| Mazda boss challenges dealers and staff to hit new heights | | Posted Thursday, January 25, 2007 12:28:11 PM by Blog57 Team | | Mazda is celebrating a flying start to 2007 with confirmation that it is not only the fastest growing brand in the UK but also the most reliable which has spurred boss Rob Lindley to tell his dealers and head office staff: This is only the beginning. Mazda came top for the reliability of its cars between three and nine years old in a survey published this week by independent automotive warranty specialists Warranty Direct. “Mazda has done very well over the past few years in the Warranty Direct survey and we are absolutely delighted to be top of the tree for reliability in 2007," said Lindley, managing director of Mazda Motors UK. And official registration figures earlier this month confirmed that over the last five years Mazda has outgrown all other car brands in the UK.... | |
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| | | Ford ads spotlight cars, not lifestyle | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 11:00:38 AM by Blog57 Team | | Responding to dealer criticism, Ford Motor Co. is reworking its "Bold Moves" marketing campaign to include more vehicle information in its ads. The Bold Moves campaign, which launched in May, took an unorthodox approach to marketing by focusing on customers' lives and values, rather than vehicle attributes. The ads used "real people" to tell stories in which the cars were visible but not the whole point of the advertisement. The idea was to make people think of the cars and trucks as an extension of their lifestyle. "It's denying the obvious," said Michael Bernacchi, professor of marketing at the University of Detroit Mercy. "The American marketplace has been about product, product and more product. They need to let the American public know that they're committed to products." That is precisely what the automaker intends to do with its new advertising, said Ford spokesman Jim Cain.... | |
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| | | Most reliable new cars named | | Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 10:53:24 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Ford Fusion midsized car and its Mercury Milan sibling scored big in Consumer Reports' annual new car reliability survey, just beating out the industry's quality standard-bearers, the Honda Accord V6 and Toyota Camry V6. But, overall, Japanese brands are still the ones to beat. Of the 47 vehicles with the highest predicted reliability, 39 are Japanese. Of those, all but seven are made by Toyota or Honda. Photos: Most and least reliable cars American cars are continuing to improve in reliability, however, according to Consumer Reports' surveys. Six of the "Most Reliable" are from General Motors or Ford. Those are Ford's front-wheel-drive midsize sedans (Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr), GM's new large non-luxury SUVs (Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon) and GM's Pontiac Vibe wagon.... | |
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| | | Revved-up for the new DVD | | Posted Sunday, November 05, 2006 12:47:35 PM by Blog57 Team | | EMERYVILLE, Calif. -- Pixar approaches DVD with the same principles it uses to create its original films, according to chief creative officer John Lasseter. That is why each one of the animation company's DVD releases is a technical marvel -- the best digital transfer possible -- and is also loaded with bonus materials. "In the same way we make movies that are fun to watch, we love DVDs for the whole laser-disc thing, the extra features," Lasseter told the Toronto Sun this week at Pixar's six-year-old corporate headquarters. "We look at the DVDs doing two things: One is (to serve) as a document, a stamp in time of the making of the film. Two, just as we work so hard on our movies, (we want to make the DVDs into) a really compelling story with memorable characters in a believable world." Hence, there are extras such as the short films that spin-off characters from a feature into new stories.... | |
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| | | Older cars popular for thieves in NH | | Posted Sunday, November 05, 2006 2:50:40 AM by Blog57 Team | | CONCORD, N.H. The list of most stolen cars is out, and in New Hampshire, it looks like thieves are looking for older rides. Hondas from the early 1990s topped the list of most frequently stolen vehicles in New Hampshire in a report from National Insurance Crime Bureau. The 1994 Honda Civic was the hottest, followed by the 1995 Honda Accord, among vehicles stolen last year. New Hampshire car thieves also like Fords, with five models landing on the list of the top 12 stolen vehicles - the 2000 Explorer, 1996 F-150 Series pickup, 1995 Taurus, 1997 Escort and 1991 Ranger. Experts say thieves are looking at older cars because they are easier to steal and because there is demand for their parts. ___ Information from: Eagle Tribune, http://www.eagletribune.com Copyright 2006 Associated Press.... | |
