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'Cash for Clunkers' Is a Car Wreck
 'Cash for Clunkers' 
  Is a Car Wreck 
OPINION
Jul 18, 2009 5:20 PM CDT

'Cash for Clunkers' Is a Car Wreck

(Newser) - The Cash for Clunkers program should never have left the lot, Michelle Singletary writes in the Washington Post. The premise is fine: Give people a financial incentive to trade in old gas guzzlers for new gas sippers. It's the details that smell like a lemon. "The law does...

Hybrid Owners Have More Accidents, Get More Tickets

Environmentally-conscious motorists also drive more, study says

(Newser) - Owners of hybrid vehicles tend to drive more, have higher repair bills, and get more tickets than their gas-guzzling counterparts, the Car Connection reports. A study of the behavior of 360,000 motorists found insurers pay 17% more for comprehensive coverage of hybrid owners compared to owners of conventional models....

Demand for 'Must Have' Camaro Dwarfs Supply

(Newser) - Recession be damned, desire for the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro far outstrips supply—and some dealers are even charging a premium for the sporty new ride, USA Today reports. “Our current production schedule can’t meet the demand,” a General Motors spokesman said. But “that supply-demand tension is...

Finland, Land of the $200K Speeding Ticket

(Newser) - If you think that pricey speeding ticket is unfair, just look at Finland, where fines are based on income. Mental Floss takes a look at five doozies:
  • In 2002, a Nokia exec on a Harley got hit with a whopping $103,600 fine for cruising at 47mph in a 31mph
...

Recession Drives Boom in Auto Fraud

(Newser) - Car-insurance fraud spurred by the recession is continuing unabated, Newsweek reports. “Give-ups”—feigning theft or arson to collect insurance money on an unwanted vehicle—are up 24% this year over last, according to an industry group. And claims stemming from suspicious car fires are up 27%. “Normally...

Advocates Push for Rear Seatbelt Laws

They reduce fatalities by up to 73%

(Newser) - Highway safety advocates are pushing for a federal transportation bill to include incentives for states to make safety belts mandatory for all passengers, but opponents say the move would set a precedent for the government to tell citizens what to do, USA Today reports. Though studies show that rear seatbelts...

GM's Car of the Future Sparks Doubt in the Present

Even top exec fears hybrid will fail to herald new start for automaker

(Newser) - Success has many fathers, and for the forthcoming Chevrolet Volt, paternity claims could stretch from Detroit to Washington. But if the GM hybrid turns out to be an orphan, it could be because many of its backers, including a top GM exec, are ambivalent about its potential to rejigger the...

1 in 5 Drivers Would Flunk Test: Survey

(Newser) - An annual survey of driver smarts is out, and the coasts fare poorly, the Los Angeles Times reports. Conducted by GMAC, the survey posed questions from US drivers license tests and found that 20% of current drivers would fail a written exam. New York ranked dead last and California 48th,...

GM Close to Hummer Sale That Would Save 3K US Jobs

Has picked a buyer; deal would be finalized by Sept.

(Newser) - GM has selected an unnamed investor to buy its hulking Hummer brand, in a move aimed at saving more than 3000 US jobs, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. They say the company hopes to seal the deal, rumored to be in the $200 million range, by September. An official...

We Fell Out of Love With Cars
 We Fell Out of Love With Cars 
OPINION
May 30, 2009 12:38 PM CDT

We Fell Out of Love With Cars

(Newser) - Plenty of economists are trying to define what killed Detroit, but they’re looking in all the wrong places. “Fire the MBAs and hire a poet,” writes PJ O’Rourke in the Wall Street Journal. This isn’t a story of unions or financial crisis. “It’s...

No-Car Suburb in Germany May Prove Tough to Translate

Americans 'suspicious' of green model

(Newser) - Will Europe’s assault on the American way of life stop at nothing? Vauban, a town in the southwest corner of Germany, is a working model of a leafy-green suburb without cars. People walk or bike, and a tram runs through the middle of town. “When I had a...

