Make Expensive Vehicle Repairs a Thing of the Past

(ARA) - When the dealer you bought your new car from offered a vehicle warranty, did you turn him down? If so why? Probably because you thought the coverage was too expensive and your new car shouldn't have any problems for quite some time.While the automakers should thank you for your trust in them, you've probably given them more credit than they deserve. Case in point -- how many recall notices have there already been on your vehicle in the short amount of time you've had it?While the manufacturer will pick up the cost of fixing problems covered by the recall, you're on your own for everything else. If your car's power steering system suddenly fails and needs to be repaired, it will cost you at least $875, replacing a worn out clutch would cost around $725 and replacing a water pump would set you back about $300 -- and those are examples of some inexpensive repairs.No matter what the problem, you'll surely spend more on repairs than you would have if you'd bought a vehicle warranty the day you drove your car off the lot.


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An homage to M-Series' beginnings

The BMW M1 sports car was originally built simply as a design study, and grew to become an influential model in the sports car world.

Thirty years later, BMW is paying homage to that model with aptly-named M1 Homage concept.

According to BMW, the M1 Homage continues the automaker's pattern of building vehicles that both harken back to past models, while still reinventing themselves for the future.

Any BMW fan of years past will notice the dual BMW emblems each situated on the right and left edge above the tail lights, signalling a mid-engine BMW car. This styling element was approved even before the first design sketches were complete.

Other styling elements taken from the original M1 are the air vents in the bonnet and the louvers on the rear windscreen, as well as the black cut line dividing the roofline from the rear section of the body.


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Gas prices cited as sale of small cars surges

Small cars were the big winners in April, as high gas prices accelerated U.S. consumers' rush away from trucks and sport utility vehicles, and as makers of fuel-efficient models scored gains despite the weak economy.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler all saw double-digit U.S. sales declines compared with last April. But Nissan's sales were up 7 percent on the strength of its car sales, while Toyota's sales edged up 3 percent. Honda's sales figures were delayed because of a technical problem, but the automaker said April sales were likely to be up at least 6 percent.

Pickup sales have been falling for months because of the slowdown in housing construction, and the trend away from SUVs began several years ago as Baby Boomers aged and roomy but more fuel-efficient crossover vehicles gave consumers more choice.


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Games Without Frontiers: 'Grand Theft Auto IV' Delivers Deft Satire of Street Life

I'll just get this up front: I enormously enjoyed Grand Theft Auto IV.

But here's the thing: It's kind of hard to explain why.

There's no single thing to point to -- no must-see scene, no gotta-do moment of gameplay, no deliriously fun weapon. No, the game's pleasures come in weird, subtle, unexpected moments.

Let me give you an example. At one point, I was having a typically thuggish day: I'd killed a few drug dealers with a semiautomatic, and while trying to flee, whoops -- I accidentally rear-ended a cop car. Then it was a car chase, all wailing sirens and shrieking pedestrians diving out of the way, before totaling my SUV in a brutal collision and escaping on foot. A total Hillary Clinton nightmare, in other words.

I finally escaped by ducking into a subway station, and while catching my breath, I decided to explore a bit.


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Car-parts makers defy estimates

Lear Corp. and ArvinMeritor Inc., Metro Detroit auto-parts makers that have worked to cut labor costs and increase sales abroad, reported earnings Tuesday that beat analyst estimates, boosting company shares.

Southfield-based Lear, which makes automotive seats, said first-quarter net income rose 57 percent to $78.2 million, pushing up the stock by the most since it started trading in 1994. Sales fell 12 percent to $3.86 billion.

ArvinMeritor, a maker of brakes and shock absorbers based in Troy, had its first profit in five quarters.

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New Book Shows Car Dealers How to Rev Up Profits and Customer Satisfaction

28/04/2008 18:54:00 Business Wire Car manufacturing has been transformed by lean production over the last 20 years yet car dealerships have remained virtually untouched by lean principles.
Now that s changing.
Dealerships experimenting with lean principles have experienced a doubling of throughput, increases in productivity of 50% or more, and returns on sales several times the industry norm.
These are not "freak" results.
They occur every time lean principles are applied in a disciplined way -- as has already been done in service sectors such as healthcare.
Creating Lean Dealers, a step-by-step workbook for improving dealer operations, shows managers how to remove the many barriers to smooth the flow of work, starting in service and repair.
"Because lean thinking does not naturally fit the mind-set of dealers, the place to start is with service and repair," said Dan Jones, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy (LEA) in the UK, the book s publisher.


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Fraud case against car dealer dismissed

Lancaster County District Judge Paul Merritt Jr. has dismissed a titling fraud charge against a local automobile dealer.Merritt dismissed the charge against Chad Gutschow, 34, of Suzuki Autoplex last week in response to a motion by Gutschow’s attorney. The dismissal apparently does not preclude prosecutors from filing new charges, but the Lancaster County Attorney’s office said Tuesday it had not decided how to proceed in the case. The Nebraska State Patrol cited Gutschow in August on suspicion of felony title fraud. His attorney said at the time that the dispute arose from a "misunderstanding between Mr. Gutschow and a third-party business."

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