by Ken Zino | Mar 28, 2010
Ford Motor Company today confirmed it has entered into a “definitive agreement” to sell Volvo Car Corporation and related assets to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Company Limited. The purchase price for Volvo Cars and related assets – mostly intellectual property...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 28, 2010
There’s a downside to buying a hybrid. Sure, you get significantly better fuel economy, but that’s offset by the premium you pay for a hybrid powertrain. But Chevrolet claims you can get the added mileage without that penalty from the 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco. Set to...
by Ken Zino | Mar 26, 2010
Harsh things were said about the damaging health effects created by the burning of diesel fuel at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting this week. The comments of Barbara Boxer, chairman (D-CA), against diesel, and differing observations of the...
by Joseph Szczesny | Mar 26, 2010
Ford Motor Co. officials say they expect to complete the $1.8 billion sale of Volvo to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. “in the next few days.” Speculation now is the deal could be signed in Sweden as soon as March 28. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping will be...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 26, 2010
Sadly, we can only offer this sneak peek at the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybid Blue Drive, the Korean maker’s first gas-electric model to reach U.S. shores, but what you’ll likely first notice isn’t the hybrid powertrain – which remains hidden beneath the skin – but the...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 26, 2010
Here’s something General Motors hasn’t experienced much of in recent years: a shortage of some of its newest and hottest products. While the maker has often had to dump thousands of dollars on the hood to get sluggish-selling models, like the Chevrolet Cobalt, to...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 26, 2010
With a goal of paying off its entire debt to the U.S. Treasury this year, General Motors has anounced it will write another $1 billion check to Uncle Sam by April 1 – and that’s no joke. The maker also plans to send a $192 million debt repayment to Ottawa. That would...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 25, 2010
Chrysler is reportedly ready to bring back as many as 100 of the dealers that it terminated, last year, as part of its bankruptcy. The news – still unconfirmed by the smallest of the Detroit makers – comes just three weeks after General Motors also reversed course,...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 25, 2010
Facing an avalanche of litigation that could result in as much as $40 billion in payoffs to those claiming injury from problems with runaway vehicles, Toyota wants a panel of federal judges to consolidate more than 200 separate “sudden acceleration” lawsuits before a...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 25, 2010
The most troubled of the Detroit Three automakers has been steadily losing ground, since last year’s reemergence from bankruptcy, even as the rest of the industry begins to rebound from 2009’s devastating sales slump. But a senior Chrysler official says there’s a...
by Ken Zino | Mar 25, 2010
Attorneys for the Minnesota man sentenced in connection with a fatal 2006 crash involving a “runaway” Toyota Camry that killed three people have asked a Minnesota, district judge to grant a new trial. The petition for a new trial filed in the case, Koua Fong Lee v....
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 24, 2010
The streets of the old city are crowded, tourists gaping at the sights as they wander down the middle of the narrow streets of Florence at first not even noticing our big SUV rolling by. That’s easy to do when it’s running in near-silent battery mode, the only sounds...
