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If ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor (F), known widely for lumbering gas hogs. Ford's 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here's the catch: Despite the car's potential to transform Ford's image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe....

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said Tuesday that it would close 92 money-losing retail stores with about 500 full-time workers by the end of the year. The move by the biggest U.S. tire maker affects about 11% of Goodyear outlets in North America and will result in charges of about $30 million, half of which will be recorded in the third quarter. The stores, all company owned, had combined annual losses of about $9 million, the Akron, Ohio-based company said. "Taking this action now will allow us to focus our attention on locations with the best long-term potential," said Scott...

I’d like to issue a statement: Reports that this column is stupid are inaccurate. You got that? Good. Now move on to criticizing The Laughing Chef column. I have spoken. I guess you didn’t know you can take something that seems obviously true and end all such obviousness simply by using the word inaccurate. Neither did I, until I began acquainting myself with the wordsmithing skills of one Rick Waggoner, CEO of General Motors. Now regular readers of this column will of course remember Mr. Waggoner. In February, Mr. Waggoner pronounced himself “pleased” at GM’s 2007 earnings report, which contained...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. - It's a concept gaining in popularity, homemade hydrogen fuel cells attached to cars and trucks in order to squeeze out a few more miles per gallon. If you're willing to do some homework and make a trip to the hardware store, you could save some money. "It just helps the fuel completely burn in the engine," said Doug Batton. He explains how this hydrogen fuel cell, or booster attached in the bed of his truck, helps him get more miles per gallon on the road. His Dodge truck still needs fuel, this device just helps him...

Free parking for electric cars axed - for being too successfulDavid Williams, Motoring Editor 24.06.08   Charging time: owners of electric cars like this Nice Mega City will now have to pay to park in the City of London   A pioneering scheme that rewards owners of electric vehicles with free parking is being scrapped - because it works too well. Since 2001, the City of London has issued free roadside parking passes to nearly 500 drivers of the zero-emission cars in a bid to encourage other people to buy one. It has also handed out 539 permits for...

Jun. 13 - Japanese company Genepax presents its eco-friendly car that runs on nothing but water. The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water that is poured into the car's tank. The generator then releases electrons that produce electric power to run the car. Genepax, the company that invented the technology, aims to collaborate with Japanese manufacturers to mass produce it.

In the end, it was General Motors who settled the debate over fuel economy standards in the United States. Responding to plummeting demand for the full-size trucks and sport-utility vehicles that prompted Detroit’s resurgence during the ’90s, GM announced this week that it is going to change its business model. It will no longer focus on trucks, and plans to close four plants that builds them – focusing instead on cars that burn gasoline more efficiently. In doing so, the company was following the oldest rule in capitalism – supply must follow demand. American consumers had finally reached their breaking...

Motorheads don’t want to hear it; refuse to believe it — but ugly realities are coming down hard on the ‘09 Camaro that will very possibly cause GM to pull the plug before the first one ever rolls off the line. Doubt that? Consider the stillborn rear-wheel-drive next generation Chevy Impala — nixed because of concerns within GM about the possibility of meeting the pending (2012) 35 mpg fuel economy edict recently passed by Congress. A lighter front-drive car with a V-6 instead of a V-8 can make the cut; a V-8 RWD Impala can’t. So it’s gone. So is...

Auto Safety Expert: Check Age Of Tires The tires motorists depend on every day to help get them from here to there might be holding a secret that could prove catastrophic. Not many people think about the age of their tires. Most think mileage ratings are the only determining factor in how long tires will last. Drivers should also consider how old their tires are -- not when they were bought, but when they were made, Call 6's Rafael Sanchez reported. Safety advocate Sean Kane has spent years investigating tire failures. His group, Safety and Research Strategies Inc., documented 140...

BMW’s 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel (earlier post) was named Best New Engine of the Year 2008 at the tenth annual International Engine of the Year Awards at Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany (6-8 May). The top six contenders in this category included two twin-turbos (one gasoline, one diesel), a V10 with 580bhp, the world’s first diesel boxer engine (from Subaru), and a fresh version of Volkswagen’s TSI. BMW’s 3-liter Twin Turbo gasoline engine was named International Engine of the Year 2008, as it was last year. (Earlier post.) The judges of the awards noted that the back-to-back win also confirms turbocharging...

