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The automaker plans to ship its Model S electric sedan in June, rather than July. Tesla Motors announced today that it is on track to start delivering its Model S in June, a month ahead of schedule. It moved up the date of the first deliveries because it’s nearly completed testing on 80 cars it’s built so far. Tesla continues to lose money. It lost nearly $90 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to a loss of about $50 million during the same period the year before. It’s staying afloat in large part thanks to a Department of...

What's your sense on the state of modern auto and motor plant technology? Does CAD, modern tech, etc push the emotional 100,000 mile threshold, to a new higher number?

What is it? Orbital,non-reciprocating internal combustion engine. Piston/Cylinder structured Adaptable to all liquid or gaseous fuels Ultra efficient Patent # 7721687B1; & Patents Pending

The National Center for Public Policy Research is claiming a scalp today after Ford Motor Co. formally withdrew from the liberal U.S. Climate Action Partnership. The conservative non-profit announces today that Ford has withdrawn from the organization, which uses corporate support form management to work against shareholders' interests by promoting a cap-and-trade framework for carbon emissions.

1975: last year of Dodge Dart production prior to  replacement by the ill-fated Dodge Aspen _______________________________________________ As the new Chrylser starts to hit it's stride, the resurgent company has now unveiled an all-new 2013 Dodge Dart at the Detroit International Auto Show with a fresh, clean look that still looks like a Mopar, sharing a number of muscular styling cues with its big-brother, the Dodge Charger... Pics/more at Reaganite Republican _______________________________________________ Valiant.org

Pitched to the American voter as the vanguard of a “greener” future, the heavily subsidized Chevy Volt was dubbed one of the worst product flops of 2011 by Yahoo Finance’s 24/7 Wall Street site. The low sales volume—-an estimated 8,000 vehicles for 2011 (all of which are currently under recall notices to correct defects)–-has made the effective unit cost for each car amount to around $250,000. Representative Hansen Clarke (D-Mich) insists that “despite the reluctance of the American driver to buy these cars we must not falter in our efforts to make them understand the necessity for government’s role in...

President Barack Obama hit China automobile tire makers with a trade tariff in 2009 and now Beijing has struck back with a potentially more punitive tariff, as much as a 21% tax hike on U.S. car exports bound for China, the world’s largest auto market. This week, the Chinese government upped the ante in the Obama-China trade dispute by surprisingly imposing new tariffs on imports of Honda and Cadillac models, Chrysler Jeep Grand Cherokee, the BMW X5 and X3 and Mercedes Benz models made in Michigan, Alabama and South Carolina. China argues that the U.S. provided illegal subsidies to these...

Chrysler has reportedly stopped production of the 1.4-liter engine that powers the Fiat 500 until demand catches supply. As a result, it has had to lay offsome employees that build engines. United Auto Workers’ local representative says Chrysler has let go nearly 100 employees. Fiat has only sold 16,000 500s in the US. This is sad news to those of us at CarLoves.com since we are unashamedly fans of the little Italian car. But frankly, given the poor performance of Chrysler’s Fiat Studio roll out, we’re not surprised. Only recently could you even buy a Fiat 500 in Las Vegas...

Ah, back when GM ruled... As a car-crazy American kid in the late 70s, only GM cars were cool to me, except Mustang or a 'Cuda maybe. I myself had a  '75 Camaro and then a couple Firebirds, and when I was in high school, if your dad drove a new Olds Cutlass Supreme (America's best-selling car at the time) or Pontiac Grand Am/ Grand Prix, that meant you had sporty style and class- very cool. We simply weren't into imports, and Ford and Chrysler did not have fresh designs on the same level as GM in my mind... more...

Bookings for U.S.-made products designed to last at least three years fell by 0.8% last month, the Commerce Department said. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a 1.0% decrease. Transportation orders slumped 7.5% to account for virtually the entire decline... ...Excluding transportation, however, orders climbed 1.7% in September. Demand increased for computers, primary metals, fabricated metals, heavy machinery and electrical equipment.

Asian brands continue to dominate Consumer Reports' 2011 Annual Auto Survey, sweeping the top nine spots. Toyota's American brand Scion leads the pack, followed by Lexus, Acura, Mazda, Honda, and Toyota. The brands scored strong on predicted reliability tests. Of the 91 Japanese models for which Consumer Reports has sufficient data, 87 (96 percent) were rated average or better. 24 Japanese models earned the highest rating.

...Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 1.1% last month, the Commerce Department said. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected an increase of 0.8%... Excluding the auto sector, sales rose 0.6%, but that was still higher than market expectations of a 0.4% increase...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC managed to shrug off an ornery Mother Nature, some wild stock-market fluctuations and a stubborn economy to report Thursday double-digit percentage gains in U.S. sales for August. That wasn’t the case for the leading Japanese manufacturers. Toyota Motor Corp. /quotes/zigman/199376/quotes/nls/tm TM -0.95% fell behind Chrysler by just a few hundred cars and Honda Motor Co. /quotes/zigman/193599/quotes/nls/hmc HMC +0.96% saw its sales slip by more than 20% for the fourth consecutive month. GM /quotes/zigman/1466682/quotes/nls/gm GM -4.22% said it sold 218,479 cars and trucks in August, an 18%...

Criminals seem to have a thing for big vehicles. The Cadillac Escalade remains the car most likely to be stolen, according to new data from the Highway Loss Data Institute. This is the fourth year in a row the Escalade has topped this list. The rankings for most stolen cars are based on auto insurance claims data from 2008 and 2009.

Obama to automakers: ‘You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks’ By Andrew Restuccia - 08/15/11 02:37 PM ET The country’s automakers should ditch their focus on SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Obama said Monday. “You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks,” Obama said during a town hall forum in Cannon Falls, Minn. “There is a place for SUVs and trucks, but as gas prices keep on going up, you have got to understand the market. People are going to try to save money.” Obama has positioned the revival and reshaping...

Automakers are pushing back against an Obama administration proposal that would almost double vehicle fuel-efficiency standards, launching a new ad campaign warning of hundreds of thousands of job losses across the country. The White House has long been negotiating with automakers and environmentalists over the enormous increase in fuel efficiency standards. But the automakers, who say the standards would stagger the auto industry, appear to be losing faith in the possibility of a compromise. President Obama was hoping to get automakers to sign off on a nearly 100 percent increase in mileage standards by 2025, aiming for another Rose Garden...

...Quality Planning’s Top Ten Most Ticketed Cars Mercedes-Benz SL-Class Convertible Toyota Camry-Solara Coupe Scion tC Coupe Hummer H2/H3 SUV Scion XB Hatchback Mercedes-Benz CLS-63 AMG Sedan Acura Integra Coupe Pontiac Grand Prix Sedan Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG Sedan Volkswagen GTI Hatchback

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...

While officially nonpartisan, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) occasionally lends its credibility to the most fashionable theories emanating from the left. The agency’s green eyeshades issued a report Wednesday that perpetuates one of Washington’s biggest lies: that drivers don’t pay enough in taxes. Bureaucrats and rent-seeking corporate allies have teamed up to advocate a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. They want continuous tracking of everyone’s driving so that every mile can be taxed. The claim is that driver’s aren’t paying their fair share because the $35 billion collected in federal gasoline taxes doesn’t cover highway spending. Never mind...

Excerpt only website: The government is taking over three Tylenol plants following a blizzard of drug recalls and a Food and Drug Administration criminal investigation into safety issues at the factories. The FDA and the Justice Department on Thursday took action against McNeil PPC and two of its executives -- its vice president of quality and its vice president of operations for over-the-counter products -- for failing to comply with federally-mandated manufacturing practice. McNeil, a division of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500), said it had agreed to put its plants -- one in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, one in...

The share of Americans planning to buy an auto in the next six months rose to 13.2% this month, easily the highest reading since the Conference Board began tracking this measure in 1978. Auto sales for GM(GM), Ford (F) and others have been hot in recent months. Auto loan credit approvals for first-time buyers have risen for the first time since the start of the recession, climbing 4.5% since October, LeaseTrader.com said.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Few people in this city 800 miles south of Detroit cared much about the auto industry until Hyundai announced it would build cars here nine years ago. These days, Montgomery cannot stop talking about it. Hyundai and its sister company, Kia, which opened a plant last year just across the Georgia state line, have brought thousands of well-paying jobs to the region and even helped nurture a little Korean culture in Montgomery, the first capital of the old Confederacy. Hyundai is running its Montgomery plant almost nonstop. Rarely do more than a few weeks pass without word...