With 203K Orders, Nano Grabs 17% of Indian Market

(Newser) - Indian automaker Tata has 203,000 domestic orders for the Nano—the world’s cheapest car—which will start delivery in July, Bloomberg reports. The first editions of the $2,500 vehicle will go out to just 100,000 eager buyers, who will be chosen by lottery and must put...

'Cash for Clunkers' Plan Hits Skids With Auto Experts

Critics call green scheme misguided, too narrow

(Newser) - “Cash for Clunkers,” a congressional effort to remove older, gas-guzzling cars from the road, is gaining traction on Capitol Hill, but remains controversial elsewhere, MSNBC reports. The plan would offer drivers a $4,500 voucher toward new, fuel-efficient cars in exchange for trading in their environmentally unfriendly vehicles....

Honda Ready to Take On the Prius
 Honda Ready to 
 Take On the Prius 
AUTO REVIEW
Apr 28, 2009 7:31 AM CDT

Honda Ready to Take On the Prius

Insight cheaper, simpler than Toyota's hybrid king

(Newser) - Honda is rolling out a fresh—and worthy—competitor to Toyota’s Prius, king of the hybrid market, writes Joseph P. White in the Wall Street Journal. The 2010 Insight will sell for just under $20,000, some $2,000 less than the most popular Prius model, and gets “...

Pontiac Dies, But Its Greats Live On
 Pontiac Dies, 
 But Its Greats Live On 
OPINION
Apr 27, 2009 3:57 PM CDT

Pontiac Dies, But Its Greats Live On

(Newser) - As General Motors' Pontiac line is phased out, Ben Wojdyla, on Jalopnik, remembers the truly great cars that bore the mark. If you've got one, keep your garage clean and await a payday.
  • 2009 G8 GXP: "GM should be saved for no other reason than to put the G8
...

Five '70s Cars That Plain Suck
 Five '70s Cars That Plain Suck 
OPINION
Apr 19, 2009 1:06 PM CDT

Five '70s Cars That Plain Suck

(Newser) - The 1970s was "a decade of excess mediocrity in so many quarters it's hard to catalog it all," Tony Borroz writes in Wired. But you can start with the cars. Here follow five total flops.
  • Ford Mustang Cobra II: "An over-glorified Pinto" that made a "mockery
...

ILVTOFU Plate Too Spicy for Colo. DMV

(Newser) - A Colorado woman who wanted to advertise her vegan diet with an ILVTOFU vanity license plate is out of luck, the Denver Post reports. The state’s DMV maintains a list of banned letter combinations, of which FU is one. “We don’t allow ‘FU’ because some people...

Car Lovers Just Don't Get Keyed Up Anymore

Romance with Detroit's best is fading

(Newser) - Where have all the car buffs gone? For many, the allure of that new car smell is fading: Figures show new-vehicle sales are down 38%, and despite warranties lasting 7 or 10 years, 40% of last year’s trade-ins were less than 4 years old. But recession is only partly...

Fast &amp; Furious Fast, Furious

 Fast & Furious 
 Fast, Furious 
movie review
Apr 3, 2009 10:46 AM CDT

Fast & Furious Fast, Furious

Fourth installment just what you expect

(Newser) - Fast & Furious, the fourth installment in the series that made Vin Diesel a star, is “exactly and precisely what you'd expect,” writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times—and his fellow critics agree:
  • “If you're in the mood for a lot of vroom, vroom, thump, thump,
...

Sinking Car Sales May Be on the Rebound

Today's figures 'as low as it's going to get': analyst

(Newser) - Figures to be released today are likely to show a third straight month of annualized new-car sales below 10 million, the Wall Street Journal reports—but there’s a chance those numbers have hit bottom. Considering the size of the American consumer market, today’s figure “is about as...

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