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Car Industry Makes Profits Despite Recession In 2010

January 4th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in News

In a year that the automotive industry saw ‘cash for clunkers’ and overall low auto sales, the last few years of the month helped to bring them a hefty profit margin. Although many US citizens are struggling to find stable jobs, many of them also learned that they would need to purchase a new car in order to have reliable transportation. Car consumers didn’t have a preference when it came to new car shopping. Both foreign and domestic automotive companies saw increased car sales in the fall and winter of 2010. Part of the increase in auto sales can be attributed to aggressive advertising campaigns and incentives that saved consumers thousands of dollars. More than anything, those who had been holding out on purchasing a new automobile found that it saw more economically feasible to invest in a new car rather than continue to pay for expensive repairs.

Another reason that car shoppers bought new cars in the latter portion of 2010 is because used cars have become much more expensive. With tax season coming up, automotive companies have much to look forward to. After the tax refund checks start to roll in, consumers will be heading out to dealerships in record numbers. It is likely that another round of advertisements will begin in order to get car shoppers to purchase their cars from specific manufacturers, car dealerships will make an even greater impact on consumers. The car dealerships that offer the best trade-in values will get the largest portion of business from consumers around tax time.

Get Into A New Car Quick By Refinancing

December 27th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in News

Perhaps you have been paying for your current car for a few years and are thinking about getting a new one soon. You may cringe at the thought of paying even more money for a new car loan payment, but this is probably only because you are nearly tapped out. With the economy going the way it is, you need to find a way to save as much money as you possibly can just in case. If you start looking into bill consolidation loans now you won’t have to worry about how you are going to be able to afford your new car.

A lot of people trade in their older vehicles in order to afford a new car. Even them, most still need to come up with a considerable down payment and immediately have to start paying their monthly loan payments. If you are barely scratching by, you will probably need to keep the cars that you own and you won’t be able to come up with enough money for a big down payment. Having a new car to depend on might be the difference between you taking that job offer in a neighboring city or being able to maintain a long distance relationship. If you don’t already know how a refinance car loan works, take the time to learn about it now before you head out to the car dealership. Once you are armed with enough information you can qualify for an auto refinance loan that will allow you to purchase a brand new car with no money down. Within minutes you will be able to know whether or not you can have your auto loan refinanced, and even if you don’t qualify you can easily reapply in a few days. You never know what opportunities await you when you are able to own an automobile that is as dependable as it is affordable.

Letterman And O’Reilly Joke About Electric Cars

December 11th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in News

Following Rush Limbaugh’s lead, comedian David Letterman and political commentator Bill O’Reilly took shots as electric cars, but the exchange was all in good fun. Letterman openly wondered why he didn’t see many electric cars on the roads, and O’Reilly quickly used the opening to make a few lighthearted jokes about the perceived limited capabilities of smart cars. While Limbaugh was much more scathing in his critique of electric cars, the sudden peak in interest is helping to put electric powered cars into the spotlight, negative publicity and all. Letterman then went on to talk about the Tesla Roadster that he has owned for a few years now, but quipped that he didn’t make a smart decision when he purchased the smart car.

All in all, electric powered vehicles are starting to become the answer when it comes to reducing emissions and lower fueling costs. The main issue that electric car manufacturers face is the fact that the automotive industry still largely caters to standard vehicles. If you were to purchase an electric car today, there is a good chance that you would only be able to power you car at your home. Gas stations are still constantly being built, with the number of electric powering stations numbering only a few dozen a year. Motorists will have to start making the transition on their own, but they will need the support and assistance of major corporations to begin fostering a more electric car friendly environment if they are to take the place of standard vehicles.

New Auto Bill Being Considered By Congress

December 6th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in News

After years of lobbying for an automotive safety bill, it looks like the Democrats might be able to pass the proposed measure just before the Republicans take over a majority of the Congressional seats. The new bill is expected to focus on driver safety while creating new standard safety measures for automotive manufacturers to follow. Backed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, government officials believe that the bill will help to address consumer complaints, increased fines for car manufacturers that fail to comply with new safety measures and improvements to brakes systems. As automotive consumer groups having been pushing for this bill for a number of years, they hope that the measures imposed will be enough. With a focus on consumers, lobbyists believe that the ability to more easily lodge complaints against auto manufacturers will lead to increased public awareness, which will force auto makers to make changes faster.

