Free Republic

During the 1950s and 1960s, the American automobile industry arguably peaked both in terms of sales and creativity. Americans were obsessed with cars, buying them as fast as they could be built, and many a television show had cars we today consider cultural icons at the center of the action. Wildly modified versions of street cars became ever more popular both with private collectors and Hollywood, giving rise to a growing custom car industry. Unfortunately that golden age of American cars is long in our past, and many key players are well beyond retirement age. Famed car customizer Dean Jeffries...

See link below.

It was a shining moment for Fisker Automotive. In the summer of 2011, four years after the upstart electric car company opened its doors, its first cars were finally rolling off the factory line in Finland, and the sleek vehicles were landing in the garages of some of the biggest names in Hollywood, politics and Silicon Valley. Actor and Fisker investor Leonardo DiCaprio received one. Al Gore and Colin Powell were next in line. A couple months after that, boy megastar Justin Bieber got one for his 18th birthday as a present from his manager. The car even had its...

The Solyndra-fication of the Department of Energy loan-guaranteed Fisker Automotive, whose many merits as a hybrid sports car maker were once hailed throughout the land, is almost complete. The supposedly green-tech company announced that they intend to lay off nearly all of their regular employees on Friday, and that they will maintain about 53 senior managers and executives — mostly to pursue buyers for the company’s assets. The WSJ reports: Struggling electric-car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. is dismissing 150 of its remaining 200-employee staff on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter. …The company has been looking for...

O'Brien Mitsubishi, based in Normal, IL, is offering something way outside the norm: an absurdly low lease price – the cheapest we've ever seen – for on an electric vehicle. AutoblogGreen reader Josh K. could hardly believe what he saw when driving by a rotating banner advertising the a Mitsubishi i-MiEV recently: $69 a month for 24 months. That compares with the official Mitsubishi lease program from last fall, which was $249 a month for three years. Yes, it sounds too good to be true. So we called the dealership and had the lease offering confirmed. Salesman Scott Lovett explained...

If you have ever grimaced at your petrol bill and dreamed of a car that runs on fresh air, your prayers are about to be answered. French car giant PSA Peugeot Citroen believes it can put an air-powered vehicle on the road by 2016. Its scientists say it will knock 45 per cent off fuel bills for an average motorist. And when driving in towns and cities costs could be slashed by as much as 80 per cent because the car will be running on air for four-fifths of the time. The system works by using a normal internal combustion...

We think it is fair to say that today, most people take video recording technology for granted. After all, most smartphones come equipped with video recorders that produce better-quality movies than those huge home video camcorders from just 20 years ago. Sixty years ago, filmmaking was still astonishingly primitive, and few car companies bothered to record, nevermind release, the hundreds of thousands of hours of engineering footage they took from back then. CorvetteBlogger has come across some footage that is remarkably relevant to right now. The video above is a little more than two-minutes of 1953 Corvette engineering test footage,...

Fiat has been talking about Alfa Romeo’s return to the U.S. for more a decade—check out the timeline—but CEO Sergio Marchionne has finally made the decision: After nearly 20 years away, the brand will start selling cars here again in 2014. (We’ll believe it when we see it, but let’s play along for now.) The return to the States is part of a large revamp of the brand that will see a number of new models introduced in the U.S., Europe, and around the world, and this Alfa renaissance will lean heavily on alliances with Fiat, Chrysler, and Mazda. Read...

FREEPORT, Ill.—Titan International Inc. has laid off about 60 workers at its plant in Freeport because of slumping demand for construction tires. The cuts are the last in a series of layoffs that began shortly before the November election at the company's three U.S. tire plants, according to Titan CEO Maurice Taylor Jr. All the cutbacks are part of the firm's construction tire segment. Quincy, Ill.-headquartered Titan's tire factories in Bryan, Ohio, and Des Moines, Iowa, also experienced layoffs during the past two months, about 90 between the two facilities, Taylor said...

Bypassing Congress, the Obama administration has issued a proposed administrative rule, which if adopted, would mandate the installation of "black boxes" in all automobiles and light trucks beginning in 2014. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed the regulation on Dec. 7, which it said “would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash.” The proposed standard would require automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs) – so-called “black box devices” -- to collect specific safety related data in all light passenger vehicles beginning Sept. 1, 2014. Transportation Secretary...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls plans to close a central Kentucky plastics manufacturing plant early next year, potentially putting nearly 400 employees out of work. The Courier-Journal (http://cjky.it/U3qICs) reports that a mass layoff notice filed with the Kentucky Office of Employment & Training on Friday says up to 392 workers could be cut in February when the facility in Louisville closes. The plant produces injection-molded interior components for vehicles...

