Not so long ago, saying the name of any of the top car brands — Toyota, Chevy, Ford, Honda, etc — conjured up very distinct associated images and preconceptions, especially when compared to the smaller and newer brands on the market. But it looks like that line between champs and challengers is blurring as consumers re-think what they prize in an automobile. More »
As mass-produced plug-in electric vehicles continue to roll off assembly lines, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is taking a closer look at the batteries that power these cars following an incident in which a Chevy Volt caught fire three weeks after undergoing a NHTSA side-impact crash test. More »
Our corporate kin at Consumer Reports have released their Annual Auto Survey. And after years of solid showings by Ford on the reliability study, a trio of new models have weighed the automaker down, while Chrysler manages to inch up the ladder. More »
The Institute for Policy Studies has just released its 18th annual review of U.S. executive compensation and found that 25 out of the country's 100 highest-paid chief executives actually earned more in 2010 than their companies paid out in corporate income taxes. More »
In an attempt to rid U.S. consumers of the idea that domestic car dealerships are dreary, antiquated places with only a pot of burnt coffee to keep you awake while you wait in uncomfortable chairs, a growing number of car sellers are sprucing up their showrooms to keep potential buyers from running across the street to the cooler looking import lot. More »
Even though gasoline containing upward of 15% ethanol content (E15) hasn't come on the consumer market, the government has already finalized the labels that will be affixed to pumps carrying the fuel, a sign of E15 will likely make it to your local gas station at some point. Now Bloomberg reports that nine automakers, including GM, Chrysler and Toyota have warned regulators that putting E15 in your tank may void your vehicle's warranty. More »
Some people feel so attached to their vehicles that it seems their minds and hearts are locked into the same wavelength as the machinery. The feeling could one day become a reality. More »
When gas hit $4 a gallon in 2008, Detroit's Big Three auto makers took it on the chin as American demand for big, fuel-thirsty SUVs and trucks suddenly disappeared. But even with gas prices again hovering north of $4, American car companies are whistling a much happier tune—all the way to the bank. More »
It's been a bad spring for the Ford F-150 pickup truck brand. First, there was the recall of around 1.3 million vehicles for faulty airbags. Now comes news that NHTSA is investigating a problem with rusting fuel tank straps that could impact 2.7 million F-150 trucks. More »
Remember when NHTSA suggested that Ford should recall 1.3 million F-150 trucks over airbag concerns? Probably not, because the car company only chose to recall around 150,000 of them. Well after further conversations with regulators, it appears that all those trucks Ford had originally decided didn't merit a recall... they do now. More »
A cocktail of advertising, performance, customer service and social prominence leads to the elusive concept of brand loyalty. Judging from an R.L. Polk study of 5.2 million new vehicle-buying households, Ford has nailed the formula more effectively than its competitors recently, because the company has surpassed GM for the top spot it previously held. More »
Our test-happy kin at Consumer Reports have released their annual auto issue, which means it's time for the magazine's list of its top picks in 10 categories. More »
Eric owns an elderly (model year 1999) Ford Windstar, and isn't particularly interested in trading it in for a new car for financial reasons. Ford recently recalled hundreds of thousands of older Windstars, and Eric dutifully brought his car in for repair. Instead of a freshly safe car, he received an offer of $3,700 for his van. If he wanted to keep the van, he would need to sign a document absolving ford of any liability if anything goes wrong with the car. What would you do? More »
Denis Leary may shout about how crazy smart the engineers at Ford are in those irritating TV ads, but those engineers apparently weren't smart enough to include an airbag that might not deploy without warning in the F-150 pickup. More »
Espionage! A former Ford engineer charged with stealing trade secrets worth $50 million has pleaded guilty, and was apparently caught with the evidence on his laptop when he was arrested in Chicago in 2009. The man worked for Ford for 10 years before quitting the company to accept a position at a Ford competitor — Beijing Automotive. More »
Jason's Ford Mustang broke down, requiring a repair he expected to be covered under the warranty, given that the car was well under the 5-year, 60,000-mile limit. The Ford dealership to which he towed his car denied the warranty service, basically accusing him of abusing the car by driving it "beyond its design limits." More »
Our gear-head bros at Consumer Reports have published the results of their Annual Auto Survey and there's good news for General Motors, whose numbers showed considerable improvement. Still, no U.S.-based car makers were able to beat out either Honda or Toyota for reliability. More »
With the help of heaps of state tax credits, Michigan's Big 3 car makers — Ford, GM and Chrysler — will be adding over 2,200 jobs and $2 billion to that state's economy over the next few years. More »
Sick and tired of seeing Geek Squadders rolling in those tired old VW Beetles? Then you're in luck. Ford says they just made a deal to deliver around 1,000 new vans for use by the Best Buy nerd herd. More »
