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Two drunks — one driving a rare Bentley, the other a Beemer — went head-to-head early yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of mangled metal littering a Chelsea street corner, cops and witnesses said. Eight people, four from each car, were taken to Bellevue Hospital after the 3:45 a.m. crash, but none suffered life-threatening injuries.

ROSENBERG: Subprime Auto Lending Is Bigger Today Than It Was At The Peak Of The Credit Bubble Mamta BadkarSep. 5, 2012, 11:34 AMThere was much celebration yesterday as August auto sales reached their highest level since 2009, when the government sponsored Cash-for-Clunkers program expired. Preliminary data showed that total vehicle sales reached 14.5 million unit rate annualized, up 16 percent from a year ago. While this was certainly prompted by pent-up demand, Gluskin Sheff's David Rosenberg writes that the 14.5 number is still below trend, and also up because lending to subprime consumers is rising (emphasis ours): "Let's put 14.5...

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 The conservative non-profit announces today that Ford has withdrawn from the organization, which uses corporate support form management to work against shareholders' interests by promoting a cap-and-trade framework for carbon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...