| Santa Fe looks to pass its rivals | | Posted Saturday, November 04, 2006 10:46:55 AM by Blog57 Team | | The U.S. car business is beginning to resemble its counterpart in Europe, where no automobile manufacturer has more than a 20 percent share of the market. It's a fundamental change in America's automotive landscape, long dominated by giants such as General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. GM, still the world's largest car company, will never again have a 50 percent share of U.S. car sales. Its future footprint in America will be much smaller, as will that of Ford, assuming that Ford still has a foot on which to stand. Chrysler Corp. no longer exists as an independent company. It is now a struggling subsidiary of German-owned DaimlerChrysler AG. If you think all of this is prelude to a prediction of world dominance by Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., you'd better think again.... | |
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| | | Read our Civic Election 2006 coverage | | Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 6:45:59 AM by Blog57 Team | | TORONTO -- Americans' fervour for new cars will continue to cool next year -- dragging down the U.S. economy -- and the sales slowdown will spread to Canada, according to a Scotia Economics forecast. "We estimate that lower vehicle production alone will trim more than half a percentage point off U.S. economic growth in the second half of 2006," Scotiabank auto industry specialist Carlos Gomes said yesterday. "In Canada, vehicle output is also set to post a double-digit decline in the final months of 2006, with most automakers trimming production." He noted automakers have slashed their July-September North American production schedules by eight per cent amid slowing U.S. sales and bulging inventories, and predicted cutbacks will continue in the final three months of this year and in 2007.... | |
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| | | Funeral Wednesday for crash victim | | Posted Wednesday, September 20, 2006 12:46:45 PM by Blog57 Team | | Corey D. Wallace was northbound on Hart about 1 a.m. Sunday when his sport utility vehicle went off the road to the west near Weaver in Tuscola Township, said Undersheriff James E. Jashinske. The 35-year-old Wallace's 2005 Chevrolet Equinox rolled into a cornfield, where the impact of the crash threw him from the vehicle, Jashinske said. Wallace, who was traveling alone, died at the scene. Wallace, a construction worker for Alfred Reinert, was a bowler who liked football and NASCAR, Saginaw News records indicate. He participated in The Saginaw News "Pick the Winners" football and "Know Your NASCAR" contests. Wallace leaves his parents, Darald Wallace and Betty Bamberg, and grandmother Pearl Dengler. A funeral will begin at 11 a.m.... | |
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| | | GM announces world's largest hydrogen vehicle fleet | | Posted Tuesday, September 19, 2006 2:47:04 AM by Blog57 Team | | GM has become the latest company to announce that their hydrogen efforts are ready for prime time. Chevrolet will be unveiling a fleet of 100 Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles next year. The company says that they will be the world's largest fleet of hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles in the world. The vehicles will be tested by customers in New York, L.A., and Washington, D.C. The vehicles are designed to operate in many different climates, and are engineered for an effective life of 50,000 miles. Read [via Jalopnik] .... | |
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| | | SUVs keep rollin' on | | Posted Saturday, August 19, 2006 4:46:04 PM by Blog57 Team | | With gasoline prices flirting with the three bucks a gallon mark - and that's just for unleaded regular - and sales of thirsty Sport Utility Vehicles starting to choke up because of it, what's the last thing one might expect automakers to do? Those who said, "Make more of 'em," go to the lead pump, because that's exactly what's happening as the 2007 and beyond new model year begins unfolding. That began some months ago when General Motors began unveiling new 2007 versions of its biggest, thirstiest SUVs - the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, GMC's Yukon and Yukon XL and the Cadillac Escalade and extended-length ESV. Ford, giving its hefty Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator midlife freshenings, also provided them "EL" models adding another 14 inches to their profile.... | |
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| | | Cami's exports drop 10 % | | Posted Thursday, July 27, 2006 8:45:52 PM by Blog57 Team | | INGERSOLL -- Cami Automotive saw vehicle exports drop 10 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the automaker said yesterday. But sales almost doubled in Canada in the same period and exports are climbing in the second quarter, said Cami spokesperson Susan Nicholson. "Given where we are now with sales in the second quarter, we are not too concerned . . . determining the time period of consumer sales is not a science." She said production is based on requests from car dealers. From January to March of this year, Cami sent 37,236 SUVs south of the border -- mostly to the U.S. In 2005, that number was 41,675 -- a 10.4-per-cent drop. Over the same period, production at the manufacturing plant increased to 45,776 vehicles from 44,440. Part of the reason for the production increase, even though exports dropped, is that sales in Canada jumped to 8,100 from January to March, from 4,300 in 2005.... | |
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| | | Museum raises $204,000 | | Posted Wednesday, July 26, 2006 6:45:52 AM by Blog57 Team | | In case you missed it, one of the biggest parties in Houston County brought the community together Saturday night at the Museum of Aviation. The 21st annual Museum of Aviation Auction and Raffle put on a show for nearly four hours as hundreds of people made their way through the Century of Flight Hangar. This year's event was the biggest in terms of the number of people who attended and items auctioned, and in general positive "crowd spirit," organizers said. A total of 1,700 tickets were sold for the event and the museum grossed $204,000, up from $190,000 raised during last year's sales. "This was huge," said Pat Bartness, president and COO of the Museum of Aviation Foundation, which sponsored the event. Once the lines formed and the doors opened at 6:30 p.m., the first order of business was the food.... | |
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| | | Police investigate overnight robberies | | Posted Tuesday, July 04, 2006 4:45:51 PM by Blog57 Team | | CHARLOTTE -- Police have two suspects in custody, and they are looking for at least two more after a string of robberies that started Monday night. The first incident happened just before midnight. According to police, two armed men approached someone and forced that person to withdraw cash from an ATM. The victim was then dropped off along Wilkinson Boulevard. Police eventually caught up with the suspects and arrested them. .... | |
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| | | Valero plant spews oil in Paulsboro | | Posted Monday, July 03, 2006 2:45:57 PM by Blog57 Team | | Hundreds of residents of the borough's Billingsport section woke up to a disturbing sight Saturday -- a hazy cloud of oil drifting from the Valero Refinery in neighboring Greenwich. "You know how it looks in the morning, when it's really hazy. That's basically what it looked like, but it was a cloud of oil," said 42-year-old Beacon Avenue resident Louis Painter. The cloud, resulting from a malfunction in a unit that makes gasoline, coated cars, houses, fences, pools and streets in a spray of oil that hardened into stubborn specks that residents fear will never come clean. Initially, Valero officials sent out letters offering vouchers for car washes but later offered free detailing after realizing how difficult the oil will be to clean. The company is also considering what to do about oil on other property.... | |
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