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Honda wins 4 satisfaction awards

Four Honda models, more than any other single automaker, topped the rankings for their vehicle segments in an annual J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction survey of U.S. drivers, according to USA Today.
Honda Motor's newly redesigned CR-V small crossover sport-utility vehicle, Ridgeline truck and Odyssey minivan all topped their segments, and the subcompact Fit tied with Toyota Motors (TM) Yaris for a top spot.

Posted by   at 2:11 PM to Honda | Permalink | Comments 0

Importer agrees to recall Chinese tires

A tire importer says it plans to comply with the government's mandate to recall all 450,000 potentially defective Chinese tires it sold to distributors, even if that means it will go out of business, according to USA Today.

"We will do the recall until we run out of money," said Lawrence Lavigne, attorney for New Jersey-based Foreign Tire Sales. "At that point, consumers are on their own."

At issue are tires manufactured by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber, China's second-largest tire company, that are missing "gum strips," which hold the tire together. Without the gum strips, the treads can separate and cause drivers to lose control and possibly cause the vehicle to roll over. The tires are blamed in the deaths of two Pennsylvania men.

Posted by   at 2:08 PM to Safety | Permalink | Comments 0

My, Your Car Looks So Delicious

The auto industry is naming paint colors after foods, according to a report in the New York Times. Brown is now about coffee and chocolate, said Chris Webb, exterior color trend designer at General Motors, which has the colors Dark Mocha and Cocoa. Other G.M. colors are Black Licorice, Cappuccino Frost and Salsa Red.

Other companies are also using the palate to name their palettes: Chrysler offers Cool Vanilla, Honda has Root Beer and Volvo once offered Saffron (a coppery yellow). Volkswagen has the unsubtle Lemon Yellow and Candy White. (Is that the white of the candy after you have licked off the red stripes from the candy cane?) Hyundai borrows a French menu word for the purple eggplant and calls it aubergine.

Posted by   at 2:04 PM to Accessories , Auto industry , Companies , Popular culture | Permalink | Comments 0

GM Sells Allison Transmission for $5.6 billion

General Motors says it has agreed to sell its Allison Transmission commercial and military business for about $5.6 billion to the private equity firm The Carlyle Group and Canada's Onex Corp, according to the Associated Press.

GM shares rose 2 percent in morning trading.

Posted by   at 1:48 PM to GM | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil Rises Above $70 a Barrel

Oil futures rose above $70 a barrel in New York trading today for first time since Sept. 1 and retail gasoline prices stopped falling after a government report showed that gasoline inventories dropped unexpectedly just as the summer driving season is about to peak, the Associated Press reports.

Posted by   at 1:46 PM to Gas prices , Oil | Permalink | Comments 0