Used Cars Online

GM sold a lot of compact cars in January. Gm also had a high percentage of fleet sales in January. Coincidence? We think not. [Please note: VW Rabbit sales do not include GTI]

The automotive industry crisis of 2008-2009 is just another of the unprecedented events in the long history of the automobile industry . The collapse of the economy and hence the decline has affected the U.S. car market much more than … market to make a change to European and Japanese cars in a solution. While automakers are striving to 45 mpg in Japan, China 35 mpg, 52 mpg in the EU before 2012, this figure was a dismal 25 mpg in the U.S. as a result of public outcry. …

The New York Times says, “Toyota’s recalls and disclosures in recent months are part of a lengthy pattern in which the automaker has often reacted slowly to safety concerns, in some instances making design changes without telling customers about … Latest Auto News: Breaking car news about the cars and trucks you drive; Green Driving: Hybrids , Electrics, Hydrogen Cars , and other news about efforts to green-up the industry that brought you smog; Car Culture: Oddities, …

GM’s current Two-mode hybrid system is used exclusively in its full-size pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles but according to the automaker’s vice chairman of global product operations, Tom Stephens, the system will eventually feature in its rear-wheel drive cars . With most new technology in the auto industry , the first recipients are usually luxury models. In the case of GM, this would mean the Cadillac division, which is made up mostly of rear-wheel drive models. …

Readers of the Nikkei [sub] were greeted this morning with the purported news that by the end of this month, Toyota “is expected” to recall its Sai and Lexus HS250h hybrids, which use the same braking system as the Prius hybrid. Furthermore, “the company is believed to have decided” to recall the current Prius, “and

Toyota has friends in high places in Washington, including some of the very people now investigating the Japanese automaker . … Its efforts include trying to become part of the nation’s car culture. In recent years it broke into the highest ranks of the beloved U.S. sport of auto racing, fielding cars in NASCAR races in front of millions of die-hard fans. Popular driver Rusty Wallace announced in November that his team would race in Toyotas starting with the 2010 season. …

[Note: This piece first ran in May 2007. It seems particularly relevant again in light of the current Toyota unintended acceleration (UA) situation. But please note that the circumstance that caused the Audi UA are very different. In the early eighties, electronic gas pedals and complex engine controls and other interfaces such as with ABS/brakes

“According to the insiders, only a self-charging electric car could have sufficient zero-emissions range to be practical transport in such scenarios. Although some conventional hybrids do have the ability to run purely on battery power, … We get down the road a few generations when most every automaker is committed to electrifying a car , we’ll see things like this happen as well to the auto industry . Then we’ll see greater range, more efficiency, less cost. …

After piles of books have been written about the „Toyota Way,“ this round of recalls will have a permanent place in the annals of how to completely NSFW-up crisis management. The epicenter of the disaster at Toyota is not in the pedal dept., it is not in the software development dept., it is in the

The Greyhound Scenicruiser was iconic, and set off a rash of imitators world-wide. Based on a design of Raymond Loewy supposedly inspired on an earlier patent by Roland E. Gegoux, it was hailed as a stylistic and practical breakthrough. But it was anything but new or original, as this 1937 Kenworth bus illustrates quite well.