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| | | A New Way of Spotting an Unseen Threat | | Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006 10:50:44 AM by Blog57 Team | | Customs and Border Protection will tell you that monitoring for radiation at the ports of entry is nothing new, but in just the past week another layer of detection became part of the effort. Millions of people and vehicles enter the country each year through Nogales alone, and the heat is on to keep out unseen threats. Radiation pagers, or personal radiation monitors have been in action at the ports for almost a decade. "And it will let us know from a great distance if someone has had something on there," said public affairs liaison for Customs and Border Protection Brian Levin. But radiation can come not only from bombs, but people with certain medical treatments and even construction materials. That's what makes the radioactive isotope identification device, or RIID, important.... | |
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| | | Cars, boats can be hauled off for free | | Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 6:48:05 PM by Blog57 Team | | Cars and boats abandoned on private property after last year's storms can be hauled away for free at landowners' request, state officials said Wednesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed this week to begin reimbursing the state Department of Environmental Quality to remove vehicles or vessels from private property, said Bruce Hammatt, an administrator for the state agency. Previously the federal agency was willing to finance removal of cars or boats only on public property, he said. So far, Hammatt said, contractor DRC, which is based in Alabama, has towed more than 10,000 flooded vehicles and vessels from public streets throughout storm-ravaged south Louisiana. Although officials estimated there were 100,000 flooded cars and boats on streets in August, Hammatt said most of those have been picked up by their owners, insurance companies or "just kind of disappeared." Currently, he said, just a few hundred flooded vehicles and water vessels remain on public streets.... | |
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| | | CV chief orders inquiry, as new police cars get withheld | | Posted Sunday, October 22, 2006 2:48:24 AM by Blog57 Team | | THE 10 Toyota Innova vans pulled out from the Mobile Patrol Group may not be returned immediately, as results of the investigation on two policemen have yet to be completed. Police Regional Office 7 Director Silverio Alarcio Jr. said regulations need to be followed before erring policemen are meted sanctions. PO2 Junicar Estioso and PO1 MC Stuart Balang are under investigation after one of the vans bumped into a parked taxicab outside a motel Thursday dawn. Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmea earlier said the vans will be returned only if the two policemen are kicked out of Cebu. Though he admitted the vans were badly needed for police patrols, Alarcio said they will also be questioned if they fail to follow procedure in handing out punishment to their policemen.... | |
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| | | GM, VW Brazilian units target low-cost cars at show | | Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 2:49:43 PM by Blog57 Team | | With falling interest rates in Brazil prompting many consumers to buy their first autos, automakers are eagerly promoting inexpensive cars. BY CARLOS CAMINADA and CARLA SIMOES Bloomberg News General Motors, Volkswagen and Ford, the biggest carmakers in Brazil, plan to promote low-cost models at a show this week in Sao Paulo, where falling interest rates are prompting consumers to buy their first autos. Detroit-based GM, the world's largest auto producer, is investing $240 million to start producing a new small car in Brazil, part of an effort to boost sales in the country and offset a slowdown in exports. The company will introduce the new Prisma model at Sao Paulo's 24th Biennial International Automobile Show and start selling it this month. ''Lots of consumers who in the past would buy used cars are now buying new ones,'' said Ray Young, chief executive of GM's Brazil unit.... | |
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| | | Exec makes bold prediction for hydrogen cars | | Posted Friday, October 13, 2006 2:49:20 AM by Blog57 Team | | AACHEN, Germany - The chief executive of Germany's Linde Group sees more than 6 million hydrogen-powered cars on Europe's roads by the end of the next decade as consumers seek to cut pollution and avoid high oil prices. "This is a conservative estimate," Wolfgang Reitzle told an automotive engineers conference here. There are currently around 500 hydrogen vehicles worldwide, according to Linde. The head of the world's largest industrial gases group urged politicians to be more active in long-term planning for a greener future with hydrogen, which emits only water vapour when burned. "Utopias can become a reality if certain people want it," he said in his speech Tuesday. Linde, which has global revenues of some $15 billion, inaugurated on Monday a new hydrogen centre, which has a filling station, technology test centre and training centre, near Munich at a cost of 3 million euros, as it aims to position itself for growth in sustainable mobility.... | |
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