The Ram 1500 has been named 2013 Truck of the Year by Motor Trend magazine. The magazine's editors were impressed by the truck's fuel economy and posh interior. "The 2013 Ram 1500 SLT is essentially like driving a Chrysler 300 with a bed," says the story that appears in the magazine's February issue. The Ram is made by Chrysler Group, which also makes the 300, a car known for its relatively upscale interior. Chrysler recently split off the Ram truck division from Dodge, so the trucks no longer carry the Dodge name. To be eligible for the Truck of the...

Changes are still afoot in the American automotive world. Once standing proudly as the only single American manufacturer run museum, the Walter P. Chrysler Museum is closing its doors. Opened in 1999, the museum was dedicated to showcasing the full gamut of Chrysler heritage—from flagship models to defunct brands pulled into the Chrysler fold. Over 55,000 square feet, the history of company unfolded through 4 floors packed to the gills with beautiful cars. The museum became a separate company in 2007 with bankruptcy looming. Financial stability has never found the institution...

Alcoa said Tuesday that it will lay off all 43 employees at its Auburn plant and “curtail” the plant by the end of March 2013. The company told employees about its plan in meetings Monday. “While this was a difficult decision made necessary by market conditions, we wanted to give our employees as much notice as possible. We recognize how deeply this impacts them, and we are working to support them through this transition process,” said Monica Orbe, director of communications for Alcoa Engineered Products and Solutions, based in New York, N.Y. Orbe used the word “curtail” to describe Alcoa’s...

A Japanese high-tech automobile supplier that specializes in seat belts and has another operation in Kernersville is closing its Greensboro office, eliminating 50 jobs effective Jan. 1, according to a WARN Act notice filed Friday with the N.C. Commerce Department. TK Holdings Inc. is a subsidiary of Takata Corp. of Tokyo, Japan. Company officials could not be reached for comment today. It is not known whether the closing affects operations of another Takata division, Highland Industries Inc., which has an airbags and textiles manufacturing plant at 215 Drummond St. in Kernersville. Charles Watson, the manager of the plant, said in...

Brett David has been selling Lamborghinis in Miami since he was 14 years old. But never before has he sold so many super-cars to so many overseas buyers. “I haven’t sold a Lamborghini to somebody who spoke English as their primary language in months and months, ” said David, the CEO of Lamborghini Miami, founded by his father. “It’s been months and months.” The flood of overseas wealth pouring into the United States is remaking many corners of the economy, from the Manhattan condo market to the market for Abstract Expressionist paintings to wine, jewelry and fashion. But nowhere is...

(Reuters) - General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line. Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts. GM on Monday issued a statement disputing the estimates. Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher.

Diesel engines are a classic example of good news and bad news. The good news is that diesel engines are much more fuel efficient than petrol engines. The bad news is that they belch out some pretty nasty emissions like nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide. The good news is that catalytic converters can scrub those out. The bad news is that last Friday the platinum needed by the converters is selling for US$1,473.10 an ounce. Now the good news is that a team at Nanostellar in Redwood, California, has developed a mineral catalyst that outperforms platinum at a fraction of...

Two purveyors of fake Chevrolet muscle are looking at trials on felony charges after their respective scams fell apart. In Columbus, Nebraska, it was a 1970 Chevelle SS 396 which the seller, Mickey Dush, allegedly bought from a Florida collector-car dealer for $37,500, equipped with a fake build sheet he bought online and a 454 of unknown vintage, and then sold as an LS6 to an Iowa man for $87,000. It wasn’t until after the sale that the buyer’s wife found a VIN decoder and determined the car’s true origins. According to the Columbus Telegram, Dush’s lawyer will claim the...

In a second-season episode of "Portlandia," Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein play a boring Southeast Portland couple who want to spice up their life. A tough guy and a hot dame pull up on a motorcycle, and Fred and Carrie feel pretty un-cool in their presence. So they get the bright idea of acquiring motorcycles of their own. The next scene, Fred coasts up on a three-wheeled monstrosity, and Carrie putters around the street on an odd-looking, one-wheeled, motorized transporter that reminds one of the Segway. Carrie's riding atop the Ryno bike, the second prototype of the fledgling Ryno Motors...

