According to the Center for Disease Control, seatbelt use among American adults is at an all-time high. In a recent study, 85 percent of those surveyed said that they wear their seatbelts regularly. That number is up from just 11 percent in 1982, though the CDC points out that at least one in every seven adults still don’t wear their seatbelts on the road. That’s despite evidence that points to automotive accidents as the number one cause of death in the U.S. among people aged 5 to 34.
So which states take the cake for seatbelt use? The CDC says that Oregon has the highest rate of buckling up, with 94 percent of respondents from that state claiming to use their belts on a regular basis. North Dakota came in dead last, with a paltry 54 percent of those surveyed strapping in. Not surprisingly, the study found that states that have laws allowing police officers to pull over a driver solely for not wearing their seatbelt have significantly higher rates of buckling up. for a look at the full synopsis, but before you head over there, make sure to take our poll on seatbelt use below.
Chevrolet S-10 Boom Truck – Click above to watch video
There are sound systems, and then there are walls of speakers capable of melting cinder blocks and turning your average Chevrolet S10 pickup into a buzzing, trembling box of terror. The audio setup in the video after the jump falls safely in that latter category. A group of devoted bass enthusiasts have managed to turn an unsuspecting lowered S-10 into a carrier of audio assault. Fortunately, all involved seem to only use the vehicle’s power for good. You know, things like rattling windows, setting off car alarms and engineering Tina Turner-like hairstyles on cute girls with nothing but the sheer might of sound waves.
It’s plenty impressive (if utterly pointless), but it might just be one of the better uses left for a 1999 S-10. Still, we’ve got to wonder exactly how long the vehicle can withstand that kind of vibration before the vehicle’s sheets of glass and trim give up for good (just witness how the Bowtie’s trim tries to rearrange itself or flee in the beginning of the video). Supposedly, the wall of speakers is tuned to 28 hertz for maximum punch. to have a look for yourself.
[Source: ]
S-10 boom truck nearly rattles itself to death, creates new hairstyles
According to the Detroit Free Press, the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused former Delphi CEO J.T. Battenberg III of intentionally working to hide his company’s financial situation from investors. On Tuesday, an SEC lawyer told the jury in Battenberg’s trial that the ex-Delphi boss made the company’s financial numbers look better than they were in order to secure larger bonuses. The SEC sued both Battenberg and Paul Free, the former Chief Accounting Officer for Delphi, and several other former executives in 2006 for fraudulent accounting. Delphi entered into bankruptcy protection in 2005.
U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn began hearing the evidence against Battenberg, Free and other executives in October, and closing arguments in the case wrapped up on Tuesday. So far, two executives and the company’s former treasurer have agreed to settle with the SEC over allegations that Delphi improperly reported a settlement that the company made with . Both Battenberg and Free remain as defendants in the case.
Members of the United Auto Workers will once again protest the Detroit Auto Show this year. According to , members of the union are upset about some of the concessions that the organization made when and underwent bankruptcy. Now workers want those concessions back, even while both automakers struggle to protect profits and pay off sizable government loans. This comes as UAW President Bob King struggles to paint his union as a kinder, gentler labor organization. King has also made it clear that he wants the UAW to be part of the picture at manufacturing facilities owned by European and Asian automakers here in the states.
As part of that effort, King has called off protests at dealerships for their part in the closing of the NUMMI facility. Still, it seems that King is paying attention to the unrest in his organization. The UAW president is later in 2011 in a bid to appease his critics within the union.
Which is the ultimate iteration of the Lamborghini ? Is it the purist’s choice, the ? The ? Or the latest open-top ? The answer could very well be track-bound, and you’re looking at it right now.
The latest race-spec Gallardo developed by ’s motorsport partners at Reiter Engineering, the LP600+ is designed to GT3 regulations. Its 5.2-liter V10 has been tuned up to 600 metric horsepower (592hp by our count), joined with a retuned gearbox, competition aerodynamics package, rolling stock, suspension and more. With a curb weight trimmed to just 2,624 pounds and a 40mm ground clearance, the Reiter LP600+ promises to give the competition a run for their money with a relatively modest price tag (for a race-ready supercar, anyway) of €288,500 ($386k).
2009 Lotus Exige Cup 260 – Click above for high-res image gallery
It’s no secret that has monumental plans in the coming years, announcing at the 2010 Paris Motor Show that it says will gradually roll out over the next several years. But there’s no denying that the British firm’s current level of success was built on the excellence that is the , and, most recently, .
