by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 4, 2012
Despite lagging initial production, Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk insists his start-up battery-car company is on track – but in a new blog posting, the billionaire entrepreneur also revealed that Tesla will begin paying back its federal loan ahead of schedule. In...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 4, 2012
While the autumn leaves may be turning color and temperatures begin to drop around much of the country, Volkswagen is giving us a first look at something it hopes will warm our hearts, the all-new, third-generation VW Beetle Convertible. The 2013 ragtop will make its...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 4, 2012
Michael Schumacher, the man who rewrote the Formula One record book, has announced plans to retire – again – at the end of the F1 season. The news comes just a week after the Mercedes team announced Schumacher would be replaced by Lewis Hamilton next year....
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 3, 2012
General Motors and Ford have confirmed they will jointly develop a new generation of fuel-efficient automatic gearboxes. What they aren’t saying is that the new transmissions will use as many as nine and even 10 different gears in an effort to minimize...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 3, 2012
The number of teens who drink and then drive has fallen by more than half over the last two decades, according to a new study, but there is still a problem with teens “binge drinking” before climbing behind the wheel, it cautions. And officials with the Centers for...
by Joseph Szczesny | Oct 3, 2012
The turmoil in the electric-car industry continues unabated and has claimed a high-profile pioneer, as Tel Aviv-based Better Place named a replacement for the company’s founder Shai Agassi as chief executive officer. Agassi was considered something of a...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 3, 2012
Chevrolet’s decision to resist “family values” critics and advertise in the gay media was rewarded with the Amplifier Award from GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, during a well-attended session in New York City last night. The Chevy ad showed a...
by Joseph Szczesny | Oct 3, 2012
For those wondering about the health of the overall U.S. economy, unexpectedly strong September car sales – which reached their highest level since March 2008 – send a signal things are on the right track. The Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of sales, or SAAR,...
by Joseph Szczesny | Oct 2, 2012
General Motors and Ford posted modest sales gains for September while Chrysler posted a double digit increase thanks to strong sales of the new Dart and of the Fiat 500. Ford reported a 4 percent sales increase during September thanks to a surge in sales of its small...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 2, 2012
Few doubt the European automotive industry’s downward spiral will get worse before things start to improve. But there are growing concerns that the industry is compounding its own problem with “unsustainable” practices that conceal the depth of the downturn while...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 2, 2012
Once largely reserved for high-performance sports cars and specialty vehicles, turbocharging is becoming an increasingly common solution used on a variety of mainstream products – and should see an 80% global increase in usage over the next five years, according to a...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 2, 2012
Despite growing calls for General Motors to abandon its increasingly troubled Opel brand, there are no plans to replace the German-based subsidiary with Chevrolet – one of the few brands actually gaining sales and market share despite the ongoing collapse of the...