While most automakers are jumping on the trend of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, Alton Manufacturing has taken the opposite route. They've created a whole new vehicle category with their extreme-SUV variant, the "XUV"

FLINT, Michigan -- Married couple Tim and Teri Anthony of Flint are struggling to stay on top of their bills. The day after American Axle went on strike, Tim Anthony, 56, was laid off from his job at General Motors Truck and Bus Assembly in Pontiac. No axles, no work for Anthony. "It has been very tough," said Teri Anthony, 54. "My husband has been looking at our bills, deciding who we can pay and who we can't. "We've had to use credit cards to buy groceries. Fortunately, we haven't had to borrow yet." About 3,600 UAW workers at five...

Readers of London's Sunday Times kept telling the auto reporters that the official mileage numbers for the Prius were overstated by about 15 imperial mpg. Intrigued, the Times decided to test things out by running a Prius against a BMW 520d with regenerative braking from London to Geneva, a 460-mile trip. Then they added 100 miles of urban running to give the Prius a chance to recover ground on its proper turf. The verdict: the conventional diesel with Efficient Dynamics beat the full hybrid by 2.2 imperial mpg, or 1.8 US mpg. This means that an executive sedan with all...

When gas prices began to shoot up last summer, Millie Richardson became fed up with her minivan. So the Lawrenceville, N.J., mom traded in her Dodge Caravan for a $17,000 Nissan Versa, a subcompact that gets more than 30 miles per gallon. Richardson, 55, likes spending less at the pump, but she's most excited about how roomy her little car is. "My son is 6-foot-6, and he drove it," she marvels. "So it's small, but it's big—does that make sense?" What's even more appealing to Richardson, though, is a $2,500 car she's heard about that was introduced in India last...

Too busy to change the oil? You might want to think twice next time you let those 3,000 miles pass you by. That's because replacing an engine, which relies on oil for lubrication, costs about $2,000 to $5,000 to repair or replace, depending on the vehicle, and that doesn't include the cost of labor. Costs like this go to show that car owners would be wise to stay on track with even the smallest upkeeps, like replacing worn wiper blades or monitoring power-steering fluid levels. Forget the former and you're looking at poor visibility in a downpour. The latter? You...

BETHESDA, Md. — April is National Car Care Month, the time of year to focus on taking better care of your second largest investment. Especially now, with record high gas prices, regular vehicle maintenance is even more important as it can increase gas mileage by as much as 10 percent, according to the Car Care Council. "Consumers cannot control the price of gas at the pumps, but they can control the amount of gas they use," said Rich White, executive director of the Car Care Council. "The condition of tires, air filters and spark plugs can impact fuel economy and...

The Toyota hybrid is hailed as an eco-paragon, so how does it fare against a big BMW? To find out our correspondents go on a run to Geneva. The Prius, like the iPod, is more than a piece of clever technology. It symbolises something bigger – a responsible attitude, a healthier way of living. Toyota has sold more than a million examples of the car since launching it in 1997 and it has attracted a worldwide following led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and much of the rest of Hollywood. It’s classified by the American government as the “most fuel-efficient...

If the public ever stopped to think for themselves, the 'eco-friendly' hybrid would be banned from our highways. They are not 'green.' They are, in fact, blacker than Hitler's bastard heart. Do any of these bunny-hugging, sign-waving morons stop to think about what it takes to make just one of those big-assed batteries? Come to think of it, do any of these idiots stop to think about what it takes to recycle one- which is necessary every five years!? Of course not. And you can bet your sweet ass that none of the proponents of these toxic deathtraps is about...

After more than two decades, the ghost of the El Camino has finally risen from the grave, at least for U.S. drivers. It never actually went away in Australia. Now that the Pontiac G8 has ushered in a new era of affordable rear-wheel-drive performance at General Motors, the car-based pickup truck, or Ute as they are called Down Under, is coming back. Rumors have been flying for months about a G8 Ute and GM even showed the GMC Denali XT concept at the Chicago Auto Show last month – a four-door ute with a two-mode hybrid power-train that may or...

James Willman seems to be a nice enough guy: polite, good-humored and hard-working, pumping gas seven days a week at the Amerigo Gas Station in the tiny Big Sur town of Gorda, about 35 miles north of Cambria. But at least once a day, Willman said, someone pulls in and starts cursing him. “They say all kinds of stuff—‘You ought to be shot,’ or ‘Where’s your mask?’ ” Willman said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, I just work here.’ ” The reason for consumer hostility is that the station is serving up what might be the costliest gas in the land. This...

