Automotive News (Page 1234)

Winnebago Industries Towables has launched a 2012 Raven travel-trailer and fifth-wheel line. Raven, a new SunnyBrook brand of travel trailers and fifth wheels, carries an MSRP of $35,221 and is in full production right now.

On the heels of a 73% tC coupe sales increase in June, Scion hopes that hot hand translates to even more sales for a tC that is cooler to look at and more technologically advanced. With that in mind, Scion has rolled out its second-generation tC sports coupe, a 2012 tC Release Series 7.0 that is headed to dealers in the next two months.

Toyota has chosen a second set of 25 winners to get to the halfway mark of the Toyota 100 Cars for Good program, which awards 100 vehicles over the course of 100 days to 100 deserving non-profits. Winners are determined based on voting from the public.

Iconosys, a developer of safety, security, and privacy-oriented technologies for modern-age personal technology devices and platforms, officially released My Max Speed™ last month, an app where users log their rates of speed every 5 seconds as they travel. What we are witnessing is a new battle between physical, plug-in devices like Car Checkup and CarMed vs. smart phone apps that use your smart phone's GPS capability.

The 2011 Chrysler 300 is NADAguides' Car of the Month for July. The online vehicle information company bestowed the coveted honor based on the 300's "sleek, new elegant design and overall appearance, combined with ample space, smooth driving performance, a plethora of intuitive technology features and an extensive list of safety features."

Honda may have sold just 83,892 vehicles in America in June, a dive of 24.3% compared with year-ago levels, but the high-mpg Fit subcompact is a hot ticket that gives the carmaker hope for better things to come. Plus, Honda's year-to-date sales of 607,442 cars and trucks show a respectable increase of 1.6% when comparing 2011 to 2010.

Sales were down overall at every level in June for Toyota, Lexus and Scion cars and trucks in the United States. The bright spot nestled within the glum numbers was the Scion tC sports coupe, whose sales made a huge 73% leap in June compared with 2010.

A rear-wheel drive, open-wheel AC Propulsion electric race car has set a record at the Pikes Peak climb in Colorado. The car won the Exhibition Class and set an EV record with a time of 12:20:084. This bettered its own record-breaking time of 13:17:575 last year by a minute.

Winnebago Industries has appointed a sales executive it lured from a competitor and identified its top-selling dealers for 2011. In addition to acknowledging the most prolific sellers of Winnebago and Itasca motor homes, awards also have been given out to the best Canadian dealers, the No. 1 rental dealer and new dealer of the year for both brands.

Despite a lackluster economy, Mitsubishi of North America reported a 97.7 percent increase in sales over June of last year.

The Motor Press Guild named Laura Burstein its president on Friday. She formerly was vice president of the organization. The guild, which is based in Los Angeles, is the largest automotive media association in the United States and Canada.

In an event for the history books, the Tesla Roadster will be the first all-electric production vehicle to ever participate in the Goodwood Festival of Speed’s Hill Climb. The event is said to be the largest car culture festival in the world, celebrating historic and contemporary motorsports with a diverse, authentic array of conveyances along with a star-studded line-up of drivers.

When the Check Engine light comes on next to the gauges on your dashboard, it could mean your fuel cap is simply not on securely. Then again, it might be a harbinger of the need for a pricey new catalytic converter or some other expensive repair. CarMD reports motorists dealing with this indicator paid an average of $421.49 in Arizona last year – the highest in the nation. Arizona Drivers pay 18 percent more for repairs and 23 percent more for parts over the average paid in other parts of the country.

The Chevrolet Camaro has led in the rear wheel drive sports car segment over the Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger and Nissan 370Z from January to May but as June 2011 sales results have trickled in – the Ford Mustang has claimed the top spot in sales for the month.

The Toyota Camry is one of the bestselling cars in America and Toyota has hoped to begin repairing their image with the introduction of the redesigned 2012 Toyota Camry – which was recently teased in a video featuring Toyota president and CEO Akio Toyoda.

A week ago, we brought you a spy video of Husqvarna testing their new prototype bike. Now they've released the studio photos to the public. My thoughts? Well, I'm truly delighted to see how ugly it is. For example, a Platypus is basically a beaver that lays eggs, has a duck bill, and is venomous. It's incredibly ugly, but you can't deny that the Platypus is awesome.

After the 2012 BMW M5 was formally introduced in public at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, the folks at Microsoft introduced the new Forza Motorsports 4 Limited Collector’s Edition with the gorgeous new high performance BMW sedan serving as the cover model for the special edition of the next generation of the Forza series.

Car buyers in June handed the larger, better appointed Jetta its best sales month ever as Volkswagen moves to capture a bigger share of the U.S. market.

It’s a fair question in light of the CNBC article which quoted Nautilus Invest for its decision to have zero exposure to stocks. Point is, auto sector stocks are especially sensitive to economic conditions, including sovereign debts and default potentials like Greece.

Honda Canada decided to question its followers on Canada Day and ask where in this country they are headed. Some are just headed to work.

General Motors is trying to turn around its poor selling Opel, which is costly to build and isn’t thought of having the prestige to command higher prices.

Toyota has added a new, custom-badged PLUS accessory performance package for the 2011 Prius, the best-selling hybrid in America. Prius PLUS, which can be ordered at Toyota dealerships beginning today through October, features components culled from the new PLUS hybrid Toyota Racing Development line.

TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., a global leader in active and passive safety, has just revealed their design for a conceptual folding steering wheel that retracts into the dash, making driver and passenger egress and ingress much easier. Featuring two retractable handles that close fully, the steering wheel then folds away into the dashboard.

A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports two thirds of drivers in cities where red light cameras have been used for a significant length of time support their use. According to their findings, intersection cameras have reduced the number of fatal crashes caused by drivers running red lights by 24 percent in these cities. Opponents of red light cameras, while vocal and sometimes influential, are in the minority.

Italian automakers Ferrari and Lamborghini have both offered branded laptops but the folks at Porsche have taken a different route to entering the computer world – designing a set of low profile external hard drives for storage experts LaCie.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance is looking to gain a controlling interest in AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest automaker.

Consider it a sign of the times. As 50 percent of smart phone owners use their devices as a shopping tool, GMC is releasing a new app so smart phone users can shop, research and configure a GMC vehicle via the GMC Showroom Mobile App whenever the urge strikes.

The US Supreme Court will decide if lawmen must have a warrant to use a GPS tracking devise for an extended period of around-the-clock surveillance.

Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn's bank account grew $11.46 million for the 2010 fiscal year, more than the CEO of any other automaker in Japan.

An article in the Houston Press today highlights a grey area of tow truck practice related to a black and white aspect of the law, a contravention enforcement likely overlooks as a form of professional courtesy. According to the Houstonian who brought this to the paper’s attention, Houston Police state flatly any forced entry into a vehicle is a criminal act and yet tow trucks there and chances are where you live too regularly break into cars to secure the front wheels for towing.