Ford Updates Union Leaders August 30, 2006
Union leaders received an update on Ford?s condition Tuesday, but said they were not told about any specific steps the company planned to take. DETROIT, Aug. 29 ? Local union leaders at the Ford Motor Company received an update on the struggling company?s condition Tuesday, but said they were not told about any specific steps the company planned to take. The United Automobile Workers president, Ron Gettelfinger, and Bob King, the union?s lead negotiator with Ford, met with members of the union?s Ford Council for about four hours. The group is made up of local union presidents and …
BMW?s Custom-Made University August 29, 2006
BMW?s $10 million gift to Clemson University in 2002 has led to some unusual privileges for the German automaker. CLEMSON, S.C. ? When Clemson University received $10 million from the German automaker BMW in 2002, the money helped jump-start a $1.5 billion automotive research and educational center. It also led to a partnership that both the automaker and the university acknowledge has grown extraordinarily close. In return for the largest cash donation ever received by the school, Clemson gave the company some unusual privileges, including a hand in developing a course of study. Clemson?s president drives a silver BMW X5 …
Detroit Sees Cheap Gas as History
The Chrysler Group said Monday that it expected gasoline prices to remain at $3 to $4 a gallon for the rest of this decade. TOLEDO, Ohio, Aug. 28 ? The Chrysler Group, which depends more heavily on sales of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles than any other Detroit automaker, said Monday that it expected gasoline prices to remain at $3 to $4 a gallon for the rest of this decade. The comments by Thomas W. LaSorda, Chrysler?s chief executive, are the first time a Detroit automaker has issued a specific forecast on gas prices since they began climbing …
Robert F. McDermott, 86, General Who Led Insurer, Dies
Brig. Gen. Robert F. McDermott became chairman of the insurance giant USAA and a leading advocate for auto safety. SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 28 (AP) ?Brig. Gen. Robert F. McDermott, a former Air Force Academy dean who became chairman of the insurance giant USAA and a leading advocate for auto safety after retiring from military servce, died Monday in Houston. He was 86. He suffered a stroke two weeks ago, a family spokesman, Paul Ringenbach, said. General McDermott was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as the first permanent professor of the Air Force Academy in 1957 and as …
2007 Dodge Ram SRT10: Overpriced, Overpowered and Proud of It August 27, 2006
This truck doesn?t care about mileage, or about refinement, or about not scaring children. This truck could be more politically incorrect only if it ran on whale oil and panda tears. TIDAL power generators harness the energy of water flowing to and fro through a channel during each tidal cycle. What does this have to do with the Dodge Ram SRT10 Quad Cab? Well, if the principle could be applied to a hybrid generator powered by the body motions of this 5,691-pound truck, a suitably bumpy road would probably generate enough electricity to power a parking lot full of Priuses. …
Honda Insight: The Once and Future Mileage King
Can an automobile be ahead of its time and yet be obsolete? As it heads into retirement, the Honda Insight certainly looks that way. CAN an automobile be ahead of its time and yet be obsolete? As it heads into retirement, the Honda Insight certainly looks that way. When it was introduced in 1999 as the first gasoline-electric hybrid sold in America in modern times, it was also the most fuel-efficient mass-produced car. Although production ended this summer, it remains the nation?s mileage champ after seven years.Honda says the Insight will be replaced in two years with a …
Motoring: Unraveling the Mystery of Ford?s Fire-Prone Switches
Investigators installed damaged cruise control switches in Ford vehicles and then waited for them to cause fire. The result was a phenomenon never seen before. JUST two inches long, the Texas Instruments Model 9F924 speed control deactivation switch does not look like a menacing device. But a sporadic malfunction in the switch that sparked engine fires stumped engineers at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for two years. The $20 switch, which shuts off the cruise control when a driver taps the brakes, became the subject of one of the most exhaustive and complex investigations in the agency?s history. …
Car Insurance Rates Drop in New Jersey August 24, 2006
For the first time in decades, car insurance rates are falling in New Jersey and insurance companies are fighting for drivers? business. Joseph Alfano, who works for an office supply company in Clifton, N.J., got a pleasant surprise when he renewed his car insurance this summer. The premium on his 1997 Mercury Mountaineer dropped nearly 30 percent, to $1,273 a year. ?It went down almost $500,? Mr. Alfano said. ?That?s significant money.?Mr. Alfano?s good fortune is common these days in New Jersey. For the first time in decades, prices for coverage are falling in the state and insurance companies …
Economic Scene: The Rapidly Changing Signs at the Gas Station Show Markets at Work
Even if the price of gasoline were set by a perfectly benevolent conservationist, we would expect to see the same pattern of price movements. THE recent gyrations in oil prices offer a textbook illustration of how financial markets and commodity markets interact. Oil prices are notoriously volatile, particularly when times are tense in oil-producing countries ? just about all the time these days. So when BP announced this month that it might have to suspend as much as 8 percent of the nation?s oil production because of corrosion in pipes on the North Slope of Alaska, the price of …
Behind the Wheel: 2006 Toyota RAV4: That Precocious Child Star Grows Into a Bigger Role August 20, 2006
This bigger 2006 model may not look or feel quite as sporty as it did when it debuted back in 2001, but it is a lot more practical, with more room and more useful features. TEN years ago last January, the Toyota RAV4 walked onstage and took a bow, as perky and precocious as an automotive Shirley Temple in a sheet-metal pinafore. Who would have thought that this tiny sort of sport utility was the precursor of what would become, within a decade, the hottest part of the auto market? Back then, the RAV4 and a couple of similarly small …
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