What you are looking at is the physical representation of Hyundai's will to succeed in the U.S., also known as the 2009 Hyundai Genesis. The Korean automaker's first attempt at a rear-wheel-drive luxury sedan will debut in Detroit next week and arrive on our shores later this year (we think) with a price tag that starts below $30,000. As is Hyundai's way, it will feature power, performance and amenities that belie its little price tag. First, the design. The Genesis sedan has clean lines and uncluttered surfaces that look detailed and, frankly, expensive. Yes, it's derivative. There's a bit of...

 (edit)The concept car developer Rinspeed calls its "sQuba" the first real submersible car(edit) Rinspeed says its car can provide a stable "flight" at a depth of 30 feet."For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly underwater," says Frank Rinderknecht, Rinspeed's 52-year-old CEO and a professed James Bond fan. "Now we have made this dream come true." The car will be unveiled at next month's Geneva Auto Show.Rinderknecht says it is difficult to make a car watertight and pressure-resistant enough to be maneuverable underwater."The real challenge, however, was to...

As one smoker said at the Detroit Auto Show, "Do you know what smokers have to go through today just to smoke? It's like they're trying to erase us from history." More and more carmakers are making it harder to smoke in one's own vehicle by replacing lighters and ashtrays with storage spaces and power outlets. The trend is driven by "pressure from anti-smoking groups, fewer smokers and the need for the extra storage space." According to the United Health Foundation, about 20.8% of the population smokes, which means about 60 million people. According to Apple, 100 million people have...

Looking for a fuel-efficient alternative to your current gas-guzzler? How about a car that gets 30% better fuel economy, doesn't require a giant battery in the trunk or have to be plugged into the wall, and can travel 600 miles between fill-ups? Believe it or not, automakers may have a tough time selling those attributes to consumers later this year, when a new generation of diesel-powered vehicles arrives in dealerships. Images from the 1970s--of rattling engines and tailpipes spewing black soot--are hard to shake. And, thanks to superb marketing by Toyota (nyse: TM), maker of the Prius hybrid, Americans are...

While there might not be much upside to Tata Motors’ intended purchase of the luxury Jaguar and Land Rover marques, the Indian giant’s decision to build the world’s cheapest car looks like a supercharged business decision. Numbers released yesterday by the industry giants underline the potential with General Motors revealing that vehicle sales in China rose 18.5% last year to a record 1.03mn and Toyota saying it smashed targets with a 62% increase in the world’s fastest growing country. In spite of this impressive growth by the big two in China, only 0.1% of the population owns one of their...

"Toyota Motor Corp. overtook Ford Motor Co. to become the No. 2 automaker by U.S. sales in 2007, using new products and relentless strategy to break Ford's 76-year lock on the position. Toyota sold 2.62 million cars and trucks in 2007, which amounted to 48,226 more than Ford, according to sales figures released Thursday. Toyota's sales were up 3 percent for the year, buoyed by new products like the Toyota Tundra pickup, which saw sales jump 57 percent. Ford's sales fell 12 percent to 2.572 million vehicles."

Now that it's already set a dubious standard for high-fashion knockoffs, China is busy extending its sincerest form of flattery to cars. Depending on where they live in the world, consumers can get a clone of a BMW X5 for about $38,000, to perfectly complement, say, a nicely counterfeited Rolex and a faux Armani suit. The entire ensemble of watch, suit and vehicle would cost under $40,000, compared to $52,000 for the real items, including about $46,000 for the Beemer. In the Orient, sports car lovers can snag a Chinese "Ferrari" for about $10,000 to $30,000, not the normal $120,000...

The Coates Spherical Rotary Valve Engine is the most advanced in the world. A conventional piston engine ignites the fuel and air mixture in the combustion cycle and evacuates the gas by-products in the exhaust cycle. These cycles occur thousands of times per minute per cylinder. Through the rotation of the camshaft, a spring-loaded poppet valve opens to enable the fuel and air mixture to enter the firing chamber during the induction stroke. The camshaft then closes the intake valve during the compression and combustion stroke of the cylinder and opens a second spring-loaded valve to vent the cylinder...

The last time the three-wheeled Aptera was featured on our site, we promised to keep you abreast of any new information that we found. Thanks to a tip from a reader named Matthew, we are pleased to let you know that Aptera is now accepting orders. Aptera has a Web site here, but there is not a great deal of information or raw-data to be found there. A better source of information is at their MySpace page, which is here. According to this article, Aptera is looking at around 300 miles per gallon along with acceptable performance numbers of about...

