J.D. Power

Don't Forget The Basics, When Cars Go Bad

Sniff Petrol, put it like this:

"Initial reports of blithering idiocy emerged from the United States last year but these were thought to be isolated incidents caused by people who are so thick that if a floormat was touching their accelerator pedal would prefer to scream 'Aaaaaaargh' until they drove into a river rather than simply moving the mat backward with their foot. However, it now seems the monumental stupidity is more widespread and may cause some human beings to decide that the best course of action in the event of being in a car with a throttle that won't release is to telephone someone rather than to, for example, put the car into neutral and bring it to a halt using the brakes as normal."

It's called alert driving, what every driver should practice. Know what your car is doing, and what to do about it.

Let's call it what is it: unintelligent acceleration. All this fuss over Toyota's problems with cars accelerating out of control ignores one fundamental factor -- driver input -- that has received scant attention.

The plain fact is that regardless of whether certain Toyotas -- or plenty of other automakers' cars, for that matter -- have genuine mechanical or electronic problems with engine speed controls, they all have other systems that allow drivers to manage their vehicles perfectly well. One of these systems is called the brake and the other the transmission.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100415/OPINION03/4150380/1149/rss26#ixzz0ea6AoJC4

Ten Best Selling Autos, November 2009

November was another slightly positive month for most automakers, over the lows of 2008 so don't get too excited, as companies like Hyundai, Subaru, and Nissan saw impressive gains of 46%, 24% and 21% respectively. Ford and GM remained relatively flat but Chrysler was one of the few companies still seeing a huge decline compared to November of last year. Sales slid again by 25%. It’s down 38% for the year to date.

Chrysler’s woes hit the top ten as its venerable Dodge Ram pickup is still bumped from the list selling fewer than 10,000 units in November despite an expensive advertising blitz.

1. Ford F-Series: 30,494
2. Toyota Camry 27,385
3. Chevy Silverado: 22,101
4. Toyota Corolla: 21,899
5. Honda Accord: 17,239
6. Nissan Altima: 15,490
7. Ford Escape: 15,149
8. Honda CR-V: 13,955
9. Ford Fusion: 13,774
10. Honda Civic: 13,652

Toyota Now Leads The World

Today, GM announced 2008 global auto sales. With 8.35 million vehicles sold, the automaker fell 620,000 short of Toyota's 8.97 million 2008 car and truck sales. Toyota is now officially the world's largest automaker.

But the UAW has a bigger benefits package.