While the proposed bill will help automotive makers and consumers alike to finally address longer overdue concerns, officials also want to make sure that people involved in automotive recalls will not abuse their authority. Employees of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will not be allowed to work for any type of automotive company for two years after they end their tenure. In addition to making better fleet management systems a requirement, the bill will also force car makers to give consumers better access to blind pedestrian sensing technologies and make consumers aware of changes to features. Out of all of the things that this new auto bill will address, the increased fine system will probably have the biggest impact on car manufacturers. Some infractions will come with fines that amount to a total of $5 million each, and multiple infractions can lead to daily fines amounting to $5,000 a day. As car makers fight to stay profitable in a downed economy, this new bill could cause some manufacturers to become more appealing to consumers while others may find themselves fighting for customers to remain loyal.

Car Enthusiasts Respond To The Fiat 500

December 4th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in News

While the Fiat 500 was received quite well by the North American audience, it was not without criticism. The overall consensus is that the Fiat has a lot of great features, in fact, there are just too many of them. From the colors buyers can choose from to six different styles of steering wheels, customers may become dizzy when they are asked to make their selections. Although it is admirable that Fiat released a car that would appeal to a wide range of customers, overwhelming them probably wasn’t their intention.

First shown at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, the Fiat 500 will only be available for purchase in showrooms located in a select number of US major cities. This was probably the best decision that Fiat and the Chrysler group have made, because new buyers will have to wait around a month to get their custom ordered Fiat. For suburban dwellers, the idea of buying a new car and then waiting two full pay cycles to drive it is a completely foreign concept. The other good choice that Fiat made was to price the car on the low end of the spectrum. For about $15,000, consumers can add, or subtract, as many features, customizations and options as they want and still walk away paying less than $20,000 in total. Although the Fiat is a compact car, it boast a V6 engine, a feature that the car company hopes will entice more buyers to take notice. You probably won’t see too many people driving around in a Fiat, but as they only expect to produce around 50,000 cars, the car may actually sell out quickly.

TomTom Creators Plan To Navigate First ‘Intelligent Cars’

November 29th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in News

It may seem like a thing of the future, but self propelled vehicles are on the drawing board – at least TomTom says so. In an attempt to beat their biggest competitor, Google, to the punch, TomTom plans to appeal to automotive manufacturers that they are already in business with while attempting to win over the rest. TomTom is already a bit behind the eight-ball as Google announced last month that they had successfully tested a fleet of autonamously driven cars around the Bay area, in California. It may appear that TomTom lost that battle, but Google failed to reveal just how sucessful their test drive really was. Each ‘intelligent car’ was stocked with a safety driver and a Google engineer to monitor the test and take over if anything went wrong. Google didn’t release any information noting the number of times the cars had to be taken over, so it is safe to assume that there are still some major glitches that they need to work on.

As for exactly how TomTom plans to beat Google, the senior vice president of marketing at TomTom, Tom Murray,
stated that ‘intelligent cars’ need much more information than just roadways and weather conditions in order to be built and operate effectively. Company representatives believe that Tom Tom sat nav will allow car makers to get vital infomation pertaining to subtle roadway nuances such as potholes and speedbumps – details such as these are very important if ‘intelligent cars’ are to prevent accidents and not cause them. TomTom also reports that they are working on adding more highly detailed roadway information to their current database, having added 217,000 more miles of data in the US in the last quarter. It may be another 5 or 10 years before self driven cars are available on the market, and Google and TomTom will continue to compete until a winner emerges.

Porsche GT2 RS Sells Out in 2 Months

October 25th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted in News

Fans of sports cars have long turned to the Porsche when they wanted to name a car that is beyond extravagant and full of high power features, but this latest model from the Stuttgart, Germany based sports car maker may just take the cake in terms of the highest price seen in quite a while. This new Porsche 911 GT2 RS sold out in just under 60 days even though it is the most expensive serial model that the company makes and is a super car priced at nearly $330,000 for each of the total created in a run of 500. This is an amazing feat in today’s market, but critics say that it could be the 620 horse power engine that is able to do it. Or, it could be the fact that the car can accelerate to 62 miles per hour in just 3.5 seconds. These are definitely going to blow a lot of the competition on the road away and already 133 have been ordered for customers based in the United States after the car first debuted in a car show that took place in Moscow towards the end of August 2010.

