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Tag Archives: autoinformed.com
Takata Flack II – Mazda Issues Do Not Drive Alert
Mazda North American Operations today issued an urgent “Do Not Drive” warning about its vehicles equipped with non-desiccated Takata air bags that were recalled, buts still are unrepaired. NHTSA made the documents public. Mazda apparently did not bother to alert media outlets about this life threatening safety defect. Ford Motor to its credit did. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, customer satisfaction, engineering, litigation, news analysis, public health, recalls, safety
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Ken Zino, Mazda Takata airbag recalls, NHTSA Consumer Alert Do Not Drive, Takata air bag recalls, X @KenAutoinformed
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UAW Files Labor Charges Against Donald Trump And Elon Musk for Attempting to Intimidate and Threaten Workers
“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected. Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.” Continue reading
Posted in auto news, fools 'n frauds, litigation, milestones, news analysis, people, shows and events
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, donald trump, elon musk, Ken Zino, National Labor Relations Act, Shawn fain, uaw, X @KenAutoinformed
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More Takata Flack – Ford Issues Do-Not-Drive Advisory
Ford Motor today issued a “do-not-drive advisory for owners of vehicles who have not yet had their vehicles repaired under three past Takata airbag safety recalls. These previously announced recalls are Ford recalls 15S21, 17S42, and 19S01. The first issued in 2015, involve several vehicle lines equipped with Takata non-desiccated airbag inflators. This do-not-drive advisory is the second Takata related do-not-drive recall advisory issued by Ford and it is intended to encourage owners to complete the recall repairs immediately. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, customer satisfaction, engineering, litigation, manufacturing, news analysis, public health, quality, recalls
Tagged 17S42, 19S01, auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Ford recalls 15S21, Ken Zino, Takata airbag recalls, Takata airbag shrapnel, X @KenAutoinformed
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GMC Shows Freshened 2025 Terrain Compact SUV
The 2025 GMC Terrain debuted today even though it won’t be in showrooms until later this year. Launching first in the Elevation trim, the 2025 Terrain has more standard technology and equipment added to the compact SUV. All Terrains come standard with a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine, rated at 175 horsepower and 203 lb.-ft. of torque and up to 1500 pounds max trailering (footnote 5 see all the inevitable footnotes below*). All-wheel-drive and an 8-speed automatic transmission are standard on Elevation at launch. In 2025, GMC will launch the 2026 model year AT4 and Denali trims. Continue reading
BMW Recalls More than 100,000 SUVs, Cars for Software Glitch
“In certain cases in which the engine starter has some mechanical damage, the engine may not be able to be started. If the driver repeatedly attempts to start the engine using excessively long starting attempts, this may cause an electrical overload of the starter. If the engine acoustic protection material is contaminated by, e.g. oil, then in an extreme case, the proximity of the starter to the acoustic protection material could lead to a thermal event,” BMW said in the required filing which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made public this morning. “Thermal event” is a fire in recall speak. Continue reading
July Manheim Index Show Wholesale Used-Vehicle Prices Up
“In late June, wholesale value declines slowed, and that trend continued throughout July as we saw values appreciate over the course of the month,” said Jeremy Robb, senior director of Economic and Industry Insights at Cox Automotive. “The sales conversion rate has been higher for each week in July, and that translated to higher prices overall at the wholesale level for the month. We are just beginning to see lower lease maturities for the key 3-year-old segment, and that impact will be felt over the rest of this year and into 2025 and 2026. As supply tightens for this key segment for the used vehicle market, we expect to see variances from historical average depreciation rates.” Continue reading
Western European Passenger Car Sales Down in July
The Western Europe passenger vehicle (PV) selling rate dropped in July, at 11.2 million units/year, returning to the levels seen pre-June. PV registrations fell 0.2% YoY to 916,000 units.* “Following an improvement in the selling rate in June, Western Europe … Continue reading
BMW and California Robotics Firm Testing Humanoid Robot
This is all part of the so-called BMW iFACTORY, a program to develop production methods of the of the future. During the trial run, the BMW Group said it gained valuable knowledge of what requirements must be met in order to be able to integrate so-called multi-purpose robots in an existing production system. This includes how humanoid robots communicate with the system under real conditions. After the first use in automobile production, the experts at the BMW Group and Figure are collaborating to prepare Figure for future applications in production and continuing to develop the robots, based on the findings. Continue reading
Posted in concept, manufacturing, milestones, news analysis
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, BMW Group Plant Spartanburg, Brett Adcock, California robotics company Figure, Ken Zino, Milan Nedeljković, X @KenAutoinformed
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Cadillac Racing Expands WEC Entries to Two Cars in 2025