That being the case, we’re hoping that a report from Autocar in the UK is accurate and that Lotus has plans to overhaul the Exige and give the Evora a heavily updated interior before the Esprit goes into production in late 2012. We certainly wouldn’t expect wholesale changes to either machine – engineering budgets are surely being diverted elsewhere – but a little something to keep its current models fresh in the eyes of consumers would go a long way towards bridging the gap between the present and the -fighting future.
It’s no secret that some members of the United Auto Workers aren’t thrilled about the concessions that the union made during bankruptcy negotiations with both and . Now that both of those automakers are back on their feet, the UAW wants a slice of their new-found prosperity. According to Bloomberg, UAW President Bob King believes that his members’ sacrifices helped keep GM and Chrysler afloat, and now they deserve to share in the fruits of those concessions. King said that UAW members each gave up between $7,000 and $30,000 each as part of negotiations since 2005, and the union gave up wage increases for cost of living, surrendered raises and ditched bonuses to keep the Big Three afloat during the darker days of 2009.
The UAW is expected to negotiate new contracts with , GM and Chrysler early this year before they expire in September, and all three automakers are being tight-lipped about how additional compensation could factor into those negotiations. King has also been jockeying for positions on the executive boards of the domestic automakers in an attempt to better represent the union’s needs.
Ferrari 458 Challenge lapping Fiorano – Click above to watch the video
Know how irritating it is when an automotive video hits the interwebs and its creator decided that the glorious music of sweet internal combustion just weren’t enough of a soundtrack? Good news: This is not one of those videos. Instead, we’re treated to a beautiful 562-horsepower swan song from 4.5 liters of undeniable Prancing Horse goodness.
was released last month at the Bologna Motor Show as the replacement for the outgoing F430 GT2. In other words, fans of endurance racing ought to get mighty used to hearing this particular bellow on tracks all around the world. For what it’s worth, this video was taken near the headquarters at the Fiorano track, and the 458 Challenge did the deed in 1 minute, 16.5 seconds. Check out the video . FYI, actual track footage begins around the 3:50 mark.
As part of its quest to match the rest of the industry point-for-point, has just announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that it’s entering the world of telematics with the introduction of Blue Link, its first foray into the safety and convenience sphere.
Similar to OnStar, Blue Link handles everything you’d expect, specifically directions with turn-by-turnnavigation, point-of-interest searches, remote door-locking/unlocking, vehicle health reports, maintenance scheduling, crash notification, remote start and – according to Hyundai – 30 other features at launch. Included is a vehicle slowdown feature to aid police if the vehicle is stolen and a new “geofencing” system that sends a text message to the owner if the vehicle strays outside a prescribed area or route. Little Jimmy will not be pleased.
Hyundai is also touting a new voice-to-text feature that allows drivers to reply to a text message with custom commands rather than canned responses.
Blue Link is set to arrive this spring, initially on the sedan and a “youth-focused model” (*cough* Veloster *cough*) before the summer, with the system rolling out to every Hyundai by 2013. for the full details.
The Automaker’s Most Powerful Engine Meets Its Smallest Platform
2011 Aston Martin V12 Vantage – Click above for high-res image gallery
Sketched drawings of imaginary sports cars covered my notebook as an elementary school pupil. Assembled in the ether of a daydream, each penciled design came from an imagination unrestrained by reality, with nary a concession to things like outward visibility, bumper heights or ground clearance. Engines were huge, tires were wide and bodywork was unbelievably sleek. It didn’t matter that none of the drawings represented real cars. From my naive perspective, I could bring the world’s coolest cars to life in two-dimensional black and white.
Thirty years later, I find myself sitting in the driver’s seat of a 2011 Aston Martin V12 Vantage. To a car guy, this artful amalgamate of aluminum, magnesium, carbon fiber, leather, rubber and glass represents pure sensory overload. As a jaded automotive journalist, I’m supposed to maintain a poker face when presented with such an objet d’art. Plainly, I am struggling today.
Continue reading…
Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG – Click above for high-res image gallery
It seems like just yesterday that we found out that the Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG was . Okay, it was Monday, but if a report from Motor Trend is true, you can forget about all that noise. The magazine’s website reports that a call to MB revealed that sales of the 503-horsepower ML63 AMG and all other ML variants will continue throughout the 2011 model year.
