by Ken Zino | Jun 7, 2010
Chrysler is recalling 600,000 of its Jeep Wrangler SUVs, and Dodge and Chrysler minivans to address potential safety problems involving brake and wiring defects. The announcement is the latest setback for the struggling automaker, and comes just days after it issued a...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jun 7, 2010
Despite his congenial and seemingly relaxed manner, Victor Muller isn’t a man to waste time. Joining some journalists for a meal at a hillside restaurant in the Swedish town of Trollhattan, one evening last week, Muller readily fielded questions with only the...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jun 7, 2010
It’s not very often you can improve the comfort, performance, safety and fuel economy of your automobile in one simple step. Yet all it takes is making sure your tires are properly inflated. Tires are the most under-rated part of your car, truck or crossover, and...
by Ken Zino | Jun 5, 2010
Chrysler Group is recalling almost 35,000 Dodge Calibers in the United States, Canada Mexico and other countries to fix a potential problem with sticky gas pedals, the same defect that affected millions of Toyotas. A small number of Jeep Compass models, 90, are also...
by Ken Zino | Jun 4, 2010
In the hotly contested family car market, Chevrolet is finally replacing its aging Cobalt with the Cruze sedan, which is already on sale since 2009 in more than 60 countries throughout Asia and Europe. The Cruze is a design hybrid, so to speak, since its engineering...
by Joseph Szczesny | Jun 4, 2010
General Motors has re-shuffled key executives once again this week as it moved responsibility for global product planning from under vice chairman Tom Stephens and into the office of GM Chairman Ed Whitacre. The change came as GM also announced it was setting up its...
by Ken Zino | Jun 4, 2010
A Wall Street financier who was the Obama administration’s Car Czar is apparently fighting a Security and Exchange Commission move to ban him from working in the financial industry for his part in a “pay to play” scheme. According to numerous press reports, Steven...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jun 4, 2010
The Swedish are coming. The Swedish are coming. And it was well worth the wait. As General Motors plunged into bankruptcy, almost exactly a year ago, it became increasingly apparent the maker would have to abandon as many as four of its North American brands,...
by Ken Zino | Jun 3, 2010
Armando Galarraga lost his bid for a perfect game last night on what should have been the last pitch of the outing because of the most egregiously bad call I’ve ever seen. Umpire Jim Joyce’s incorrect “safe” shout and parallel arm motion on a play at first...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jun 3, 2010
Few things are more frustrating than bouncing from one red light to another when you’re doing your daily commute. Worse, every stop eats up fuel. Enter Audi’s travolution concept, which uses WiFi-like technologies to link a car to the roadway infrastructure. As...
by Ken Zino | Jun 3, 2010
Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A. reported May sales of 162,813 Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles, an increase of 7% compared with the year-ago month. Last May, Toyota was clearly benefiting from the collapse of Chrysler and General Motors. However, that was also well...
by Mike Davis | Jun 3, 2010
The demise of Mercury was a long time coming. To understand it, you have to know a lot about the car’s history, and how things work inside Ford Motor Company. First the history: During the 1930s, so-called “medium-priced” brands like Buick and Dodge flourished....