March 9, 2010

Toyota Goes on Offensive to Discredit Critics
Toyota took its strongest step yet Monday to silence critics who blame faulty electronics for runaway cars and trucks.According to MSNBC, Toyota assembled a group of experts to refute studies by an Illinois professor who revved Toyota engines simply by short-circuiting the wiring. Toyota's experts say the experiments were done under conditions that would never happen on the road. The automaker maintained its assertion that simpler mechanical flaws, not electronics, were to blame. Meeting with reporters, Toyota addressed the work of David W. Gilbert, an automotive technology professor at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, whose work has been the basis of doubts about Toyota's mechanical fixes, and was included in a recent ABC News report. According to USA Today, ABC News confirmed to one source that footage in a news report showing Professor David Gilbert's test car being driven by reporter Brian Ross was altered. Click here for Jalopnik's rundown of the mechanics behind the ABC report and Toyota's effort to disprove its claims. Chris Gerdes, director of Stanford University's Center for Automotive Research, and a consulting firm, Exponent Inc., rejected the professor's findings. Toyota's assembled experts said the professor's experiments could not be recreated on the actual road. For example, they said, Gilbert had shaved away insulation on wiring and connected wires that would not normally touch each other. Click here for more at MSNBC on Toyota's quest to disprove claims of electronic malfunction in its vehicles.

Rejected Dealer Advocates Fail to Get GM Reinstatement Calls
According to Automotive News, none of the three leaders of the rejected-dealers group that successfully lobbied Congress for a new arbitration law got a reinstatement phone call from General Motors Co. Tammy Darvish, Alan Spitzer, and Jack Fitzgerald - the dealers who head the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights - said Monday that none of the seven wind-down GM dealerships among them were contacted by the automaker. GM said on Monday it had contacted all 661 rejected dealerships it had marked for reinstatement. A total of 1,160 had paid a $1,625 fee indicating their intent to pursue arbitration. GM North America President Mark Reuss said that the 499 dealerships that haven't been contacted could request reinstatement or compensation from GM, and the automaker would consider it. Spitzer, Darvish, and Fitzgerald all said they intend to pursue either arbitration or ask that GM consider a possible settlement. "I want my dealership back," Darvish said. "There's no amount of money they could pay to make me go away." Last summer, the three formed the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights of rejected GM and Chrysler Group dealerships. They mobilized a grassroots lobbying campaign that spurred the House to pass legislation reversing the terminations. Click here for more at Automotive News on dealers seeking reinstatement with GM.

Gas Price Headed Back to $3 a Gallon This Spring
The national average price for a gallon of gasoline is up 9 cents in a month and will likely crack $3 in coming weeks, given a typical spring rally before the summer driving season, oil and gas analysts say. But, according to USA Today, motorists may not see prices go much higher - or even stay that high throughout the entire summer - given the weak economy and the ability of refiners to kick up production, analysts add. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose 0.6 cents Monday to $2.75 a gallon, up 81 cents from a year ago according to analysts. Click here for this week's average gas prices across the country, courtesy of Consumer Reports' Cars Blog. Several factors may keep prices from rising much higher, including unemployment and refining capacity. One expert says he doesn't expect much increased demand for gasoline until the unemployment rate falls below 8.7 percent. In the meantime, gasoline could peak at $3 a gallon to $3.25 a gallon between now and the Fourth of July. Prices are up about 15 percent in the past month on hopes of an economic recovery and the flow of money into oil. Click here for more from USA Today on what drivers can expect from spring and summer gas prices.

After a Rocky Start, Honda's CR-Z Joins U.S. Hybrid Derby
Honda Motor Co.'s new CR-Z sporty hybrid is the car that nearly wasn't. According to Automotive News, the hatchback was almost killed twice because engineers weren't convinced it was a unique concept and because U.S. bosses originally didn't want it. When Norio Tomobe was appointed chief engineer of the project in the summer of 2004, the car was still a blank sheet. And in the early years, the working model had a traditional gasoline engine. "I really struggled for a new idea, and we decided to start over from scratch. The hybrid finally gave us the wow factor," he said. Today, critics assail the CR-Z as neither especially fuel-efficient nor sporty. And Tomobe is quick to admit at least one thing he wishes the CR-Z had: "more horsepower." He said he would like a Type R sporty version of the CR-Z someday with a spunkier power-to-weight ratio that lives up to its sporty styling. But in the meantime, the CR-Z is an exercise in compromise. It was conceived as a 1.3-liter car for Europe but was given a 1.5-liter engine to appeal to U.S. drivers. It aims to be sporty with a six-speed stick-shift option but also comes in a version with continuously variable transmission to squeeze out extra fuel economy. Click here for more from Automotive News on how the Honda CR-Z hybrid almost failed to make it to U.S. showrooms.

Redesigning the Concept and Role of the Automobile
How would you like to drive a car so smart that it can guide you away from traffic jams, warn you when another vehicle is threatening to smash into yours, and flush out the most convenient parking space? According to the New York Times, this vision of smart, eco-savvy cars free from the threat of congestion, crashes, pollution and parking spats could soon become reality, according to the authors of a new book, "Reinventing the Automobile." Written by William J. Mitchell, professor of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with Christopher Borroni-Bird, director of advanced technology vehicle concepts at General Motors, and Lawrence D. Burns, a transportation consultant, it explains how the design of the car and everything associated with it needs to be radically rethought to make personal transport cleaner, safer and more efficient. "Reinventing the Automobile" favors its replacement by a "new automotive DNA" of electric-drive vehicles fueled by electricity and hydrogen, and controlled electronically. Ditching the combustion engine will give designers greater freedom in choosing the size, shape, and style of cars, because they can place the battery and fuel cells wherever they wish. Click here for more from the New York Times on what authors William J. Mitchell and Christopher Borroni-Bird are proposing for the future of automobiles.

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