For all the owners of Toyota Tundra trucks, it would be advisable to make a periodic check of your chassis. Reports have it that some owners have been complaining about severe frame rust which may eventually lead to broken brake lines and loosening spare tires. The year models affected are 2000 and 2001 and covers about 218,000 vehicles. There have already been reports of underbody-mounted spare tire separations from the rear crossmember and broken brake lines. Fortunately, no accidents have been reported yet so take the initiative and check or observe these parts from time to time.

If investigations reveal that these are indeed Toyota’s fault once again, it may become the second recall after the celebrated floormat design unintended acceleration defect. Worse, it can really dampen the brand image of Toyota, something it doesn’t need right now with their floundering sales due to the recession.

(Source) Press

Tags: acceleration, Accidents, brand image, chassis, floormat, initiative, investigations, models, rear crossmember, recession, rust proofing, separations, spare tire, spare tires, Toyota, toyota tundra, trucks

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As if you needed any more proof that the Cash for Clunkers program was a success — It was recently made known that dealers across the United States have reached their lowest inventory levels since 1975. And, while this may seem like a bad thing, this is great considering the slow auto sales caused by the recession.

However, this isn’t all peaches, considering demand is expected to shrink a hefty amount considering there are no more Cash for Clunkers incentives. Luckily though, due to the low inventory, automakers will now be able to supply dealers with an appropriate amount of vehicles to keep up with demand. So, in turn, there won’t be a ridiculous amount of cars sitting on the lots which got us into this mess in the first place.

via kickingtires

Tags: Auto Dealers, Cash for Clunkers, dealers, dealerships, economy, inventory, recession

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Back in June we were met with reports of GM eyeing potential buyers for their Opel brand. Now, reports have begun circulating that GM is considering keeping the brand, but not without proper funding.

In fact, GM says they will need to raise $4.3 billion if they plan to keep Opel, something that seems unlikely to happen considering they only just came out of bankruptcy.

Of course, this doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of the automaker selling off Opel however what will actually happen remains a mystery. We’ll have to wait and find out.

via wcf

Tags: economy, funding, GM, Opel, recession

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Cash for Clunkers continues to prove itself to be nothing short of a massive success as Ford has recently announced that the will be increasing their vehicle production of 10,000 for Q3 of this year.

This is due to the fact that Ford has seen an enormous increase in sales after the Cash for Clunkers program began, particularly their Escape and Focus models which will make up for most of the increase. Furthermore, Ford has also let us know that due to the  increased success they will be increasing Q4 vehicle production 33%  every year from this year forward.

Let’s just hope automakers don’t get too optomistic over Cash for Clunkers because that’s what put us in this horrible mess after all, right?

via Jalopnik

Tags: Cash for Clunkers, economy, Ford, Production, recession, success

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Mini has thought up a creative incentive to get buyers focused on their vehicles after utilizing the Cash for Clunkers program.

As you can see, if you buy a Mini with Cash for Clunkers credit you will be given a bumper sticker that says “My other car was demolished by the government.” Creative? Yes. Would I put it on my car? Probably not.

KickingTires reports that the cheapest Mini gets 28MPG in the city and 37 on the highway which means you’ll get the full $4,500 from Cash for Clunkers. I mean, you could probably sell the bumper sticker on eBay for a couple bucks in the future but will it really rake in more buyers?

Tags: Cash for Clunkers, economy, Incentive, Mini, promotion, recession

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It seems that the 2010 Detroit Grand Prix will no longer happen as it was officially canceled today and isn’t scheduled to return until 2011 at the earliest.

I’m sure you can guess the reason for its cancellation if not, I’ll give you a hint: the economy.

Below Grand Prix Chairman, Bud Denker, comments on the cancellation:

“We had hoped that the economic environment would allow the Grand Prix to return to Belle Isle in 2010. Unfortunately, this continues to be a challenging time to secure sponsorship to produce a world-class sporting event… We remain committed to the future of the race and we are hopeful that the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix will return in the summer of 2011.”

Here’s to hoping the economy recovers sooner rather than later so that Detroit can again give the Grand Prix a home.

via Autoweek

Tags: cancel, Detroit, economy, Grand Prix, Racing, recession

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It’s no secret that GM was hit extremely hard by the economy, so hard in fact that they had to put a halt on all of their leases.

That halt may soon be over as the Wall Street Journal reports that GM is gearing up to begin leasing cars again as early as next month. This would probably be a smart business decision for GM considering the economy is finally starting to stabalize (knock on wood) and the fact that leases made up 20% of GM’s revenue last year.

Further reports suggest thatGM will be looking for other financial institues to help with leasing rather than GMAC.

Read (WSJ)

Tags: economy, GM, GMAC, leasing, recession, report

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BMW has announced today that they will no longer be participating in the Forumla One circuit after this year. This decision was reportedly made before the Concorde Agreement was signed that would have tied BMW to the circuit until 2012.

BMW’s decision to withdraw was apprantly made due to the increasing finances that the circuit required. However, Autoweek suggests that the BMW team may continue under private ownership but BMW has given no official word to confirm this.