It was a rich decade, and car buyers rewarded themselves. After generations of being the exclusive domain of wealthy families, successful businessmen and professionals, luxury vehicles went mainstream in the mid-1990s. Between 1997 and 2006, luxury-brand sales grew 82 percent. Detroit's Big Three missed the party. A Plain Dealer analysis of data provided by the credit research firm Experian Group shows that domestic luxury brands failed to keep up with their Japanese and German counterparts. Once-successful near-luxury brands such as Mercury, Buick and Oldsmobile all but disappeared. Toyota's Lexus division more than tripled its sales, while Ford's Lincoln brand fell...

One-Eyed Deaf Driver, 82, Tows Trailer At 88mph Oct 20 2007 By Gordon Currie Oap Faces Road BanA ONE-EYED, deaf 82-year-old was caught pulling a trailer at 88mph on one of Scotland's deadliest roads.Maurice Hollyfield told a court he wasn't paying attention because he had his stereo turned up loud so he could hear the music.He also claimed he thought his car's rev counter was the speedometer.Hollyfield, whose left eye is made of glass, was clocked by a speed camera on the A9 at Waterloo between Perth and Dunkeld. He should only have been doing 50mph.David Holmes, defending, told...

Chrysler, UAW, AutomotiveThis link is to Channel 4 News in Detroit.

Two big lures: A shot at being part of a historic turnaround, plus oodles of cash How has Chrysler assembled what many already call a dream team? Executives see the combination of a high-profile turnaround job, managed by a smart-money player, as a way into the private equity boom. They get equity stakes potentially worth millions, and Cerberus can offer titles that carry more authority than jobs at bigger rivals. Says Bradley J. Holden, a partner with executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles in Chicago, which worked with Cerberus: "Private equity firms can offer huge financial upside and the intellectual...

WARSAW, Poland, Sept. 18 U.S. automaker General Motors announced plans to rebuild the FSO manufacturing plant in Poland and make it Europe's biggest Chevrolet producer. Peter Forster, chief executive officer of General Motors Europe, said the company wants to make cars in Poland for the next 25 years or more, a Polish Radio report said. GM plans to produce 400,000 Chevrolet vehicles annually. Earlier this month, GM announced it paid $254.5 million for 40 percent of FSO shares.

DETROIT (AP) -- Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp. ended a marathon bargaining session early Saturday, more than four hours after their contract was set to expire. Bargainers, who on Friday night agreed to extend the contract while they continued negotiations, decided to resume talks later Saturday, said GM spokesman Dan Flores, who did not know exactly when negotiators would return to the table. "The parties have agreed to take a break and resume later on this morning," Flores said. "Our bargaining continues, but both parties have agreed to take a short break." The hiatus came...

"Reports of the death of U.S. manufacturing have been greatly exaggerated." This is the opening line in a revealing and timely economic analysis aptly titled "Thriving in a Global Economy — The Truth About U.S. Manufacturing and Trade." =============================================================== The Good News is we're doomed! Part II 9/3/07 Early Tuesday morning I was tuned to Squawk on the Street on CNBC. Big economic report about to be released. During the wait, the ominous drumbeat from the TV box: 'Period of anxiety', 'period of uncertainty', 'period of fear', 'worst yet to come', 'credit collapse', 'credit crunch', 'subprime collapse', 'housing collapse', 'recession...

... the Model T was a piece of junk, the Yugo of its day...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Nearly two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall a German company plans to give the Trabant, a stinky two-cylinder car that became the symbol of communist East Germany, a new lease of life. The new Trabants will no longer have tiny engines, noxious fumes and plastic bodies but will retain the iconic design of the original -- like Volkswagen's new Beetle or the new Mini. The Trabant was the most common vehicle in the former East Germany and was produced without major changes for nearly 30 years. Known in the West as a "spark plug...

AUSTIN, Texas - Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine. An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline. By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 50 miles of...

By keeping your car for 15 years, or 225,000 miles of driving, you could save nearly $31,000, according to Consumer Reports magazine. That's compared to the cost of buying an identical model every five years, which is roughly the rate at which most car owners trade in their vehicles. In its annual national auto survey, the magazine found 6,769 readers who had logged more than 200,000 miles on their cars. Their cars included a 1990 Lexus LS400 with 332,000 miles and a 1994 Ford Ranger pick-up that had gone 488,000 miles. Consumer Reports calls the Honda Civic a "Good bet"...

Among the 14 new or significantly revised powertrains GM will introduce in the 2008 model year to provide improvements in fuel economy across its product range are five 1.0L to 2.0L small-displacement engine variants. In addition to the five new small displacement engines, GM’s powertrain line-up for 2008 includes new hybrids; diesels; a broader range of powertrains applying fuel-saving technologies such as Active Fuel Management (cylinder deactivation), direct injection, variable valve timing, and six-speed transmissions; and flexfuel options. The five new small-displacement engines are headed for markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America in 2008: * 1.1L dual-overhead cam gasoline...