Leslie has been waiting for her Ford Fiesta for quite a while now. She's been patient and not too sad, but was still delighted when the automaker sent her a letter apologizing for the delay, including a $50 Mastercard gift card. "Fifty dollars is no lottery win," she writes, "but hey, it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day." Very wise, Leslie. More »
In news that will impact the parking lots of retirement homes nationwide, Ford will announce today that they have decided to pull the plug on its Mercury brand of vehicles after 71 years of blandness. More »
Over the weekend, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it had opened a formal investigation to examine allegations of accelerator pedals in model year 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan vehicles "becoming trapped in the depressed position after the driver releases the pedal to decelerate." More »
We don't have a whole lot to say about this other than we're really happy it exists. Also, we wanted to post a picture of Indiana Jones, so there you have it. Mission accomplished. More »
If you pay attention to all the various automobile ads on TV, you'd probably notice that just about every make and model of vehicle has won some sort of award from some magazine, or that its been "rated highest in its class" by any number of organizations. But what many people don't know is that these awards and thumbs-up ratings almost always cost the car companies a pretty penny. More »
With over $408 billion in revenue, Walmart has regained the coveted top spot on the annual Fortune 500 list. The mega retailer had slipped to #2 behind Exxon Mobil on last year's list after two consecutive #1 years in 2007 and 2008. More »
Earlier today, Ford announced that it's going to be the first car manufacturer to employ Microsoft's Hohm energy management system when it begins rolling out its line of electric and hybrid electric vehicles over the next two years. More »
They always say that cars are the worst investment, since they almost always depreciate in value. But Ford Motor Co. learned the hard way that this holds true for car companies as well. They bought Volvo for $6.45 billion in 1999, only to sell it 11 years later for $1.8 billion. More »
Yesterday, a court in South Carolina overturned an $18 million verdict against Ford stemming from a fatal 1999 incident involving a Ford Explorer. Their reasoning behind the reversal — an expert who testified about the vehicle's cruise control system apparently knew nothing about cruise control systems. More »
Toyota might be getting a pity party at home in Japan for the skewering the car company is receiving over their recall of 8 million vehicles, so this latest report will probably turn them into saints. A new look at almost 13,000 speed-related complaints over the last decade shows that Toyota led the pack in with the most complaints involving a crash. More »
While the Congress frets about the millions of Toyotas on the road that probably shouldn't be, our grease-monkey brothers at Consumer Reports were busy getting domestic. They just released the list of their Top Picks for vehicles put out by American car companies. More »
Ford has reached a deal to sell Volvo to Zhejiang Geely, a Chinese company that first started making cars just 11 years ago. The terms of the deal weren't announced, but Ford's take is estimated to be about $2 billion, a far cry from the $6 billion the company paid to buy Volvo in 1999. More »
It looks like absolute victory could be around the corner for Freya Svensson, the unhappy Volvo owner who turned to the internet, especially videos of herself singing and wearing a viking hat, to shame the car company into replacing her faulty transmission. More »
—>Ford and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have announced a recall of 4.5 million vehicles spanning back to 1992. A mixup in the manufacture resulted in the "self-immolation" button being labeled "cruise control." In all seriousness, though, a vehicle fire could occur on these models, so be sure to check this out. More »
—>Some initial statistics are in on the vehicles traded in and purchased in the "Cash for Clunkers" program. Unsurprisingly, 80% of the vehicles traded in are trucks or SUVs, and the top sellers among car-buyers come from Honda, Toyota, and Ford. More »
—>Demand for bigass SUVs just isn't what it used to be. Ford says it is spending "550 million to convert a plant, which previously produced trucks and SUVs, into a "green" manufacturing complex building small fuel-efficient and electric cars," says CNN. More »
—>Sorry to disappoint all of you who think that the two-person Segway is the most innovative thing GM has produced in its long history — it seems that the company's most important new idea was consumer credit. More specifically, convincing a nation of thrifty debt-averse tightwads that taking on debt was socially acceptable. Yes, it's true. We weren't always a bunch of debt junkies. More »
—>Now that a bunch of people have a finger in the "If you lose your job, we'll help you out with payments" punch bowl, which is the best deal? Hyundai, Ford or GM? Jalopnik broke it down and says the original is the best, giving the award to Hyundai Assurance Plus. "Hyundai is the only one offering negative equity coverage with real teeth and payment assistance," they wrote. Caveats apply depending on your situation. and, "in the end, if you are fairly certain you're going to be losing your job soon you shouldn't buy a new car." More »
—>Not to be outdone by Hyundai, if you buy a Ford and lose your job, the car-maker announced they'll make your payments for up to a year, up to $700 per month. President Mark Fields released a video about the "Ford Advantage Plan" on YouTube. Take a shot every time he says "confidence." GM is supposed to announce their own version this morning, says Kicking Tires. UPDATE: And here it is. More »