This is a sad day for Formula One and raises the question of which automaker will withdraw from the circuit next.

Tags: BMW, economy, Formula 1, Formula One, Racing, recession, withdrawal

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Internet marketing and SEO practices have been known to be the best way to market your business online and one testimony to that respect is that of the strategy being employed by Santa Fe Ford. One factor that can be trace to this is the fact that more people are turning to the web to find used cars and this seems to be the secret weapon of Greg Waitcus, Vice President, Santa Fe Ford.

As you are well aware, most car companies today are desperately hanging on to dear life, much brought about the recession. While the “Cash for Clunkers” deal is being seen as a catalyst to change all that, used cars may yet offer something better as far as trade-in value is concerned.

And should that be the case, it would not be surprising in some cases where some cars may be bought at higher prices compared to the trade-in value that was set by the government when it comes to the CARS rebate program.

(Source) Press

Tags: aggressive internet, auto dealer, business online, car companies, Cars, catalyst, dear life, Ford, program source, rebate program, recession, Santa Fe, secret weapon, seo, testimony, vice president

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We got our first hint that Porsche and VW would merge into a single company back in May but ever since no deal has officially gone through. Today however, reports suggest that VW is all ready to actually buy-out Porsche effectively merging the two companies.

The deal will apparantly allow Porsche to get out of the severe debt they are currently with as VW will pay off €8 billion of their €10 billion+ debt in two stages.

If all goes well and this deal pans off, VW is looking at a 49.9% share in Porsche. Now let’s see a VW branded supercar hit the market!

via Autoblog

Tags: buyout, economy, merge, Porsche, recession, VW

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It seems that the iconic motorbike maker Harley-Davidson has recently posted a 91% drop of earnings for the first half of 2009 compared to the same time period of 2008.

Despite the frightening drop, Harley CEO Keith Wandell was quoted to have said “the underlying fundamentals of the Harley-Davidson brand remain strong.”

While I have to say I agree that whenever someone sees a hog drive down they road they immediately think ‘Harley’ I don’t know if the fundamentals of the brand are strong enough to save the company from the economy.

via Jalopnik

Tags: ceo, earnings, economy, harley davidson, keith wandell, recession

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Due to the current state of the economy, GM was recently given the permission to put a halt to 54 sponsorships including advertising and marketing contracts in the US.

These cuts will save GM millions of dollars which will hopefully help the company regain its footing in the shakey encomoy. WorldCarFans reports that due to these budget cuts the Chevrolet Clock in Times Square that has been standing since the 1930s will be dismantled.

With all of this help from the government will it be enough to save GM? Or will it only prolong the inevitable effectively slowing the company’s death? Only time will tell.

Tags: budget cut, economy, federal judge, recession, sponsorship, us government

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It seems that BMW exec, Key Seglar, was recently quoted to have said that there are no plans to bring the M7 model to market.

He then went on to say that the AWD BMW 760 has enough power to please those who are looking for an M7. This is quite the bummer considering pretty much every vehicle BMW slaps the M branding on turns out to be awesome year after year.

According to WorldCarFans, Seglar notes the prominence of the M series in the US market going on to say that out of 24,186 vehicles sold in 2008, 9,738 were sold in the US alone. Perhaps once the economy recovers we will see the M7 come to market but until then, we’ll have to be satisfied with the 760.

Tags: economy, key seglar, m series, m7, performance, premium brand, recession

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Last year as part of their bankruptcy filing Dodge was rumored to have put the Viper brand up for sale due to slow sales in 2007. This means that the car itself has a grim future with no future Chrysler production models planned.

However, now that Chrysler is under new leadership it was announced that the Dodge Viper SRT 10 will in fact continue production. This will come as great news to supercar fans everywhere as the current rendition of the car features a 8.3L V10 capable of 600HP and 560 pounds of torque.

There are no details on the new model but we will be sure to keep you posted.

Tags: Bankruptcy, economy, Production, recession, srt 10, viper

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With hard times here, one thing that motorists have to consider is the wise car to have. And while we all have certain budgets, the search to have ideal cars despite the times still plays around in our minds. Now the only question is what would that car be?

Saga Car insurance shares with us the right car to have at the moment. Now some of them may not necessarily be the ideal one for us, but then again, you just have to be wiser at least for the moment. Besides, if things pick up, you can always give them to your teenagers as their personal cars when you send them off in the motoring world.

Here are the top cars for the recession to consider:

1. Ford Ka
2. Fiat 500 1.2
3. Citroen C1
4. Suzuki Swift
5. Mini 1.6D Cooper hatchback

As you will notice, these babies are compact and economical as far as fuel consumption is concerned. Isn’t that the trend we are seeing today?

(Source) Press

Tags: 6d, babies, best cars, budgets, car insurance, citroen c1, Fiat, fiat 500, Ford, Ford Ka, fuel consumption, motorists, personal cars, recession, right car, saga, Suzuki, Suzuki Swift, teenagers, top cars

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