Archive for September, 2008

In August and September the economy took quite a hit.  Also, these months proved to be unpredictable for auto incentives.  Instead of offering the typical program, GM promoted an Employee Pricing Sale, and Chrysler told people to Shop ‘Til You Drive. Those great deals will be ending on September 30th, which means if you would […]

GM announced this morning that it plans to double production of its four-cylinder engine, and the majority of the increase will come to North America.  This shift in product planning was to be expected, and so was the plant that will be built in Flint, Michigan for $370 million, which will manufacture the new 1.4-liter […]

Toyota is following in Honda’s footsteps to manufacture natural gas powered products. The carmaker of the successful Prius hybrid is planning to debut a Camry concept car that uses natural gas in November at the L.A. auto show. These cars are called CNGs, or compressed natural gas. There are only 1,000 refueling stations for these […]

Analysts have expected the prices of crude oil to go down for months now, yet they keep going up. Will motorists ever be able to afford important things such as an auto warranty and maintenance again? Crude oil prices had a considerable decline early in the year, however the hope is not just that the […]

The most notable upgrade seen in the 2009 RAV4 is its new four-cylinder 2.5-liter engine, which boosts the power to 179 hp, compared to 166 hp in 2008.  The mileage stays the same at 22 mpg/city and 28 mpg/highway for the two-wheel-drive version and 21/27 mpg for the four wheel-drive version.  Also unchanged is the […]

J.D. Power recently came out with the results from its 2008 Escaped Shopper Study, which gauges why consumers made the decision to walk away from certain new vehicles in their car shopping experience. It’s quite surprising that approximately 80% of car shoppers decided against purchasing a model after they went to a car dealer. The […]

Because of a full-size pickup truck market that is lagging and the challenge that diesel engines face in the U.S., Toyota has decided to put their plans for a diesel Tundra on hold. There are several things that forced Toyota’s hand. First, there are technical challenges when it comes to making diesel engines that will […]

Pre-owned cars are a great option for car shoppers because cars today have such great quality that they last longer.  This lets drivers enjoy a car that someone else has already owned.  Some advocates of used cars like to say that a used car is just a model that’s already been broken in. In many […]

Ford is debuting its new lineup for 2009, and the majority of the models are not only equipped with new car warranties, and numerous safety features, they come with a gas-cap-less fuel tank.  Ford is referring to this as “EasyFuel,” which shouldn’t be confused with “FlexFuel”, which is when a car can use E85.  However, […]

Smart, which is a Daimler-Benz subsidiary, has been able to sell around 17,000 ForTwos since they launched the small two-seater in America in January.  However, there are approximately 30,000 potential buyers who have been put on waiting lists. Even so, the carmaker doesn’t intend on increasing their output in order to put supply in line […]