Car geeks are generally an outspoken group. But they really put the pedal to the metal when Hagerty Insurance, a specialist in collector cars, surveyed its policyholders for their picks of the worst car designs of all time. Here's what one connoisseur had to say the about the top pick, American Motors' Pacer: "0 to 60 in four-and-a-half hours. AMC's only conceivable excuse for this stylistic horror would be if their design crew was tripping on massive quantities of acid...and even then...it wouldn't be a good excuse." McKeel Hagerty, CEO of the company, ordered up the survey after noticing that...

Chrysler, with a new owner and a new boss, is placing a big bet on a fledgling Chinese automaker. The Chery A1 is a cute little car. It's a four-door hatchback, with a 1.3-liter engine, dual air bags and antilock brakes. The two-tone interior, with air-conditioning, power windows and a CD player, is surprisingly appealing for a car that sells for just over $7,000 in China. It may not quite live up to American standards. The engine needs refinement, and some parts don't fit as well as they should--not to mention concerns about the safety of anything made in China...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Ford CEO Alan Mulally became the latest high-profile business executive to suggest that the Federal Reserve needs to cut interest rates, according to a report published Friday. Noting that credit conditions were posing a "big headwind" to the company's turnaround plan, Mulally told the Financial Times he is concerned about the state of the larger economy. Next victim of mortgage mess: Auto sales Video More video Fortune's Sue Callaway reviews and compares the Audi S4 and the BMW M5. Play video "It is a really important job to manage inflation and economic growth [but] focusing on...

What will Ford Europe's next generation of small cars look like? The company's giving a sneak peak by way of the Verve concept. The company says the subcompact model offers a "significant hint" at the new Fiesta, which will get a new look based on Euro Ford's "kinetic" design language. That's the styling vocab introduced with the company's S-Max and Galaxy vans and the latest Mondeo. The two-door concept will debut at next month's Frankfurt auto show. A few of the Jalops were talking yesterday, and one came up with the idea that Ford Europe should stage a hostile takeover...

The drumbeat of bad economic news out of Michigan keeps pounding. The Great Lakes State has lost jobs for six consecutive years, Michigan’s longest run of workplace shrinkages since the Great Depression. Automakers are laying off tens of thousands. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is closing up shop in Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo. The state ranks among the top three in the country for home foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies. Analysts at Comerica Bank, which is moving its headquarters from Detroit to Dallas, say Michigan is stuck in a “one-state recession.”

At the annual Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan, Chrysler’s Executive Vice President - Product Development, Frank Klegon, outlined the company’s powertrain strategy with a focus on improving fuel economy. As background, Klegon said that the company anticipates that diesels will represent up to 15% of new vehicle sales within 10 years. He also said that Chrysler thinks that in the next 5 to 10 years, hybrids will represent up to another 15% of the market, “but may grow even higher due to government regulations and as costs come down.” Diesel Engines. On the diesel front, Chrysler currently offers...

DETROIT (AP) -- Buick tied with Lexus as the highest-ranking brand in a closely watched study of vehicle dependability, marking the first time in 12 years that Lexus has shared the top award, J.D. Power and Associates said Thursday. Cadillac, Mercury and Honda rounded out the top five brands in the annual survey, which measures problems experienced by the original owners of three-year-old vehicles. Both Buick and Lexus had 145 problems per 100 vehicles. The worst-performing brand, Land Rover, had 398 problems. The industry average was 216 problems, down from 227 problems in last year's survey.

, Oleg Deripaska, the owner of Russia's biggest aluminium maker, has acquired a stake in General Motors of just under 5 per cent, say two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The Russian tycoon's stake in the world's largest car company, worth more than $900m (£445m) at yesterday's share price, is said to be a personal investment and unrelated to Gaz, the vehicle manufacturer he controls.

The crystalline structure of boric acid. Boron atoms are shown as blue spheres, oxygen as pink, and hydrogen as brown. Molecular forces that bind the layers in the lattice enable them to slide over one another with very low friction. Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have begun to combine nanoparticles of boric acid—known primarily as a mild antiseptic and eye cleanser—with traditional motor oils in order to improve their lubricity and by doing so increase energy efficiency. In laboratory tests, these new boric acid suspensions have reduced by as much as two-thirds the energy...