it could use the momentum it has gained in Detroit to help achieve another long-sought goal: unionizing European and Asian “transplant” assembly lines that have long resisted UAW organizers.

“The basis that we went into the agreement with was jobs, jobs, jobs, and I think that is what we came out of this agreement with,” UAW Vice President Joe Ashton said at a news conference revealing details of the GM deal.

Since emerging from bankruptcy with a $50 billion federal aid package two years ago, GM has added thousands of jobs in the U.S., and the new agreement could open up another 6,400 slots.

The automaker is promising to launch new products at plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., the former home of its now-abandoned Saturn division, as well as at factories in Michigan and Missouri.

Other key elements of the new GM contract include:

A $5,000 signing bonus.A provision that could add another $4,000 in “inflation protection” over the next four years. A revised profit-sharing plan that will be based on all North American earnings, not just U.S. profits. That would have earned workers $5,000 last year, compared with the $4,300 they actually received. A $3-an-hour increase in Tier Two wages over the life of the four-year contract.

Despite those gains, the new contract “should not have a material impact on GM’s UAW labor cost structure,” according to Rod Lache, automotive analyst with Deutsche Bank. Provisions aimed at improving productivity, he said, “could produce fixed-cost reductions.”

GM union leaders back new contract

That’s critical for GM — and for Ford and Chrysler, too. Just four years ago, the domestic automakers were paying an average of about $76 an hour in compensation for UAW workers, a full 50 percent more than what “transplant” carmakers paid at the Toyota assembly line in Georgetown, Ky., or the Honda East Liberty, Ohio, plant.

That higher payment averaged out to a cost penalty of more than $500 per vehicle — a significant disadvantage in the hotly competitive auto industry.

Labor costs began to come down when the UAW agreed to make major concessions in 2007 — and the union gave back even more when GM and Chrysler plunged into bankruptcy two years later.

As labor talks began in July it was believed the Detroit automakers were paying an average of just over $50 an hour — still several dollars higher than at the typical transplant automaker, and significantly higher than the newest foreign-owned factories, such as Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The UAW has struggled to organize workers in those transplant automakers’ plants since the first — a Honda facility in Marysville, Ohio — opened more than a quarter-century ago. Currently, only two transplants are represented by the UAW — the Mazda plant in Flat Rock, Mich., and the Mitsubishi line in Normal, Ill. — and that’s only because they were initially opened as joint ventures with one of the U.S. makers.

The challenge will be to overcome not only corporate resistance, but also worker reluctance at plants that are largely based in the mostly anti-union South, according to Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California in Berkeley.

The union hopes the relatively smooth deal with GM will be a selling point to workers at those foreign-owned factories, especially when the new signing bonus and other gains are added in.

The question is whether the new contract will be sellable to GM workers. Significantly, while the agreement ups pay for second-tier workers, it does not eliminate the unpopular two-tier pay structure.

GM’s 64,000 U.S. hourly workers will vote on the agreement over the next 10 days. Most observers believe that while noisy debate is likely, the agreement ultimately will be ratified. Union leaders Tuesday endorsed the agreement.

UAW bargainers are hoping to finish negotiations with Chrysler and Ford before the vote happens. The two companies are pressing for unique agreements, but the union is holding out — as it traditionally does — for so-called pattern agreements that don’t give an advantage to one automaker over another.

As with GM, the UAW is barred from striking Chrysler over financial issues as part of the 2009 federal bankruptcy bailout. Ford, the only carmaker not to receive a rescue package, could face a walkout, but that seems increasingly unlikely. The No. 2 domestic carmaker has generally had the best relationship with the UAW and it hasn’t seen its workers strike since the 1970s.

© 2011 msnbc.com. Reprints

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Toyota recalling about 51,000 Tundra trucks

TORRANCE, California - under note is Toyota to about 51,000 of its Tundra truck to check rear Driveshafts that contain a component that can be interrupted.

Toyota Motor Sales United States Inc. said Tuesday an estimated 0.5 per cent of the vehicles a bad slip yoke due to the improper casting can have during the foundry.

The company is a slip yoke known error. There are no reports of accidents or injuries related to the condition.

The recall concerns only Tundra from the year 2011 model.

Recall notification letter from down next month sent and available on Toyota Web site.

Inspections and all replacements are free of charge.

Last week zuruckgerufen an airbag problem to fix Toyota over so it could be 300,000 RAV4 and Highlander vehicles.

Copyright 2011, the associated press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

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Former Chrysler dealership complaining U.S. about closures

DETROIT - sixty-four former Chrysler dealership sued the Government on Thursday, saying Obama managing their rights violated by closing their business during the automaker of bankruptcy without compensation.

The dealer said claims in Washington were filed with the U.S. Court of federal because "at least $130 million" compensation of the closure of its stores after a complaint.

Court papers said dealer to end this stores helped to stabilize the US economy and prevents the break of the American automotive industry.

"This is a loss, which should however be remembered by some individual car dealers, but..." "Must fairness and justice to the detriment of the public as a whole," trader said in court papers.

Chrysler bankruptcy be presented in April 2009. Termination sent notices to 25 percent of its Handlern-or 789 branch-as part of its U.S. Government-funded restructuring in May 2009.

The Treasury refused an opinion. In May 2009 Treasury said store closures were "necessary", Chrysler, to help rebound from its almost collapse and said it didn't matter when deciding which and how many traders would close.

In court papers filed Thursday his authority under the troubled asset said to relief program dealers, the US Government used State franchise laws to protect of traders rock.

Traders said she spent millions on education to help inventory and marketing to sell Chrysler vehicles. For example, spent a group of four merchants in Maryland make nearly $9 million to renew your facilities and other changes.

Traders came from 29 countries country including California, New York and Texas, according to the complaint.

Chrysler is now 25 percent owned and managed by the Italian Fiat SpA.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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