Archive for the 'Manufacturer Update' Category

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Buick: The new Pontiac?

Published on June 1, 2010 in Hot Car - Upcoming, Manufacturer Update and Predictions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Buick Regal GS

The average age of a Buick customer is north of 60 years old.  While that has kept Buick from becoming a part of GM’s history like Oldsmobile and Pontiac, it isn’t enough to sustain itself as part of the new GM.  The most obvious course of action would be to lower that average age to somewhere closer to 30 years old.  The big question then is to ask how a car company can accomplish this, especially given GM’s current lack of funds to do a lot of research and development.

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Report suggests Ford planning to shutter Mercury

Published on May 27, 2010 in Industry Update and Manufacturer Update. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Since it’s sales are down 74% since 2000, it’s no surprise that Ford would want to shut down its Mercury brand.  Bloomberg has reported that 2 inside sources close to the plan have told them about the probable closing.  For some years now, the impression consumers have of Mercury is that its vehicles merely represent another trim level for Fords.  In the same vein as what got GM into a lot of trouble, most Mercurys are badge-engineered Fords, with slightly better interiors and some different exterior colors and parts.  It’ll be a shame to see such a long-running marque disappear.  If it’s shut down, Mercury would join Pontiac, Hummer, Oldsmobile and Saturn in the annals of history, and sales would wind down over the next 4 years or so.  Keep your browser tuned here for updates to this story.

by John Suit

Source: Bloomberg

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GM to Equip all Vehicles with Brake Override by 2012

Published on April 7, 2010 in Manufacturer Update. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Hot on the heels of the NHTSA’s announcement that they’re investigating 6.2 million GM vehicles for brake failures, GM has announced that they’re going to be fitting every vehicle to roll of their assembly lines with a brake override system.  Most recently talked about by Toyota, a brake override system gives priority to the brake pedal in whether to accelerate or decelerate a vehicle.  GM calls theirs a “smart pedal” and says they’ll have it in all of their vehicles by 2012.  At least someone’s learning from the whole Toyota debacle.

by John Suit

Source: General Motors

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Stalling Cars Stumps Toyota

Published on March 19, 2010 in Manufacturer Update. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

2007 Corolla LE

This latest report, from Reuters, suggests that Toyota is having problems with its 2005-2007 Corollas and Matrixes (Matrices?), a total of about 1.2 million vehicles.  In a move much different than the way it’s handled its recent recalls, Toyota announced Thursday that it informed U.S. regulators of a potential problem with stalling cars, and that it’s working on a fix for it.

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Toyota expands Oil Leak Fix to new models

Published on March 3, 2010 in Manufacturer Update. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Toyota Avalon

Last year, Toyota released a “Limited Service Campaign” (LSC) for some of its V6-equipped vehicles.  An LSC shouldn’t be confused with a recall, because recalls are for safety issues and the LSCs are for “customer satisfaction,” according to Toyota.  This campaign is for a defective oil line for the affected engines.  Over time, a rubber portion of the line may degrade, causing oil to leak out, the engine to make odd noises, and the oil pressure light to illuminate on the vehicle’s dashboard.

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PedalGate: Updates from this week

Published on February 26, 2010 in Manufacturer Update and Recalls. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

So the hearings are going on in Congress, with consumers, senators, congressmen, Akio Toyoda and the NHTSA, among others.  Ed Towns, who has spearheaded efforts to drag Toyota into Congress, has said that Toyota withheld documents it was required to turn over to regulators during recalls and investigations throughout the last several years.  It hid them by settling in multi-million dollar court cases when the discovery of said documents was likely.  On top of that, Toyoda himself said the company will pay to fix the issues.  That’s the year’s biggest “duh” moment, if you ask me.

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