Category Archives: news analysis

Delphi Ducks Senate Bullet over GM Ignition Tragedy. Part Number Red Herring as Industry doesn’t Always Change Them

Posted on 22 July 2014 by Ken Zino

Normally, suppliers are resentful over the credit original equipment automakers take for all the work they do. Not in the case of the deadly GM ignition switch, where Delphi – the supplier of the switch – was finally called upon to testify in front of the Senate last week. Continue reading →

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New VW SUV Goes to Chattanooga. UAW forms a Local. Further State Subsidies in Anti-Union South in Doubt?

Posted on 14 July 2014 by Ken Zino

In a compromise that involves the formation of a UAW local, Volkswagen Group has announced that its new midsize SUV will the built in Chattanooga starting at the end of 2016. The expansion was held up over the lack of a union and a works council structure that exists in every other VW plant in the world. State and local officials – including the Governor and Senior Senator – threatened to withhold subsidies if a union was formed for the expansion that doubles the workforce to 4,000. Continue reading →

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AFL-CIO, ETUC Release Principles for TransAtlantic Trade Deal

Posted on 14 July 2014 by Ken Zino

However, critics say provisions threaten the environment, decrease food safety, allow financial institutions to escape regulation that could prevent another global meltdown, drive down wages, and give up US sovereignty in many legal areas, including labor commitments. In the auto sector, it gives European luxury carmakers a free pass to keep importing cars into the US at a time when more manufacturing jobs are desperately needed. Continue reading →

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Anti-Green Aviation Industry Finally Getting the Lead Out

Posted on 10 July 2014 by Ken Zino

The general aviation industry through trade groups, airplane and engine makers, as well as members of Congress who fly has fiercely resisted doing anything about this destructive and toxic use of lead in so-called 100 low lead fuel (100LL) going back to the last century. Continue reading →

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EPA Proposes to Replace Harmful HFC Greenhouse Gases

Posted on 10 July 2014 by Ken Zino

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency – EPA- is proposing to ban the use of certain hydro-fluorocarbon chemicals that it claims significantly contribute to climate change. This is the agency’s second action aimed at reducing emissions of HFCs, a class of potent greenhouse gases. Continue reading →

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Telematics are ‘Driving’ Growth in Usage Based Insurance

Posted on 9 July 2014 by Ken Zino

So called OBD-II based telematics – aka onboard diagnostics – are rudimentary and controversial but they have the potential to reshape the auto insurance market to reward good or infrequent low-risk drivers while charging other, more risk exposed users to higher fees Continue reading →

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This Fourth of July More Independence is Needed

Posted on 4 July 2014 by Ken Zino

Unfortunately, as a result of political and Supreme Court decisions of our government comprised of craven “pay to play” politicians, we are not as free as we should be given our heritage. We remain dependent on foreign oil from nations that are openly hostile to us. We support dictatorships with billions in bribes called – euphemistically or cynically – foreign aid. Continue reading →

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GM Ignition Switch Compensation – Cash for Indemnification

Posted on 30 June 2014 by Ken Zino

Feinberg has complete and sole discretion over all compensation awards to victims, including eligibility to participate in the program and the amounts awarded. GM cannot reject the Administrator’s final determinations as to eligibility and amount of compensation.
Continue reading →

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Highway Trust Fund Lacks Budgetary Controls

Posted on 25 June 2014 by Ken Zino

The Highway Trust Fund report is unwelcome news for politicians of both parties who have refused to act on the problem for a decade or more, showing particular reluctance to raise taxes as the nation’s infrastructure crumbles. HTF revenues come from excise taxes on the sale of motor fuels, trucks and trailers, and truck tires, and from taxes on the use of certain kinds of vehicles. Continue reading →

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Automakers Flub Launch of High Tech Vehicles, IQS Shows

Posted on 18 June 2014 by Ken Zino

The latest IQS or quality data revealed today at the Automotive Press Association meeting in Detroit shows that the number of problems experienced by new-vehicle owners has increased from the previous year, as automakers continue to have severe problems with complicated technologies now being deployed in new vehicles. Continue reading →

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As Automakers Move to Eliminate Franchised Car Dealers, the “No Jobs” Debate Continues over the future of the US Economy

Posted on 27 May 2014 by Ken Zino

Not coincidentally, the survey comes as automakers are redoubling efforts to sell vehicles online as a way around traditional middlemen, specifically NADA members, which of course raises the end price of a new vehicle to buyers. Continue reading →

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Subaru to Stop Building Camry in U.S. as it sets Record Sales

Posted on 12 May 2014 by Ken Zino

The Japanese company, which made the Zero fighter during WW2, has now posted 29 consecutive months of year-over-year growth and is already on its way to its sixth successive annual sales record. Subaru is also planning on selling its first hybrid and adding a full-size minivan to its U.S. production. Continue reading →

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Department of Transportation Kisses Big Oil and Railroad Butts

Posted on 9 May 2014 by Ken Zino

The problem, the deadly problem, is that many of the tank cars in use by Big Oil and the railroads to move crude oil are not safe – as the Lac-Mégantic derailment that killed 42 civilians and wiped half of a southern Quebec town proved. Continue reading →

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Toyota Abandoning California for Texas

Posted on 1 May 2014 by Ken Zino

With an 8.84% corporate tax rate in California, in addition to the highest income tax rates in the U.S. on personal income, there is an economic rationale behind the move. Continue reading →

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Democrats Plan to Bail Out Bankrupt Highway Trust Fund

Posted on 1 May 2014 by Ken Zino

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have refused since 1993 to raise gasoline taxes of 18.4 cents per gallon as well as a 24.4-cent diesel tax, the trust fund’s major revenue source. Inflation has raised the cost of construction, while revenue has lagged because Americans are driving less and vehicles are more fuel-efficient. Continue reading →

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