Luxury is seen as the primary reason that people are buying these vehicles and the hunger for luxury is still alive and well according to Commerzbank AG analyst Daniel Schwarz, based in Frankfurt, Germany. He says that people want premium vehicles in a huge array of markets. As if to under score this point, it was shared that Porsche brought in nearly $12 billion in revenue across the year ending in July 2010.

New Car Maker joins the UK Auto Industry

July 22nd, 2010 | Comments Off | Posted in News

The British have long held a love of the car, but when it comes to sports cars they are definitely the type of culture to appreciate a well made and finely crafted auto. It turns out that a new car maker has arrived in the United Kingdom and their name is McLaren Automotive. They are now taking orders for what they are saying is more than 1 year’s worth of production and they plan to help boost the level of hi tech manufacturing that goes on in the UK today with their company. Most of those who know the McLaren name will be familiar with the McLaren Group that is well known all across the globe for their F1 road car and their famed Formula One team. The company says that it does not plan to produce the first car that will be available in the consumer market until next year, but the executive chairman of both McLaren Automotive and the McLaren Group, Ron Dennis, recently spoke to the press and said that his company has raised more than 260 million pounds in financing, meeting its target goal.

With the new cash to get the business going at a higher level, Dennis wants to be able to bring in more investing in the local UK car production industry. With the help of HSBC and Credit Suisse, Dennis has drummed up business all over the world and built interest in his company’s new cars which are expected to create quite a stir in the UK soon.

US Government Investing Heavily in Auto X Prize

November 22nd, 2009 | Comments Off | Posted in News

The Department of Energy in the United States has continued to invest more federal monies into the auto sector by pouring in a large amount of cash to the coffers of the Progressive Automotive X Prize – to the tune of $5.5 million. The X Prize has the stated mission of attempting to inspire a new generation of vehicles that are highly fuel efficient and easier on the environment, as well. Steven Chu, the Secretary of Energy, has said that the money will allow the Auto X Prize to attain $10 million which it can award to the winner of the competition for building cars that are capable of achieving 100 miles per gallon, or the equivalent there of, by using technical means and help the prize reach a wider audience in order to reach out and educate more people about the need for such vehicles. The money itself is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which is known in the media as the stimulus package. Chu has stated that the future of clean energy is depending on the ability of engineers to design and then make commercially viable vehicles with extremely high efficiency which are cost effective for consumers and take far less energy to power.

For Chu, the funding of the prize is designed to support national innovation in the US that should be cutting edge and help to transform not just transportation at the individual level, but also to shift the direction of such developments in order to tackle the crisis of the global climate.

Burt Automotive to Focus on Clean Energy

August 12th, 2009 | Comments Off | Posted in News

News has come out of the Denver, Colorado area that Burt Automotive Network Inc. is selling off 2 of its 7 dealerships in the Denver area as a way to shift the focus of its business. The two dealerships are a Surbaru lot and a Toyota lot, both located in the Englewood area. Both have been sold to Vail based George Gillett and his business partner Rod Buscher who work with Bill Carmichael in running 30 separate dealerships in the state of Colorado, as well as the New England area of the United States and Nashville, Tennessee under their Summit Automotive Partners company. In addition, they run dealerships for Jeep, Scion, Chrysler, Dodge and Chevrolet in the towns of Silverthorne and Glenwood Springs. Attorney Stephen Dietrich from the Denver based Greenberg Traurig LLP represented the buyers and Burt Automotive has stated that it now plans to shift the focus of its business to vehicles that use alternative energy and have a higher level of fuel efficiency. Part of the stated reason was economic, but also to take advantage of corporate funding programs and the state, federal and even local levels where such green vehicles are considered the direction of the future for the auto industry.

Burt Auto is the largest fleet dealer in the US today and views this as a chance to take a greater role in the changing conditions of the US auto market at the consumer level. The company went on to explain that it believes its obligations lie with not only the nation, but the planet itself in attempting to create energy independence in the US via more fuel efficient cars, as well as reduce the damage from auto emissions to the environment.

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