New Car Warranties

Ford Motor Company is making a move to wean itself away from light trucks. In fact, it will use $75 million in order to convert an SUV factory in Michigan to manufacture cars.

The truck plant is located in Wayne, Michigan, which is a Detroit suburb. Ford will begin working on the conversion in early November, and will begin production of a small car that is unspecified in 2010, according to a Ford statement.

The equipment that has been used at the plant in Wayne to manufacture Navigator and Expedition SUVs will be transported to another factory located in Louisville. This plant currently builds F-Series Super Duty pickup trucks, but will also manufacture the SUV models, starting in the second quarter of 2009.

The factory in Michigan is one of three plants in North America that will be retooled to make fuel-efficient cars. This is under the plan by Chief Executive Alan Mulally to put an end to approximately $23.9 billion in losses since the year 2005. Due to high gas prices, light trucks have been down 19%, and they account for 63% of the 2008 deliveries for Ford. Consumers now want to protect their wallets by purchasing small, fuel-efficient cars with new car warranties.

Other carmakers are scrambling to downsize their car lineups, yet Honda Motor continues to restock its current lineup of small vehicles that are fuel-efficient.

Honda is the most popular car company in the U.S., and its success will continue to grow with the introduction of a new updated version of the Honda Fit subcompact today.

The current version of the Fit has experienced a sales increase of a staggering 79% this year due to the trend for consumers to steer clear of large vehicles that guzzle gas.

And with the new Fit, which gets 34mpg/highway and comes with an auto warranty, Honda continues to polish its sparkling reputation as the carmaker that is best able to capitalize on an auto market that is changing rapidly.

Sales in the U.S. car market have dropped 11% this year, and yet Honda’s sales have gone up 3%. To compare, GM has had sales decline 11%, Ford Motor has declined 14%, and Toyota has dropped 7%.

Honda’s success can be explained in simple terms. When all other automakers, including Toyota, shifted to trucks, Honda resisted and stuck with their formula. Consumers are looking for small, fuel-efficient cars that are dependable and come with new car warranties, and Honda delivers. With the current economy people aren’t taking risks on gas-guzzlers.

Recently, The Environmental Transport Association named the Toyota Yaris to be the “Green Car Of The Year. The ETA looked at 1300 vehicles in order to put together a green vehicle guide for car shoppers. In order to determine the green guide they researched the power, fuel-efficiency, noise levels, and emissions of the cars.

There were other models by Toyota that also made the top ten list by the ETA. Among these cars were, coming in third, the Prius, in sixth place came the Avgo, and coming in ninth was the Auris. These were considered some of the best green vehicles.

In the segment of the off road vehicle that was the greenest, the Toyota RAV4 came in first. In the category of the greenest city vehicle was the Toyota Avgo.

Motorists are becoming more and more concerned with buying cars that are environmentally friendly. Luckily, there are currently many vehicles in this category that provide style, reliability, and fuel-efficiency, and even come with new car warranties that allow drivers to have peace of mind.

Luckily, at the moment, not all of the economic news is tragic.

According to economists from Comerica Bank, vehicles have currently become more affordable than has been seen in 28 years.  So, the last time vehicle shoppers’ purchases made up this small of a piece of his or her income, fuel prices were higher than ever and comedians were telling jokes about how old presidential candidates were.

Comerica claims that the average cost of a light vehicle currently is $27,704, including new car warranties, and the average amount of money that people spent on a vehicle fell $700 this quarter, to approximately $23,900.  Motorists have been keeping their payments down by stretching out how much time they will take to pay it off, which is currently more than 62 months.

Incentives have spurred the trend, which continue to get better as dealers try to get rid of inventory (they especially look appealing if you want to purchase an SUV or truck), but for the most part, motorists have just begun to want less-expensive models.

GM has brought back its Employee Pricing Sale. Trying to help its sales slump through late August, GM is selling vehicles for the same prices that employees pay, an effort the carmaker hasn’t made since back in 2005. In addition, GM is offering great new car warranties.

The great deals in 2005 made people take interest in the carmaker at the time, and GM is hoping that the same thing will happen this time around. The deals are applied for all vehicles in stock for the 2008 model year for Pontiac, Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, Cadillac, Saturn, Hummer, and Saab. Also, select vehicles from the 2009 model year include the Pontiac Vibe and G5, Chevrolet Cobalt and HHR, and Cadillac CTS. However, the 2008 model year medium duty trucks are excluded.

Though GM hasn’t announced what the specific discounts for models will be, USA Today has reported that the Chevy Silverado will have an employee discount of $3,000 with the addition of $5,000 cash back. Also, incentives for the Chevy Tahoe will be up around $10,000. Surprisingly, models that are usually excluded from this pricing sale are also included, such as the Chevy Corvette. In addition to the great prices, they offer an impressive auto warranty with each vehicle.

GM won’t be posting the pricing sale online, which makes it necessary for consumers to visit a dealership to see how large the incentives and discounts are. The new prices are available through September 2nd.

