Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
John C. Stone – fired from his sales job at an Oak Lawn Chevrolet dealership for wearing a Green Bay Packers tie – is joining a new team. Stone, 34, will begin working as a salesman at another suburban Chevrolet dealership on Thursday.
“It’s overwhelming right now,” Stone said today. “I still haven’t settled down from being hurt like that, but I’m getting over it because all I wanted was my job.”
Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it will recall 1.705 million vehicles worldwide due to faulty parts including defective fuel devices, giving the company’s once-prestigious reputation for quality another black eye.
The Japanese auto maker said that 1.28 million vehicles in Japan and a combined 421,000 vehicles in North America, Europe and other markets, including nearly 245,000 Lexus sedans sold in the U.S. are subject to recall. Get the full story »
The government has opened a preliminary investigation into reports of wheel studs breaking on some 2010 model year Ford Fusion sedans. Get the full story »
Ford Motor Co. said it has idled for a week the plant where it makes most of its best-selling Ford F-150 pickups.
A shortage of parts for 3.7-liter V-6 engines and the new 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engines caused the shutdown at the Dearborn, Mich., truck plant, said Ford spokesman Todd Nissen. Get the full story »
Toyota sold 8.42 million vehicles globally in 2010, remaining the world’s top automaker for the third year straight despite recall woes in the key North American market.
General Motors also released a new tally Monday for its global 2010 sales, at 8.39 million vehicles, slightly fewer than Toyota’s number, but a dramatic 12 percent rebound from 7.48 million vehicles the year before. Get the full story »
One of a dozen Yellow Cabs in Chicago that will run on compressed natural gas. (Yellow Cab)
Starting in March, if you stick out your hand to hail a cab in Chicago, the taxi you get might not run on gasoline.
That’s because Taxi Medallion Management, which operates Yellow Cabs in Chicago, is introducing 12 Ford Transit Connect taxi cabs into its fleet that run on compressed natural gas -– a fuel that emits 30 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions that traditional gasoline but requires special pumping stations. Get the full story »
U.S. regulators on Friday backed a request that would sharply boost the use of corn-based ethanol in more than half the nation’s cars, elevating the stakes in a contentious debate over the safety and cost of converting more corn into fuel.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement boosting the ethanol blend rate in gasoline to 15 percent from 10 percent in vehicles built from 2001 to 2006 was not a surprise, coming just months after it allowed the E15 in cars and trucks built in 2007 or later. Get the full story »
Saab is recalling 4,400 passenger cars to fix fuel pumps that could seize and cause the engine to stall.
Saab said the recall affects certain 2010 and 2011 9-3 sedans built from June through October of 2010. The company says some of the fuel pumps may have had components with incorrect specifications. Get the full story »
Mitsubishi Motors says its plant in Normal will remain open and begin producing a new model soon.
Dan Irvin, a spokesman for the Japanese auto manufacturer, said Thursday that the company will wait several weeks to release the details about the new model, when it will go into production and what that will mean for staffing at the plant.
The plant employs 1,100 people and is one of the largest employers in the Bloomington-Normal area.
Union workers there earlier this year agreed to wage concessions the company said it needed to keep the plant open.
Irvin said the four models now produced at the plant will be phased out. Those are the Galant, Eclipse and Spyder and the Endeavor sport-utility vehicle.
Automotive News | Kia has confirmed that it has dropped the Rondo van and Borrego full-size SUV from its U.S. lineup. Though Kia did not provide a reason, U.S. sales of the two cars fell in 2010.
The National Football League prodded Toyota Motor Corp. to edit a television commercial, removing an image of a helmet-to-helmet tackle at a time when the effects of concussions have come under heavy scrutiny, representatives of both sides said.
The Japanese automaker, one of the largest corporate advertisers, changed the TV ad after the U.S. sports league complained and warned that the spot would not be allowed to air during its highly watched games. Get the full story »
Chrysler Group LLC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that they are working together to commercialize an unusual type of hybrid-vehicle technology aimed at reducing fuel consumption.
Under the partnership, Chrysler will work to produce vehicles using a hydraulic hybrid system developed by the EPA. The system recovers energy as a vehicle brakes and uses the resulting hydraulic pressure to help power the vehicle. Get the full story »
Chrysler Group LLC Chief Sergio Marchionne said he wants to “re-think” the automaker’s iconic minivan and introduce a new concept as early as 2013.
Ford Motor Co. will invest $400 million on upgrades at its assembly plant near Kansas City, Missouri, to build a new vehicle there, the automaker said on Tuesday. Get the full story »
United Auto Workers President Bob King dialed up the rhetoric this week in his campaign to organize foreign-owned auto plants based in the U.S.
Speaking at the first day of the UAW’s legislative conference in Washington, D.C., King vowed to step up the union’s effort to organize the transplants owned by companies including Toyota, Honda and Nissan and said the union’s future depended on expanding its membership. Get the full story »
