There’s little else that’s been occupying automotive news for the past few days than the $15 billion deal brokered between Congressional Democrats and the Bush White House to bail out General Motors and Chrysler. (Ford wants a $9 billion line of credit, but isn’t asking for loans at this time.) In the end, although Speaker [...]
Ford isn’t quite as bad off as ailing General Motors, saying it has adequate operating capital to last through 2009. If potential customers make their buying decisions on safety standings along, Ford leads the automotive pack with 16 vehicles rated as “top safety picks” for 2009.
The designations are worked up by the Insurance Institute for [...]
It’s hard to write about car tech when the Big Three are pretty much crawling on their knees to Washington asking for a bailout. Well, wait. They actually crawled on their private jets and flew down to D.C. Is it really any wonder that the Senate banking committee wasn’t all that impressed with all the [...]
The first folks to sign up for an electric Tesla Roadster did so with $100,000 in their hot little hands — all for a range of approximately 200 miles, but admittedly in a sexy, sporty package. Then the company started talking about a five-passenger sedan (which then became a sport sedan), the White Star, with [...]
Finally! Some word on the merger of Sirius and XM. Federal regulators have reached conditional approval of Sirius’ purchase of XM, mainly since both companies are ready to shell out millions to make charges of past rule breaking go bye-bye. (Read “voluntary contributions” to the U.S. Treasury totaling about $19 million combined.)
The five-member Federal Communications [...]
Egads! There was an auction in Maranello, Italy this past Saturday. You know, one of those affairs where you are best advised to sit on your hands and control any facial tics? Dang good reason too. A 1961 Ferrari California Spyder (one of only 56 ever built) sold for $10,894,900 — the highest price ever [...]
Tesla Sues Fisker
Well, if you haven’t heard, Tesla Motors has filed suit against automotive designer Henrik Fisker for some nasty little items like fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets, not to mention breach of contract. Seems Fisker Coachbuild’s work is a little to close to the Tesla WhiteStar for comfort. You can read more over [...]
Grab bag time, good people . . .
Engadget is reporting that Chrysler is adding in-car WIFI to the 2009 fleet. Details are sketchy, but it seems the models will have “cellular data access” as an option, but set to become a standard feature.
Tesla news from the same site includes a story early in the month [...]
Delphi Debuts
According to this press release, Delphi Corporation will have a nice showcasing of mobile electronics and transportation systems at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi scheduled for January 11-20. Among the items on display, look for a GPS system with dual view and produced for enhanced vehicle security.
BMW M3
Word on the web has [...]
Okay, time for some odds and ends that have just been sitting in my RSS reader demanding attention:
- On the 20th, AutoblogGreen had an interesting tidbit about a concept mobile phone Nokia has in the works. The thing (dubbed the Eco Sensor) has an air analyzer built into it that can detect such noxious stuff [...]