Do you feel apprehensive about shopping for a new car?  Are you worried you don’t know enough about financing and new car warranties?  Or that you will say something that will give the dealer the upper hand in negotiations?  Car shopping doesn’t have to be stressful.  Here are some things that you shouldn’t tell a car dealer.

Don’t discuss monthly payments.  Your focus should go into negotiating the purchase price of the car.  It can get very confusing when you start talking about monthly payments because it can be unclear whether the payment is for 24 or 36 months.

Don’t tell the dealer right away that you have a trade in.  If the dealer realizes this he will know that you are hoping to get as much as possible for your trade-in.  The dealer may tell you he is going to give you a lot for your trade-in, but it’s actually a smokescreen because then the new price won’t be negotiable.

Don’t tell the dealer if you’re planning on paying in cash.  A lot of their money is made in financing, and if they realize they won’t be able to make that money, they probably won’t negotiate the car’s purchase price.

It is important to do your homework before purchasing a car.  Arrive at the dealership with knowledge about new car prices, financing, and new car warranties.  This will allow you to stand ground with the dealer.

What do you get if the “hybrid” is taken out of a hybrid pickup truck?  In the case of GM, you get the XFE, or Xtra Fuel Economy pickup trucks that are full size.  These trucks share a lot of running gear and hardware with their hybrid counterparts; however, the exception is the two mode gas-electric powertrain.

The Chevrolet Silverado XFE and GMC Sierra XFE provide fuel-efficiency ratings of 15/21 mpg for city/highway, in comparison to 21/22 mpg for city/highway for GMs two-mode hybrids and 14/20 mpg for non-XFE pickups that are comparable.  That is an approximate 5%-7% improvement over the trucks that are non-XFE.

Models that are XFE only come in two-wheel drive with the E85-capable LC9 5.3-liter V-8 and a six-speed transmission that is automatic.  An Aluminum engine block, as well as aluminum cylinder heads is used by the LC9 to save weight.  In addition, it has active fuel management in order to change the V-8 between eight-cylinder and four-cylinder modes in order to save fuel.

Consumers are looking to save money on fuel, and GM has delivered.  Also, consumers are concerned with purchasing cars with good new car warranties in order to avoid unnecessary repair expenses down the road.

Many motorists wonder what it actually means for a car to be considered “clean”.  The new Jetta TDI is a prime example.  This car will use a new fuel that is an ultra-low sulfur diesel.  It used to be that diesel fuel contained large amounts of sulfur, which harmed devices like catalytic converters that are put in the exhaust stream to help clean harmful emissions.

Now, ultra-low sulfur diesel has reduced the content of sulfur by 97%, which allows carmakers to add devices that will reduce emissions, without risking damage to the components.  Of course, devices like these will vary from carmaker to carmaker, just like new car warranties.

There are four new emission-reducing devices in the new Jetta TDI.  According to VW, they are an oxidation catalyst for carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions, storage catalyst for nitrogen emissions oxides, particulate emissions trap, and for hydrogen sulfide emissions, a slip catalyst.

Changes that have been made under the hood of the 2009 Jetta TDI include four valves per cylinder (not two), common rail fuel injection, and new calibration for the engine.

Ford Motor Co. recently made a promise that its new compact and sub-compact cars, which are due in 2010, will exceed the industry average in quality.

According to Bennie Fowler, the Ford VP of Global Quality, the carmaker will maintain its “things gone wrong” at approximately 800 for every 1,000 cars. This would be around 500 below the average for the industry. “Things gone wrong” is a yearly compilation of difficulties that car owners have in their first 90 days of owning a car.

To achieve the 800 goal, Ford will be using virtual reality tools that will allow 70% of problems to be reduced before vehicles are even built. In addition, an “army” of hourly workers will be trained to detect problems before a car will ever get to the showroom.

Ford’s commitment fuels the current battles between Ford and GM to shift their product lines to small, fuel-efficient cars. Consumers have begun to abandon trucks and SUVs and instead purchase small cars with new car warranties that will save them money at the pump.

Starting with model year 2010, new car window stickers will have a safety rating combining front, side, as well as rollover tests.  Also, the federal government will upgrade the tests used to compile the ratings.  In addition, female crash dummies will now be used and a new test with a side pole will simulate a car hitting a tree.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration test results, using its New Car Assessment Program, will have a supplement rating indicating if there are advanced safety technologies, such as forward collision warning systems, lane departure warning systems, and ESC.  However, the effectiveness of the individual devices used on each vehicle will not be rated by the government agency.  And, with new technology, such as these safety technologies it is a good idea for consumers to purchase an auto warranty in case of faulty gadgets.

The efforts by the NHTSA to upgrade its car safety program are commendable.  And the car industry is now addressing the safety standards that are becoming increasingly stringent.  The consumers will benefit in the end because they will have a clear presentation of standard safety equipment and crash-test results that are more detailed.  However, as cars become more advanced, it is even more essential to purchase new car warranties.