What's better than morning coffee...? Try an adrenaline rush... now available online lol- Here's a cool Shell commercial produced for the European market: ostensibly the Ferrari F1 racing team sponsor is selling gasoline here, but the historic Ferrari racing cars steal the show... Scuderia Ferrari actually pulled several near-priceless Formula One veterans out of storage and flew them around the world to film them running hard through the streets of Rome , Rio , New York , Hong Kong and Monaco.  And there are no special effects or dubbed sound here, just original 14,000+rpm cars tearing up the streets... as the genuine...

The new Mini Cooper Countryman can get 63 MPGs on the highway – just not on our highways. Like so many other high-mileage, diesel-powered vehicles, it’s not available in the United States. Instead we get gas-electric turkeys like the Toyota Prius hybrid – which maxes out at 48 MPGs on the highway. If you drive it at around 47 MPH in the left lane with your turn signal blinking… .

  The New York Times reports that the auto industry "overhaul" (AKA General Motors' bankruptcy) is about to "pay off handsomely" for UAW workers at GM. GM, along with Ford, is expected to announce profit-sharing checks for hourly workers this month. UAW president, Bob King, states that workers expect to get a piece of GM's profits. There was a time when publicly traded companies were expected to deliver profits to shareholders in the form of dividends or increased share price. This model seems to have been subordinated at General Motors where the desires of politically favored union members seem...

MOSCOW (AFP) – The Russian government on Tuesday approved a plan to build a highway through a forest outside Moscow, in defiance of protests that had become a rare rallying cause for the opposition. Demonstrations against the building of the new highway between Moscow and Saint Petersburg through Khimki forest had prompted President Dmitry Medvedev to postpone the project, in a rare nod by the state to popular pressure. But Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said the government commission tasked with investigating the project had after all given its green light to the plan. The commission approved the building of...

On our brand new 2011 Jetta, we just discovered a flaw,imo, no parking lights, only day-time FRONT lights (no lights rear of car). I was thinking that could be dangerous, because many people count on parking lights in the early dusk, and might think the day-time lights also have lights in the rear. Some people also count on parking lights (with rear lighting) if they pull over to the side of the road, say with car trouble, and choose parking lights, rather than the hazard lights. We thoroughly read the part on lights, so it won't be a problem for...

Just two years after a taxpayer bailout salvaged General Motors, some of the nation's largest retail brokerage firms are apparently being shut out of what is poised to be a lucrative investment opportunity as the auto company goes public. Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW - News), TD Ameritrade, and E*Trade are not accepting client orders for GM shares at the moment because they do not expect to receive stock allocations when the company goes public next week, according to investors and brokerage-firm employees. Other big retail brokerages, such as Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - News), are expected to get shares, however, as are...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- General Motors is recalling nearly 14,000 sedans to address potential problems with power steering. And Chrysler is recalling about 16,000 Jeep Liberty SUVs to fix faulty windshield wiper systems. [Snip] GM's recall involves certain 2010 and 2011 model year Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne sedans with V8 engines. An alternator cable could wear through a power steering line, leading to a fluid leak that could cause a loss of power steering and lead to a crash.

General Motors Co. said it is recalling 303,100 Chevrolet Impalas because the vehicles' front seat belts may not properly protect passengers. The automaker said that in in 2009 and 2010 Impalas, the front safety belt straps may not be not secured to the lap belt anchor pretensioner that is mounted on the side of the doors. The straps can separate from the anchor in a crash, no longer restraining the passenger. No injuries or deaths have been reported, GM said.

Hybrid cars and those fuelled by natural gas produce significantly less carbon dioxide (CO2) than equivalent vehicles running on gasoline. In the course of a study undertaken on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the results of which were recently published, Empa has investigated the CO2 emission behavior of current hybrid cars. A comparison with gasoline and natural gas fuelled vehicles concludes that hybrid vehicles are the cleanest during inner-city driving whilst natural gas fuelled cars do best on the motorway. When driven in rural areas, both types do equally well. Under mixed conditions (that is...

The fire at a Mariner Energy Inc. oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico has spurred calls for even stricter controls over who might be allowed to drill where for oil. This particular well is too shallow to have been covered by President Obama’s moratorium on deep water drilling. Both the fire and the fact that the well fell outside the President’s ban was a matter of “grave concern” to Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).”If nothing else, this disaster is further proof that oil drilling is an inherently dangerous practice one that we must stop,” Lautenberg said. “Most people don’t realize...