Cadillac Racing said today that its FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC)* Hypercar program will expand to a two-car factory program to be named Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA** beginning with the start of the 2025 season. It’s a major realignment of two separate racing programs that have tried to beat each other for two seasons now. Jota is leaving Porsche. Drivers of the No. 12 and No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R racecars, powered by the purpose-built Cadillac 5.5-liter DOHC V8 engine, will be announced in the future. Continue reading
Posted in marketing, milestones, performance, racing
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA, FIA World Endurance Championship, Hertz Team JOTA, hypercar, John Roth, Ken Zino, Sam Hignett, wec, X @KenAutoinformed
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Nissan Recalling More 2023 Ariya EV models for Power Loss
Nissan North America is recalling more 2023 Ariya hybrid EV models because the inverter software may misdiagnose an error, which can shut down the EV system, resulting in a loss of drive power, according to documents made public this morning by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“All of these Ariya have been previously recalled under Recall 23V-657 (Nissan Ariya Inverter). Nissan Ariya vehicles that have received the reprogramming remedy for Recall 23V-657 no longer contain the issue and are not included in this recall,” Nissan claimed in the required NHTSA filing. Continue reading
Posted in customer satisfaction, electronics, news analysis, quality, recalls, safety, software defined vehicles
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, hybrid recalls, Ken Zino, NHTSA 24V560 or 24V-560, Nissan Ariya recalls, Nissan recall R24A8, software recalls, X @KenAutoinformed
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Tesla Recalls More 1.8M EVs with Chinese Hood Latches
Tesla is recalling more than 1.8 million 2021-2024 Model 3, Model S, Model X, and 2020-2024 Model Y vehicles. The Magna Chinese-made hood latch assembly may fail to detect an unlatched hood after the hood has been opened, according to documents made public this morning by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Continue reading
Posted in customer satisfaction, manufacturing, news analysis, quality, recalls, safety
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Ken Zino, NHTSA 24V-554, NHTSA 24V554, Tesla Model 3 Model S Model X and Y recalls, Tesla Recalls, Tesla SB-24-00-012, X @KenAutoinformed
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Soothsayer Shortfall – US Light Vehicle Sales Flat in July
US Light Vehicle (LV) sales fell by 0.4% YoY in July, to 1.30 million. When sales contracted in June largely as the result of the CDK cyberattack,* it was expected by industry soothsayers that the market would experience a significant rebound in July. It didn’t happen. According to preliminary estimates released today by the respected GlobalData** consultancy, Light Vehicle (LV) sales fell by 0.4% YoY. Continue reading
Posted in economy, news, news analysis, results, sales
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, CDK, GlobalData, Jeff Schuster, July US Light Vehicle Sales Flat, Ken Zino, national automobile dealers association, Patrick Manzi, X @KenAutoinformed
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Honda 1964 RA272 F1 Car to Lap Laguna Seca Historic Races
Honda engines have powered four drivers to a combined eight Formula One Drivers’ Championships. Engines created by Honda have twice set F1 records for the most race wins in a season, including a historic 2023 season, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez winning all but one race in dominant fashion. This beat the previous win-rate record set by McLaren Honda in 1988 with drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. As this run went on and on veteran racing journalist Chris Economaki said into an open mike during ABC’s Wide World of Sports coverage that “I have seen better racing in a Cornfield in Iowa on Saturday night.” ABC fired him. When I caught up with him later in the press room of the New York Auto Show I said, “sorry to hear about your ABC gig,” Chris said, “They bought my voice, not my mind.” The lack of competition for the past couple of season in F1 has been well noted by others – but not as succinctly as Chris did. Continue reading
Magna Results Reflect Turmoil in OE EV Programs
AutoInformed notes that Magna’s challenge as a global diversified supplier to automakers going forward is adopting to and making money from the delay, elimination or reduced volumes in larger automaker EV programs while retaining or increasing sales from the now extended life of vehicles with internal combustion engines and their potential freshening and updates with increased content that this likely entails. Continue reading
IIHS On Intelligent Speed Assistance
“ISA systems have been around for several decades. Using GPS devices with speed limit maps, onboard sensors or cameras that “read” signs or both, they can identify the speed limit in the vehicle’s location and detect when the driver exceeds it, but they vary in their response. Unlike the unit I used, which worked by restricting the engine’s output, some systems only provide an audible or visual warning or make the accelerator harder to press. As of July 1, new vehicles sold in Europe are required to have ISA that at least provides a warning, and the California legislature is currently considering a similar mandate for vehicles sold in the state.
“Even without a legal requirement, ISA systems of various types are starting to appear as options on new vehicles in the U.S., and companies such as MAGTEC and Sturdy sell aftermarket ISA systems, primarily targeting fleet operators. Navigation apps also include speed warnings if the user chooses. Continue reading →