News of the ML63’s demise likely sprung from the fact that Mercedes is in the final stages of producing an all-new third generation ML for 2012. The move to kill off ML variants like the AMG and the oil-burning ML450 CDI seemed a bit silly considering that it is made in Mercedes’ Tuscaloosa, Alabama plant and the ML is the third-best selling Benz lineup in the U.S. market.
While the current-generation ML63 appears primed to ride out its tenure as the 5,000-pound gorilla of the ML line, there is still a chance ML-lovers will have to do without an AMG variant. But that siesta is only possible if Mercedes decides to introduce only certain variants of the ML at launch, with an AMG hitting the streets later in the product cycle. With auto show season ramping up at a furious pace, we’re guessing we’ll know that information soon enough.
As compact as it is (in comparison to a car, anyway), the Can-Am Spyder doesn’t guzzle much fuel. But that won’t stop some from being lured by the tree-hugging credentials of a “hybrid” badge.
The trike – which is closer in form to a motorbike with an extra wheel, as opposed to a car missing one – is forming the basis for a new project being undertaken at the University of Sherbrooke. A joint effort between the institute of higher learning in the Canadian province of Quebec (where the Can-Am is built) and its producers at Bombardier Recreational Products, the four-year endeavor is focused on developing a hybrid drivetrain for the Spyder. Over its course, the team of 30 researchers plan on producing three successive prototypes in the aim of reducing the vehicle’s carbon emissions by 50% while increasing fuel efficiency by the same.
To get there, the Canadian federal government has awarded the team a $6.2 million grant (the Canadian and American dollars hovering around par these days) from the Automotive Partnership Canada fund, with Bombardier kicking in an additional $5.1 million for a total budget of $11.3 million. That’s a whole lot of loonies to give an overgrown motorbike a bigger alternator, so hopefully some innovative technology comes from the endeavor.
Verizon just rolled out its 4G LTE wireless broadband network, and with using Big Red for its OnStar system for over 15 years, GM is asking itself: What can we do with all this bandwidth?
The answer is ‘plenty’… but nothing immediately.
Instead, GM and Verizon equipped a with a 4G LTE modem and a host of cameras, sensors and controls and is trotting it out at CES to demonstrate how the broadband tech could be implemented.
Among the possible applications is a vehicle monitoring system that utilizes a handful of lipstick cameras to transmit video to the driver to see what’s going on both inside and outside the vehicle while they’re away. On the same front, the system can be paired with Verizon’s 4Home service, which connects with home security cameras, lights and thermostats and transmits information back to the driver.
Other features include voice search, a traffic view that streams live traffic-cam images, Skype with video chat and a impact detection system that would identify if your car was hit in a parking lot, and would then turn on all the exterior cameras and capture an image of the offending vehicle as it drove away.
for a video of the various systems in action along with the press blast, and look for our initial impressions from CES later this week.
‘ division has been nothing short of a major success story over its of operation. But if there’s one major problem that has historically stood in the way of it becoming an automotive technology juggernaut, it’s that OnStar has always been limited to just GM vehicles. Until now.
Coming to a Best Buy near you in the spring of 2011 will be a complete standalone OnStar package housed in one aftermarket mirror. For $299 (plus an estimated $75-$100 for installation and a service plan starting at $18.95 a month or $199 a year), you’ll get the whole suite of features offered by OnStar, including:
This standalone system includes everything needed to get your non-GM (or non-OnStar-equipped older GM) car or truck hooked up to the OnStar network. Installation involves removing the old rear-view mirror, installing the new one and running a power line – which supposedly takes less than an hour and will be handled by trained technicians from Best Buy, though other retail locations seem likely in the future. Full details can be found in the press release .
2010 will be forever known as the year after that really bad year. 2009 was a horrible string of days for just about everyone who had two pennies to rub together, but automakers were hit particularly hard.
The only good thing for automakers about such a bad 2009 is that it made every month in 2010 look good in comparison. And so it is that those green bills earned from all those extra car sales is represented by the preponderance of green-shaded cells in our By the Numbers table. Here’s the crib sheet of noteworthy news to be gleaned from our wall of numerals below. If you spot more noteworthy items, call them out in the Comments.
The four remaining “Core” brands of General Motors sold more in 2010 than the eight brands of Old GM sold in 2009: 2,202,927 to 2,084,492.
Ford Motor Company outsold Toyota Motor Company to regain its No. 2 sales position by General Motors.
If Hyundai and Kia were counted together in the U.S., their combined sales of 894,496 units would make them the seventh largest automaker in the U.S.. Separately they are the seventh and eighth largest and the largest single-brand automakers in the U.S.