EXCLUSIVE Stig was SAS Hero  RACING driver Ben Collins, unmasked yesterday as Top Gear mystery man The Stig, is a former member of the SAS. Ben trained SAS heroes in daring "escape and evade" driving skills while serving with the regiment, The Sun can reveal.     No more mystery nice guy ... Ben Collins aka The Stig   Millions of viewers have seen the race ace coaching celebrities on how to achieve the fastest time around a TV circuit in Top Gear's reasonably-priced car. But sources close to the special forces unit - motto Who Dares Wins - last night...

There are 8 million stories in the naked city and over 8000 publicly traded stocks to choose from, so don't waste your time on GM's IPO. That, in a nutshell, is James Altucher's view of the most widely anticipated IPO in recent memory. "Absolutely I would not go anywhere near the IPO, says Altucher, managing director at Formula Capital. "GM is one huge question mark." Altucher notes GM has only had two quarters of profitability prior to its filing, which is mainly a "political event," he says. "It's a great PR event right before the November elections [but] I would...

Investment advisers say the highly-anticipated General Motors Co. IPO may not have investors breaking down the doors. Tom Mangan, senior vice president and portfolio manager with Beavercreek-based James Investment Research Inc., said GM’s initial public offering will be a hard sell, with many institutional investors wary of a company that is run by the government. “Former shareholders and bondholders will most likely be reluctant to jump back into the stock, especially given the disingenuous commercial by CEO (Ed) Whiteacre where he said GM paid back its government loan in full,” Mangan said. In addition, Mangan said brokers will not be...

General Motors’ much anticipated initial public offering filing finally landed on Wednesday. But investors shouldn’t get too caught up in the hype. Sure, the automaker looks in pretty decent shape thanks to last year’s bankruptcy clean-up, and car sales are motoring away from last year’s lows. But to repay U.S. taxpayers in full, GM needs to at least double its earnings. That’s assuming the carmaker is valued at the same earnings multiple as Ford Motor. Granted, GM and its bankers could argue that it has advantages over its cross-town rival that may warrant a higher valuation. It has far less...

General Motors Co. detailed its second consecutive quarter of profitability after exiting bankruptcy last July. That is a good thing for GM and everything and everybody connected. But with the economy plodding and U.S. auto sales in lockstep, GM's best days - at least for this year - may already be behind it. In a conference call with reporters and analysts Thursday, CFO Chris Liddell acknowledged it. "The second half (of this year) will be lower than the first half. You'll see some moderation," in GM's performance, Liddell said. So while GM generally basked in upbeat media exposure of its...

Chrysler's Ram truck division is taking direct aim at hunters with a unique feature on its new line of Outdoorsman pickup trucks - a gun closet. Called the The Mopar RamBox Holster, its a rack that can hold two rifles or shotguns inside one of the lockable, watertight compartments located on either side of the pickup bed. A $205 option - on top of the $1895 price of the RamBox feature itself - the rack can be rotated to hold six fishing poles for those who prefer quieter trips into the great outdoors. The Outdoorsman starts at $28,350 and includes...

Fewer people have been killed and injured on roads following a decision by a local council to switch off its speed cameras. Accident data shows that in the first nine months after the devices were scrapped in Swindon, there were 315 road casualties in the area as a whole, compared with 327 in the same period the previous year. In total there were two fatalities – compared with four in the same period previously – and 44 serious injuries, down from 48. The figures were seized on by campaigners who claim speed cameras do little to combat problem driving...

An American school bus has been transformed into a 367mph flame-throwing dragster. Its creator Paul Stender replaced the ordinary school bus engine with one from a powerful Phantom fighter jet.The flame-painted bus was custom built by Stender and his team at Indy Boys Inc in Indianapolis, USA, but it won't be getting students to school in record time as it's only for show. Hot wheels: Powered by a Phantom fighter jet engine this custom-made school bus can reach 367mph Stender's creation, dubbed 'The School Time Jet-Powered School Bus' fires out 80 foot flames from the back creating massive clouds of...

