est you think that the current automotive market implosion is only affecting domestics, check this out: The AP is reporting that Honda is offering buyouts to most of its 35,600 employees in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In addition, it will also be shutting down its plants for 13 days this summer to reduce [...]

Continue...

he Wall Street Journal has posted an interesting story that speculates on what exactly would happen to GM if the company were to declare bankruptcy. Not surprisingly, contingency plans are already on the table and have been under discussion for a while in case the restructuring plans don’t satisfy the Obama Administration’s apparently hard-nosed committee.
According [...]

Continue...

Automotive News is reporting that Chrysler just announced that it has reached a global alliance deal with Italian automaker Fiat. No details were given, but they will likely be forthcoming.
[Update] Or not. Turns out that somebody jumped the gun, and an hour or so later Automotive News posted another story detailing that Chrysler and Fiat [...]

Continue...

These photos of the upcoming new Acura sporty-utility crossover coupe thing have been kicking around for a while now, but Acura now has given the beast a name: ZDX. It will debut at the New York Auto Show in April in a couple of weeks, but for now, there’s a little more information on the [...]

Continue...

By now you’ve likely already heard that the Obama Administration requested that Rick Wagoner step aside as GM’s CEO (it’s been in all the papers). I’m not terribly surprised by this development, as is, well, nobody
It’s not fair to blame Wagoner entirely for the current state of GM. A colleague of mine once said that [...]

Continue...

Ask my friends, and they’ll tell you: I’ve never been a big fan of Ford’s pony car. Sure, the classics are great, but the modern interpretations have always left me cold. Whether it’s the styling, the performance, the reliability, or the interior, I’ve left the keys behind saying “good riddance” more times than I can [...]

Continue...

It’s starting to look a lot like the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show willl be a non-starter. While all of the big-name Japanese manufacturers will be there, the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) annouced that few others will be.
According to Automotive News, JAMA confirmed that Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover and Renault will join [...]

Continue...

For Toyota, launching the third-generation 2010 Toyota Prius must feel a little like being the crew of Apollo 12. Quick…what are their names? Don’t know? Didn’t think so. It’s not because their mission was less important (it wasn’t) or because they were less capable than Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins (they weren’t), but because Apollo 11 [...]

Continue...

n electric water pump may not seem like a very big deal, but it’s one of my favorite things about the 2010 Toyota Prius engine.
Making the water pump electric, rather than running off a belt driven by the engine’s crankshaft, holds a few benefits. First, there’s the practical benefit of reducing the drag on the [...]

Continue...

think the philosophy behind pre-collision systems like the one on the 2010 Toyota Prius is that two heads are better than one. In this case, one of the heads is the driver, and the other is the car itself.
On cars equipped with the dynamic cruise control system, pre-collision scans ahead, looking for other vehicles. [...]

Continue...