As of early last week, nearly 20,000 people have applied for the 877 new jobs that Montgomery's Hyundai plant created to add a new production shift. And the applications are still coming. "It just continues to grow," said Scott Gordy of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama's human resources department. The deadline to apply is June 2, but Hyundai was so overwhelmed by the initial response that they suspended the application process on May 18 because of the high volume. Last week, HMMA issued a statement saying that it would reopen the application procedure through June 2 but warned that anyone who...

Most of us have had the experience of losing a rental car in a big parking lot. Maybe your cousin Eddie has had the experience of cutting his grass for the first time in five years and finding a car. We’re not talking about those cars. The cars on this list are the holy grails of automotive lore. They’re near-mythical cars that have disappeared, most likely never to be seen again. 1956 Chrysler Norseman: The Norseman was a concept car built by the Italian styling house of Ghia that demonstrated the feasibility of several unique styling features like a near...

Several years ago, there was a large reward posted for evidence that the Ivory Billed Woodpecker was not extinct as was previously thought. Strangely, the classic car world has yet to respond in like fashion for evidence that breeding pairs of Plymouth Crickets or Mercury Bobcats are still out there. To qualify for the list a car must have been produced in large numbers (10,000-plus) within the last 40 years with few (if any) roadworthy survivors. Here are some of our favorite threatened, endangered and extinct cars:

The average American car owner might be annoyed with gas prices, but despite his opinions on Obama's handling of the nation, he still can afford to drive around in a gas guzzler. Unlike rich Norway and Denmark, where car consumption is heavily discouraged, the car producing nation of Sweden (where I live) could only be rivalled by Switzerland. It shows in Swedish stats on car sales. The average Swede could afford a car the average citizen of no other nation could afford. For 16 consequtive years in a row, the 'close to luxury' Volvo V70 has been the top selling...

I have an 03 Honda Accord EX with about 155K miles on it which I've purchased recently which has had no problems until this morning: it will miss and then seems to go into a protect mode of some sort and will not run over 2500 rpm until I turn the key off and on again, then it's good for another mile or so until it does it again. Has anybody else ever seen or heard of this problem? It may actually be a problem with the on-board computer, you'd think if it was a plug or bad gas it...

There are little Prii, big Prii, plug-in Prii, racing Prii, and now – just revealed at this weekend’s Tokyo Auto Salon – there are full-fledged, fully-equipped, and very Real Toyota Prius camper vans. Starting with a new, 3rd-gen Prius, the conversion company adds a streamlined, fiber-reinforced plastic shell that expands the Prius’ interior into something that’s, well, livable! The “living area” has room for a small coffee table with booth-type seating and underseat storage which can be converted to a queen-size bed (as shown, below), with an additional “permanent” bed in the forward section (above the cockpit). At the rear...

Our Fisker Karma cost us $107,850. It is super sleek, high-tech—and now it’s broken. We have owned our car for just a few days; it has less than 200 miles on its odometer. While doing speedometer calibration runs on our test track (a procedure we do for every test car before putting it in service by driving the car at a constant 65 mph between two measured points), the dashboard flashed a message and sounded a “bing“ showing a major fault. Our technician got the car off the track and put it into Park to go through the owner’s manual...

Tennessee is the home for the production of the 2013 Infiniti JX. This is the first luxury vehicle ever produced in the “Sounds Good to Me” state. The first 2013 Infiniti JX rolled off the production line in Emerald Green. A special ceremony at Nissan’s Smyrna Vehicle Assembly Plant was organized to celebrate the occasion. The 2013 Infiniti JX 7-passenger ride is set to go on sale nationwide at Infiniti retailers in the upcoming month. Susan Brennan, Vice President Manufacturing Smyrna – Decherd exclaimed, “We are extremely proud and honored to be building this world-class vehicle right here in Middle...

Listening to Midnight Trucking Radio just now, and they have a guy on talking about an engine lubricant product called Motorkote. He talked it up so well, that I got curious and went to their website to have a look. I read through the testimonials for the product on their site, and I've gotta say, this stuff sounds terrific. Truckers and normal auto owners say all sorts of great things about the stuff. Anyone using this stuff, or have you ever heard of it?

You've heard of the Darwin Awards, which are given to people who do things so stupid that they're taken out of the gene pool? Well, the Automotive Darwin Awards are given to those people who do things so stupid that theyneed to be taken out of the car pool! Presented for your enjoyment are 14 photos showing some recent recipients.