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s traffic congestion could double in the next couple of decades, with Charlotte drivers facing the same types of delays Chicago drivers face now. That was the conclusion of a 2007 John Locke Foundation report. It recommended $12 billion of spending to clear North Carolina’s congested urban roads and prepare for future traffic growth. Many traffic problems outlined three years ago continue to cause concerns today. Randal O’Toole, senior fellow with the Cato Institute, recently tackled the issue from a national perspective in the book Gridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What to Do About It....

Industrial Policy: The administration's electric car represents both the genius of American technology and the stupidity of its government. Imagine Rube Goldberg with $50 billion. Buy now and get a free 40-mile-long extension cord. It wasn't exactly Michael Dukakis riding in a tank wearing a Snoopy helmet, but it was close. President Obama, who reportedly hasn't driven an inch himself since taking office, visited a GM plant in Hamtramck near Detroit on Friday to drive a Chevy Volt 10 feet off an assembly line. It was a perfect image, as the American economy is being driven off a cliff by...

Britain’s network of 6,000 speed cameras could be dramatically reduced after a raft of councils looked set to follow Oxfordshire’s move and switch theirs off. The county’s entire network of 72 cameras will be switched off at midnight tonight after the coalition Government pulled the plug on their funding. The change of heart could usher in a different landscape for Britain’s 33million motorists two decades after the first network was installed. Already, neighbouring Buckinghamshire said it is ‘very likely’ to switch off its cameras, while Bedfordshire, Suffolk and Derbyshire have launched reviews. (edit)  The moves, however, could be just the...

How to achieve good vision while driving during a heavy downpour. We are not sure why it is so effective; just try this method when it rains heavily. This method was told by a Police friend who had experienced and confirmed it. It is useful...even driving at night. Most of the motorists would turn on HIGH or FASTEST SPEED of the wipers during heavy downpour, yet the visibility in front of the windshield is still bad...... In the event you face such a situation, just try your SUN GLASSES (any model will do), and miracle! All of a sudden, your...

Considering how many new cars are rolled out every year, it's no surprise that a few might be just plain homely. There's a chance that certain styles might become fashionable with a dash of retro hip. (Well, maybe not from the 1970s.)

NOTE The following text is a quote: Two Sentenced for Transporting Stolen Goods to Support Hizballah PHILADELPHIA—Michael Katz, 58, of Plainsboro, NJ, and Alaa Allia Ahmed Mohamed, a/k/a “Alaa Ahmed Mohamed Abouelnagaa,” 44, of Brooklyn, NY, were sentenced today for conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and trafficking in counterfeit goods, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. Katz was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison; Mohamed was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The charges against the two were filed in conjunction with a case against four people, including Hassan Hodroj and Dib Hani Harb, who...

In Hollywood they call them Derange Rovers, and with good reason. Not a month goes by but that it seems some celeb plows his or her Range Rover into something or someone. Last month, "Mad Men" actress January Jones went on a little evening carom, bouncing her Range Rover off three parked cars in Hollywood. And earlier this month, singer George Michael drove his Range Rover through a London storefront. Mr. Michael was at the wheel of another Range Rover last year when he struck the back of a tractor-trailer at an estimated 100 mph. Wham! The list goes on....

Investors who bought Tesla Motors Inc.’s initial public stock offering last week thought they had a hot one. They did -- for a day and a half. But it has been all downhill since. Shares of the electric sports car maker plunged for a third straight session Tuesday as investors bailed out, pushing the stock below the IPO price of $17. Palo Alto-based Tesla closed down $3.09, or 16.1%, to $16.11. Despite the high hurdles facing the company’s bid to become commercially successful, the hype surrounding the IPO -- the first for an American carmaker since Ford Motor’s offering in...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Ford Motor Co. is riding a wave of momentum for the release of its quarterly report next week, and Wall Street is expecting to see still more concrete evidence of the resurgent automaker's recent strides. Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford /quotes/comstock/13*!f/quotes/nls/f (F 14.21, +0.01, +0.07%) will hand in its results Tuesday. Analysts estimate the company earned 32 cents a share in the first quarter, with sales of $28.5 billion, according to an average calculated by FactSet Research David Silver, an automotive analyst for WStreet.com, said he'll scrutinize cash flow and overseas sales. "I expect it to be a...

It was with great fanfare yesterday that General Motors announced that it was repaying some $4.7 billion of $6.7 billion in loans it received from the federal government. And, with even bigger fanfare, it was announced that this partial repayment was being made some five years earlier than expected.