GM To Offer Cordless In-Car Charging

Cell phone charger cords are unsightly and often end up in the way of important stuff like gear shifts, HVAC and audio controls. Now, GM (at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) is introducing cordless charging technology.

Full story from The Detroit News.

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Fiat Increasing Stake In Chrysler, "No Immediate Plans" To Merge

 

Looks like Fiat's going to increase its stake in Chrysler to 51% before the IPO comes along. But a full-on merger?  Sergio says "not now".

Full story from The Detroit News.

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7 Insurers Sue Toyota

Never mind that, apart from floormats trapping gas pedals, there's never been a single proven case of unintended acceleration,  seven insurance companies want Toyota to pay up for crashes the insurers say were caused by  "a defect that causes sudden uncontrolled acceleration to speeds of up to 100 mph or more".

Uh-huh.  Seriously.  Odds are overwhelming that the insurers' clients were standing on the wrong pedal.

Full story from The Detroit News.

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UPDATE: Make That $41,000 For A Single Volt

But that includes delivery charges.

(Cue crickets)

Chevy says it can make the argument that unlike the purely electric Nissan Leaf, which starts below $33,000 before tax credits, the plug-in hybrid Volt is a "real" car. And GM's working some math magic to make lease payments competitive with the Leaf despite the sticker spread.

Full details from The Detroit News.

And full credit to Edward Neidemeyer over at The Truth About Cars , who got past the price tag, hauled out the spec sheet and found the Volt's range extender (what you and I might quaintly call a "gasoline engine") requires.....

Premium fuel.

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WSJ: Feds Find Toyota Unintended Acceleration Cases Actually Driver Error

The Feds aren't going out of their way to talk about it, but the Wall Street Journal says after analyzing dozens of alleged unintended acceleration incidents, the U.S. Department of Transportation has found that the drivers were standing on the gas and never applied the brake.

The only exception...the San Diego area Lexus crash that killed a California Highway Patrolman and his family. In that one, the gas pedal was trapped under a floormat.

Yes, we did tell you so.

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Mercury Deathwatch: News Conference at 3PM, Eastern Time

The Detroit News is reporting that Ford has called a news conference for 3PM EST to discuss "brand and product strategy".

Expectation is that means the official announcement that Mercury is joining the scrap heap of once-prominent American car brands, and that a new compact Merc will end up a Lincoln.

Details as they're available.

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GM May Buy Back GMAC

As General Motors claws its way back to solvency, it's remembered the good old days when a chunk of the money that literally flowed through its hallways came from its captive financing arm, the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC). So it's thinking about buying it back.

But it's complicated. For one thing, the new owners re-named it two days ago:

For another, the US government owns a chunk of both GM and Ally, oversaw the divestiture, and would have to approve the re-marriage.

For another, most of Chrysler's in-house financing comes through GMAC...er...Ally.

Like we said...it's complicated. As most potential gigabuck enterprises are. The Detroit News has the details.

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Toyota Recalls 50,000 Seven-Year Old Sequioas For Unintended DE-Celeration

You just can't make this stuff up, folks. Toyota's rounding up 2003 model year Sequoias because the traction control system is defective and can cause the vehicles to slow down suddenly, without lighting the brake lights, which...yeah, can cause rear-end accidents.

Full story from The Detroit News.

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eBay Pulls Kevorkian Bus From Auction; Kruse Steps In

Yesterday we told you about the eBay auction of Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian's 1968 VW Bus.

Never mind.

eBay has pulled the auction saying it "does not allow the sale of items closely associated with notorious murderers within the last 100 years."

Kruse Auctions has no such policy, apparently...The Dub of Death will cross the block next month.

Details from The Detroit News.

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Poll: American Cars Better Than Imports

Bumper stickers like the one above were very common in the 70s and 80s, when American cars were in their long slide beyond mediocrity to craptasticness and Toyota and Honda were cementing their reputation as bulletproof transportation.

Well, the tables appear to be turning.  A new Associated Press poll shows more Americans believe American cars are better than Japanese cars, 38 to 33 percent.