The topic here is this little guy: Somewhere around the early 90s Honda and Toyota started making cars to last longer than their owners last. I have a 96 Honda Accord with around 210K miles on it, synthetic oil all the way, bulletproof 5-speed manual transmission and all the main parts of the car seem set to live for another 30 years, assuming I replace spark plugs, timing belts, radiators, windshield wipers and that sort of thing once in a while. But I've seen cars killed by over-engineering things and that fuel relay is just that. When one of the...

(edit) Things turned nasty when their relationship broke down and there was a long-running dispute over shared items from their home. Finally, Dicken went to Miss Kift's mother's home in nearby Llandudno, snatched the TV from the hallway and loaded it into the back of his Jaguar.Miss Kift was having none of it, her sister Josie told Llandudno Magistates Court. She got into the driver's seat in a vain attempt to stop him driving away.Dicken dragged her out of the car and threw her to the ground. But when he saw what he described as a group of angry people chasing after him,...

This is a public (world viewable) post on Facebook that should garner attention. Tonight the good folks at Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auctions and some of their best customers contributed $700,000.00 to wounded, US Military and their families! This was a big night for Barrett-Jackson, our Military and families and for the Gearhead, Car Guy and Gal Nation! Now ask yourself when was the last time the eco-jackal-extremists did anything for our fighting men and women? When? I hear crickets... Click it! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150330631902208&set=a.111744932207.96077.585617207&type=1&theater

Recently, Toyota have been claiming to build the safest cars on Earth. Just like (Chinese owned) Volvo Cars have been doing for decades. I happen to live in Gothenburg, Sweden, home of Volvo. I also happen to admire and respect Japanese culture. But I fail to see how average Toyota cars actually could compete with vehicles like the Volvo V70/XC70/XC60/XC90. The Avensis can, to a certain degree, but is not representative of their product line. Toyota: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk9yGUu6dtA Volvo Cars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtSOYEr-rYQ

After six decades, Margaret Dunning, age 101, still breezes down the road in her creamy 740 Packard roadster. http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/07/08/automobiles/collectibles/100000000895665/two-classics-one-car.html

With a significant increase in sales, Kia Motors is planning to invest $100 million in the US to boost up their production to meet the increasing market demand. This South Korean giant will utilize this money to increase the production of their Georgia plant by 20 percent. The Georgia plant, Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, Inc. (KMMG), currently produces 300,000 vehicles per annum, which will be increased to 360,000 vehicles per annum after the proposed expansion. The plant currently employs about 3000 people and additional 1000 people are already hired by the automaker for the proposed additional production. The expansion plan...

Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc says it plans to raise up to $US214.3 million ($A203.2 million) by selling common stock, partly to fund development of a crossover vehicle as it seeks to expand its offerings beyond its Roadster sports car. The news sent shares up nearly seven per cent in afternoon trading. Tesla plans to sell 5.3 million shares to the public, and up to 795,000 more to the underwriter, at $US26 each, according to a regulatory filing. That would raise up to $US158.5 million ($A150.29 million). The $US26 price is a three per cent discount to Tuesday's closing...

Contact Information: Media Contact: Mary Simms, (415) 947-4270, simms.mary@epa.gov High Bay Area Gas Prices, Environmental Concerns Spur Greener Vehicles SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld will hold a press conference to discuss a major fuel economy announcement at 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25 at Tesla Headquarters in Palo Alto. WHO: EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld and Diarmuid O’Connell – Tesla’s VP of Corporate Development WHAT: Fuel Economy Announcement WHEN: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 12::45 p.m. WHERE: Tesla Motors, 3500 Deer Creek Road, Palo Alto, CA 94022 Enter into the main parking lot. Visitor...

Despite shifting into higher gear within the consumer's green conscience, hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the internal combustion engine. However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids. Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines. The engine has a rotor that's equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as...

The Swedish carmaker Saab once again teetering on the brink of financial disaster a little over a year after it was saved from bankruptcy, The Local’s Peter Vinthagen Simpson reviews the recent trials and tribulations of this once iconic brand. A little over a year after it was saved at the eleventh hour by an unlikely Dutch suitor, Saab is back in familiar territory - short of sales, short of prospects and, most importantly, short of cash. And just as in the weeks building up to the February 2010 sale of Saab by US GM to Dutch luxury car maker...

