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January, 2005 Archives | Homepage
Ford Recalls 800,000 Pickups and SUVs
Ford is recalling nearly 800,000 pickups and SUVs. The recall is over concern that the cruise control switch could short circuit which would then lead to a fire under the hood. CBSNews.com reports that the recall affects "approximately 792,000 Ford F-150 pickups, Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators from the 2000 model year. Also affected are 2001 F-Series Supercrew trucks that were made at the same time." Recently on an NBC Today show the owner of an F-150 truck explained how his truck caught fire and burned his truck and garage even though the ignition was turned off.
Posted on January 28, 2005
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Edmunds.com Launches Inside Line Magazine
Writenews.com reports that Edmunds.com, an online resource for automotive information, has launched an online car magazine called Inside Line. The new publication is aimed at automotive enthusiasts, a population that is growing thanks in part to successful television shows like MTV's Pimp My Ride and The Learning Channel's Overhaulin'. Inside Line will provide road tests, columns, a daily feed of news from around the automotive world, and features on styling and design, technology, personalities, motorsports and auto shows.
Posted on January 25, 2005
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Gas Prices Climb 5 Cents
MSNBC.com reports that gas prices are climbing again and have risen 5 cents to a national average of $1.87 per gallon. The average price comes from the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country. It was the first gas price increase in over three months.
Posted on January 24, 2005
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Ray Bradbury Talks Transportation's Future
According to Ray Bradbury, one of the world's leading science fiction writers and author of such classics as The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, traffic on our nation's major highways will freeze with gridlock, and only then will people decide to change their driving habits.
"We're going to be forced into new solutions just as we were forced into space," said Bradbury in a Green Car Journal interview. Bradbury reminds us that unusual circumstances made for an acceptance of space travel, with America's race for space driven not by the general population's desire to go to the moon, but rather by a reaction to political events during the Cold War. Similarly, Bradbury expects that a complete rethinking of our transportation system will be driven by reaction to events over the next five to seven years, not by a desire for change. In the interview, Bradbury says that, simply, "we're going to be forced to look at the automobile and freeways because they're not working."
Bradbury isn't alone in pointing out the need for change. In Green Car Journal's Winter 2004/2005 issue, Amory Lovins, noted physicist and CEO of Rocky Mountain Institute, discusses how the application of advanced automotive technologies can create highly efficient vehicles that help resolve America's dependence on foreign oil.
Lovins supports his perspective with a look at specific examples of advanced automotive design and manufacturing work at BMW, Honda, Porsche, and Toyota, along with an RMI Hypercar project that examines a virtually designed, production costed, and manufacturable crossover vehicle that uses these, and other, technologies. The RMI team's new Pentagon co-sponsored study, Winning the Oil Endgame, documents these advances.
"It shows how to save half of U.S. oil use at $12/barrel, and then replace the rest with biofuels and saved natural gas," said Lovins in the article. "That would eliminate U.S. oil use by 2050 -- without needing federal legislation, CAFE, or gasoline taxes, but led by business for profit."
Posted on January 17, 2005
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Aston Martin DB9 Named Car of the Year by Robb Report
The Aston Martin DB9 has been selected by the editors of Robb Report as the magazine's 2005 Car of the Year. Selected from a field of 13 sports cars, luxury coupes and Sport Utility Vehicles, the DB9 earned top honors by "combining unmatched elegance and luxury with a blisteringly-fast V12 engine," according to the magazine's Senior Vice President and Automotive Editor Robert Ross. The DB9 was also lauded for its voracious 6.0-liter, 450 hp V-12 engine and Robb Report editors were equally impressed by the DB9's opulent interior. Listed alphabetically, other finalists in Robb Report's 2005 Car of the Year included the Acura RL, Bentley Arnage T, BMW 760i, Cadillac CTS-V, Chrysler 300C, Chevrolet Corvette, Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster, Land Rover LR3, Lotus Elise, Maserati Quattroporte, Mercedes-Benz SL65 and Porsche 911 Carrera S.
Posted on January 7, 2005
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