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GM deal clears way for lower-wage hires

DETROIT - General Motors Corp will be able to replace roughly a quarter of its factory workers with lower cost hires under the tentative contract reached last week with the United Auto Workers union, according to Reuters.

The tentative contract identifies "in excess of 16,766" union-represented jobs that could be filled with new hires at roughly half the cost of current workers, according to a text of the document.

A majority of GM's 73,500 UAW-represented workers must ratify the proposed contract in a series of local votes expected to conclude next week.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 12:01 PM to GM , Unions | Permalink | Comments 0

Economist: 'No joy for autos in U.S.'

Dearborn, Mich. - Global Insight Chief Economist Nariman Behravesh this morning said the risks of a recession in the United States are real and potentially damaging to the automotive market going forward, according to the Detroit Free Press.

"Consumer spending will slow," he said, predicting a recovery in mid-2008 at the earliest.

Behravesh, making his comments at Global Insight's Global Automotive Conference in Dearborn today, said he expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates two more times to revive the economy and help prevent a recession.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:59 AM to Auto industry | Permalink | Comments 0

Toyota's green image fading

WASHINGTON -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s environmental image has been hit by blowback from the automaker's call to side with Detroit's automakers against tougher fuel economy standards in Congress, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The National Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said Tuesday it had forwarded more than 8,100 messages from backers to Toyota criticizing its stance in the fuel economy debate. Toyota and Detroit automakers oppose a Senate bill setting a 35 mile-per-gallon standard by 2020, favoring an easier standard proposed in the House.

While Toyota's 46 m.p.g. Prius hybrid has become a top seller and given the automaker a green cachet among car buyers, it maintains the Senate bill is too tough. The House bill would set standards of 32 to 35 m.p.g. by 2022, with clauses that would make it easier for automakers to hit the target.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:56 AM to Environment , Toyota | Permalink | Comments 0

Truck that drives itself plays in traffic

OSHKOSH, Wis. — Sitting high in the cab of the hulking lime-green TerraMax truck, a driver can be excused for instinctively grabbing the steering wheel, according to USA Today.
There's no need. TerraMax is a self-driving vehicle, a prototype designed to navigate and obey traffic rules — all while the people inside, if there are any, do anything but drive.

During a recent test on property owned by manufacturer Oshkosh Truck, TerraMax barreled down a dusty road with its driver seat empty. It stopped at a four-way intersection and waited as staged traffic resolved before obediently lurching on its way.

If the Defense Department gets its way, vehicles like TerraMax — about as long as a typical sport-utility vehicle and almost twice as high — could represent the future of transportation for the military's ground forces.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:55 AM to Design , Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

Wally Parks, Drag Racing Pioneer, Dies at 94

Wally Parks, who pioneered the transformation of drag racing from a dead-of-night outlaw adventure into a nationally televised sport with millions in annual prize money, died Friday in Burbank, Calif. Parks was 94 and lived in Glendale, Calif., according to the New York Times.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, said Anthony Vestal, a spokesman for the National Hot Rod Association, which Parks founded in 1951.

As a racing administrator and an automotive-magazine editor, Parks became a central figure in a pursuit once associated mainly with thrill seekers on the edge of juvenile delinquency.

“Wally took a bunch of black leather jacket hoodlums and made one of the greatest motorsports in the world,” Don Garlits, the former pro drag racer known as Big Daddy, said in a statement upon Parks’s death.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:50 AM to Racing | Permalink | Comments 0

Nationwide Signs 7-Year Deal With NASCAR

Nationwide Insurance has signed a seven-year deal to become the title sponsor of NASCAR's No. 2 series beginning in 2008. Nationwide replaces Anheuser-Busch, which has sponsored the second-tier Busch Series for 26 seasons, according to the Associated Press.

The series will be called the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

NASCAR chairman Brian France, who made the announcement Wednesday, said the decision to go with Nationwide came after "a very thorough process of trying to find the right partner, adding up what we think is important for the series and all the things that you would expect us to be thinking about. We know this is going to propel the series even further."

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:16 AM to Racing | Permalink | Comments 0

Toyota Shows New Muscular Lexus

OYAMA, Japan -- Toyota chose a swerving Formula One racing course to show its new luxury Lexus sportscar Thursday, to make sure reporters got the message the new IS F model is about revved up engine muscle and the thrill of nimble handling, according to the Associated Press.

Toyota Motor Corp. is hoping to sell 7,000 Lexus IS F cars globally next year, about 5,000 or 6,000 in the U.S., 500 in Japan and the rest in Europe.

The $67,000 sportscar, which can hit speeds of 186 mph, rolls out Dec. 25 in Japan, and in February or March in the U.S., Toyota executive Takeshi Yoshida said.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 9:39 AM to Toyota | Permalink | Comments 0

DaimlerChrysler CEO Defends Name Change

BERLIN -- DaimlerChrysler AG Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche reassured shareholders Thursday that the automaker was not forgetting its history with a proposed name change to Daimler AG - instead of Daimler-Benz, the company's name for much of the 20th Century, according to the Associated Press.

The Benz name would remain in the company's flagship luxury brand, Mercedes-Benz, and get plenty of attention, Zetsche told 4,700 shareholders before a vote on dropping Chrysler from the name, a formality after selling a majority stake in the U.S. automaker earlier this year.

Zetsche said the company needed to clearly differentiate its individual product brands from that of the corporate entity, and that surveys showed that Mercedes-Benz was "the most coveted automobile brand in Germany."

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 9:33 AM to Chrysler , Mercedes-Benz | Permalink | Comments 0