Nearly a month after suspending almost all production at its assembly plant Trollhaettan, Sweden, because it couldn't pay suppliers for parts, Spyker Cars NV's Saab Automobile is scrambling to finalize a plan to further finance operations before the unit collapses. Any deal now constructed to save Saab automobile production will involve an intricate web of international players that stretches from Russia to the U.S. Russian banker and investor Vladimir Antonov has tried for weeks to initiate an investment that might steady the cash-strapped Saab – Antonov already has in place a deal to purchase the portion of Spyker Cars' business...

Turkey and Iran ally for a new European project Carmakers selling cars in Europe could soon get a new and tough competitor as Iranian carmaker Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) and Turkey's Hema Endüstri have shaken hands for a new project that will spawn an entirely new automotive brand. The first project will be a passenger car that will be made in Turkey, officials of the two companies said after signing a memorandum of understanding, with more details to be disclosed at a later date. The two partners are yet to pick a location and a plant to manufacture the new...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that he told his daughter to buy a Japanese car--a Toyota Sienna--and that she did so. LaHood's comment came as he announced the results of a 10-month long Department of Transportation study that was undertaken to determine whether electronic systems could have been responsible for reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The study determined that this was not the case. LaHood's statement that

Accolades keep pouring in for the Chevy Volt, the electric car darling of the 2011 Detroit auto show, including the show's North American Car of the Year award this week from a jury of swooning auto journalists. In his corny acceptance speech, General Motors vice-chairman Tom Stephens' thanked "all of the jurors who Volted, or voted, for the Chevrolet Volt," a plug-in electric hybrid with gas backup. Its all-electric rival, the Nissan Leaf, was a runner-up. But public acceptance, pricier sticker numbers, charging challenges, and a willingness to break old driving habits (goodbye to pedal to the metal) will determine...

Our 2010 CEO of the Year Drives Success Mulally's achievements position Ford to thrive in a very hard industry. By David Whiston, CFA, CPA, CFE | 01-05-11 | 12:00 PM Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company (F F) is the Morningstar 2010 CEO of the Year for good reason. Auto manufacturing is a tough industry in which few participants are able to garner long-term competitive advantages. It is a viciously cyclical business with high fixed costs and powerful unions to keep happy, and consumers have no reason to keep buying vehicles from the same manufacturer. As such, management prowess, or...

Everyone's heard of the extended-range Chevrolet Volt and all-electric Nissan Leaf, and many know about Tesla Motors, maker of that lightning-quick electric roadster. But there's another California startup with an all-electric car close to production that most of the public is unaware of: Coda. The car itself is simply called the Coda sedan. It's based on a heavily modified two-generations-ago Mitsubishi Lancer, and, honestly, it doesn't look like much from the outside. Certainly it made few waves at the LA Auto Show last week. There was just one on display and it was locked, so I couldn't even get a...

DETROIT – Pontiac, whose muscle cars drag-raced down boulevards, parked at drive-ins and roared across movie screens, is going out of business on Sunday. The 84-year-old brand, moribund since General Motors decided to kill it last year as it collapsed into bankruptcy, had been in decline for years. It was undone by a combination of poor corporate strategy and changing driver tastes. On Oct. 31, GM's agreements with Pontiac dealers expire.

Admittedly, I'm biased. One of the prime reasons why I wish SAAB to survive is the fact that I'm Swedish. Sweden and SAAB is one. I have travelled, slept and ate in small SAABs. As our country grew richer and richer, SAABs more and more got associated with pioneering turbo engineering and yuppie lifestyles. However, unlike Volvo, SAAB never became a car for the vast masses over here in Europe. Perhaps in London, but not among the middle class in the Paradise of Sweden. Perhaps because SAAB is very much of an individualist's vehicle and the average Swede isn't much...

For Swedish carmaker Saab, its new 9-5 model could not be more important. Contributor David Hooper finds out if it lives up to all of its pre-launch hype, and considers the company’s plans for the future. Saab’s painful separation from General Motors has been well documented, but with new owner Spyker now in place, financial backing from the Swedish government and the European bank, an engine deal with BMW and a stunning new flagship model now on sale, the next mission in the carmaker’s story is ready for take off. The aircraft puns are quite unavoidable once you have driven...

Amped-up car enthusiasts and environmentally conscious drivers lined up Saturday in Tacoma for the national road tour debut of the Chevrolet Volt.