$2 Billion For Volvo? Ford Motor Co. may get $1 billion to $2 billion for its Volvo Cars unit, less than a third of what it paid 10 years ago. Yeowch. [Bloomberg] More »
—>Consumer Reports just did a study about car brand perceptions, so we thought we'd compare the top 10 most highly perceived brands to their list of the most reliable car brands. More »
—>CBSNews is reporting that while, at this very moment, the big three auto bosses are testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee (watch this now at CSPAN, if you like.) about how they need emergency bridge loans in order to continue functioning — they still apparently have enough money to continue to spend millions lobbying our government. More »
—>A majority, 61% of Americans are not in favor of bailing out the auto industry, says CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. Ford, Chrysler and GM have requested up to $34 billion dollars in emergency loans, but a majority of Americans polled thought that bailing out the automakers wouldn't help the economy. More »
—>The CEOs of Ford, GM, and Chrysler have all agreed to take only a $1 salary if the government will pretty pretty pretty please with killed-electric-car-on-top bail them the out. [CNNMoney] (Thanks to DjDynasty!) (Photo: Nrbelex) More »
—>ABCNews says that the big three auto CEOs "flew to the nation's capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy." More »
Below I detail a problem I encountered with my 2005 F-150 pickup and what I thought were covered damages and repairs under the initial warranty or the ExtraCARE extended coverage. More »
—>What do you do when your industry starts to go belly up and you can't make enough revenue to stay afloat? If you're a short-sighted U.S. auto maker, you beg the government for $25-50 billion in immediate, low-interest loans in order to retool your plants, so you can start producing the hybrid cars you should have been planning years ago. More »
—>A hybrid vehicle might be more fuel efficient than the non-hybrid version of the same car, but some hybrid vehicles can get as few as 19mpg. Check out this list of the least fuel efficient hybrid vehicles before you head out to the dealership. More »
—>The era of the pickup truck is over. For the first time in 15 years, the Ford F-Series has lost its position as the nation's top selling vehicle. The new king is the Honda Civic, followed by three other economy models. That's right: the F-Series plummeted to fifth place in sales last month. More »
—>Another update to the Kieffe & Sons "Sit Down and Shut Up" ad fiasco: The quasi-apology issued by the California Ford dealer on Wednesday was mandated by Ford Headquarters. Kieffe & Sons remains unrepentant, so to speak, and blames the imbroglio on "Blog-lo-dites." More »
—>On Monday, we wrote about Kieffe & Sons, the California Ford Dealership that ran a pointlessly offensive radio ad attacking non-Christians and supporters of secular government. Today, the owner of Kieffe and sons apologized for the ad. More »
Kieffe and Sons, a California Ford dealership, decided for some reason to launch a radio ad attacking non-Christians and people who believe that prayer shouldn't be in public schools. Audio and transcript of the ad, inside. More »
—>Well, this seems misguided. A group of people who are members of the "Black Mustang Club" wanted to take some pictures of their cars and make a calendar using CafePress. Turns out, CafePress refuses to publish pictures of Ford cars due to claims of copyright infringement: More »
—>F-series Super Duty trucks, E-series vans and Excursion SUVs from model years 1997 through 2003 equipped with 7.3-liter diesel engines are being recalled by Ford because of a computer software problem that causes their engines to stall. Several minor accidents have been caused by the defect, but no injuries. More »
—> This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Ford Edsel, long considered the premier example of over-hyped commercial failure. New Coke has nothing on the Edsel! More »
—>Ford has issued a recall of 3.6 million vehicles because of a defective "speed control deactivation switch system." Ford or Lincoln/Mercury dealers will perform the repair free of charge to all affected vehicles. More »
—>Coca-Cola has come out on top of the "Best Brands" Harris Poll for the first time ever. Sony, the leader for the past 7 years slipped to number 2. More »
—>Recent graduates shopping for a new car may be eligible for incentives offered by several automakers. The incentives are rarely advertised, unknown even to most dealers. More »
—>The Consumerist is interested in hearing from car salespeople and customer service representatives in the automotive field. We're looking for tips related to buying a new or used car. If you are or once were a car salesperson or worked in a car dealership and would like to confess, write to us at tips [at] consumerist [dot] com. More »
Justin took his Taurus into AAMCO for transmission repairs, only to endure a month of repairs that left his car in no better shape, and it ended up endangering his life. More »
—>A Dell Inspiron laptop. A stock 1966 Ford pick-up. Several boxes of ammunition. A sunny day on the shimmering shores of Lake Mead. A fireball erupting into the sky! A million bullets shredding through the air! A shrapnel storm of jagged metal shards and flaming tires! More »
—>Business Week has a fascinating article up looking at the political donations of various American companies and the consumer boycotts that have resulted. There are numerous examples of companies going 'Blue' or going 'Red' and consequently finding themselves in a Public relations nightmare, as opponents begin launching major campaigns through television, radio and blogs, attacking the company's political choices. More »