Full story from The Detroit News here.

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Again...This Is The Brake...This Is The Transmission

Common sense is breaking out all over. Hot on the heels of Car and Driver's John Yanca with the intelligent answer to the Lexus GX 460's alleged stability issue comes John McCormick from The Detroit News with how to deal with it if your vehicle ever does something strange on its own. You know, like unintended acceleration.

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GM To Add Brake Override Systems To All Automatic-Transmission Vehicles

General Motors says it wants customers to be confident in its vehicles, so it will make brake override systems standard in all of its vehicles with automatic transmissions by the end of 2012.

Toyota plans to do the same next year, and the government is considering making it mandatory for all vehicles with automatics sold in the U.S.

The idea, of course, is to reduce the risk of unintended acceleration...press on the brake and the power to the engine is reduced. But, when data shows that the majority of those cases are actually drivers standing on the wrong pedal, the effect is likely to be minimal.

Full story from The Detroit News.

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Lutz: Americans Won't Be Driving In 30 Years

General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, an auto show floor and reporters are always a recipe for a good quote. But this is one we could have gone forever without hearing.

"Maximum Bob" told reporters at the New York International Auto Show today that Americans won't be driving themselves 30 years from now...the cars will do it for them. Read it yourself at The Detroit News.

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2011 Chevrolet Volt: First One Built

The first "manufacturing validation" example of the Chevrolet Volt electric car went down the assembly line earlier this week.

The Detroit News reports that several hundred more will be built for evaluation and testing before production of for-sale cars begins this fall.

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Lincoln Hybrid MKZ Unveil At NYC Auto Show

Lexus is rolling out the hybrids, so why not Lincoln? Expect an announcement this week at the New York Auto Show that there will be a 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid.

Not that big a stretch, really...given that the MKZ is a derivative of the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan, both of which have hybrid models. We loved the Milan Hybrid...but will the MKZ be different enough to justify the Lincoln price tag?

The Detroit News talked to at least one analyst who isn't so sure. Story here.

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Mitsubishi To Triple Electric Car Output; Sell i-MiEV In U.S. In 2011

Mitsubishi says it plans to triple its electric car output over the next three years, and will sell the i-MiEV, currently on sale in Japan, here in the U.S. in 2011.

A seven-hour charge is good for up to 100 miles in the i-MiEV, according to Mitsu, but even they admit that it's a pricey vehicle...it costs double what a Prius does in Japan...the equivalent of $51,000 in today's American dollars.

Full story from AP and The Detroit News here.

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Unanimous: Harrison, NY PD Agrees: Driver Error, Not Unintended Acceleration

The one on the right is the gas pedal. The one on the left is the brake pedal. The chief of the Harrison, New York Police Department says, yep...the 55 year old woman who crashed her Toyota Prius hybrid into a stone wall two weeks ago...the one he said couldn't have been driver error at the time.....was, well, driver error, the most common cause of fully investigated unintended acceleration incidents.

Captain Anthony Marracccini says his department's investigation confirms what Toyota and the NHTSA's found...that the throttle was wide-open at the time of impact...with no sign of any application of the brake.

AP story via The Detroit News here. Conversations among Prius drivers on the PriusChat forums.

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Lexus CT200h Premium Compact Hybrid A Go

Last month, the Geneva Auto Show, next year, your dealer's showroom.

The Detroit News is reporting that Lexus will launch the CT200h hybrid early next year.

It will be Lexus' second compact hybrid. Read our take on the HS250h here, and Prius owners are talking about the video above and the car in it on the PriusChat forums, and there's a second thread about it as well.

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GM Sues Corvette Replica Maker

GM's not thrilled that you can buy a $90,000 replica of the '63 Corvette Grand Sport, of which five were built. So they're suing Mongoose Motorsports, the replica maker.

Full story from The Detroit News.

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Toyota Sued By Shareholders Over Unintended Acceleration

Three class-action lawsuits alleging securities violations have been filed against Toyota by shareholders who say Toyota "failed to disclose ongoing safety issues"  including faulty gas pedals.

Full story from The Detroit News here.

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