Subaru, one of the best performing brands of the past two years, sold more vehicles in 2010 than Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker: 263,820 to 256,830.
Buick sales increased the most in 2010 with a 51.89-percent increase, while Smart sales fell the farthest with a 59.39-percent decline.
The three best performing brands of 2010 are from General Motors (Buick, Cadillac and GMC)
Audi sold over 100,000 vehicles in the U.S. for the first time ever.
*Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 306 selling days in 2010 versus 308 selling days in 2009, so the change in monthly sales volume will be different than the change in average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company. Also, brands are combined and reported as companies only if their sales figures are released jointly.
JDM Legends brings vintage Japan to the U.S. – Click above to watch video
Trey Cobb, the founder of Cobb Tuning, has a love for vintage Japanese automobiles. In 2009, Cobb and fellow Japanese car junkie Eric Bizek decided to build a company around that love affair and JDM Legends was born. Based in Utah, JDM Legends imports, restores, services and sells classic Japanese cars.
The team has already brought a 1973 Toyota Celica, 1970 Datsun 510 and a handful of early Nissan Skyline models back to life. More cars are planned for the future and two of the Skylines are currently being offered for sale.
JDM Legends had someone stop by with a video camera and capture the cars currently in the garage. Though the film is a bit slow, the cars look particularly stunning in high-definition. to watch the clip.
It looks like we may have an inkling as to what Pagani will call its next supercar. According to the Italian web site Al Volante, the company has gone through the hassle of registering the name “Huayra.” The nearly unpronounceable moniker sticks the company’s tradition of branding its products after the famous winds of the world (not unlike many and models). In this case, Huayra is the word for “wind” from the ancient South American language of Quechua. Either that, or the company’s marketing department threw alphabet soup at the wall until they came up with a suitable smattering of vowels and consonants.
Until now, the next Pagani has simply gone by the internal code name C9. And while the company has been kind enough to share a strange with the world, hard facts about what we can expect from the Zonda successor are few and far between. There’s some indication that the beast will pack a mighty V12, and we’d be surprised if it didn’t have enough horsepower to melt asphalt at a whim, but otherwise, we’re completely in the dark as to what to expect. Thanks for the tip, JH!
December sales ended 2010 on a largely positive note for most manufacturers. You’re probably more interested, however, in how these brands and companies performed for the entire year of 2010. Hold on to your Sirius satellite radios, because those numbers are on their way, but first we have to dispense with December.
There’s actually nothing too shocking in the sales numbers for December, as most manufacturers finished strongly, with an increase in sales versus December 2009, and those that were down were either not down by very much (Lexus, Jaguar, Toyota and Dodge) or are the usual suspects (Mercury, Lincoln, Volvo, Chrysler and Smart).
Dodge and Chrysler are looking forward to selling significantly updated hardware in 2011, while Toyota will continue to work its way out of the dog house with those consumers that lost some faith in the Japanese juggernaut during its recall debacle in 2010. With that in mind, we expect even more brands to be bragging about the blockbuster year of sales they just had when the next new year rolls around.
*Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 27 selling days in December 2010 versus 28 selling days in November 2009, so the change in monthly sales volume will be different than the change in average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company. Also, brands are only combined and reported as companies if their sales numbers are released together.
Automotive News is reporting that the United Auto Workers has set its sights on securing a position on the executive board of each domestic automaker. The move would mirror similar relationships between labor unions and German automakers in Europe, and UAW President Bob King says that his organization has broached the subject with the Big Three in the past. Moving forward, having a slot on each of the automakers ruling boards is something that the UAW will continue to push. King says that such a relationship would allow the UAW to preserve current jobs while advocating for the creation of new employment opportunities.
That’s all well and good, but as MT points out, there could be issues with plopping UAW representatives on the boards of America’s automakers. The biggest of those is that whoever the union chose to represent the organization would be facing large conflicts of interest when it came time to vote on labor decisions, though other issues would likely arise as well.
[Sources: - sub. req. Image: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images]
The 2011 Dakar Rally is only two stages old, but there’s already a big-time force at the top of the leader board. CNN reports that defending Dakar champion and driver Carlos Sainz has put the pedal to the metal to win the first two events and is leading driver Stephane Peterhansel by a substantial three minutes, five seconds. Sainz’s race truck whooped on the competition in the 324 kilometer second stage with a one minute, three second lead over teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah. Sainz managed the impressive stage despite consistent issues with his windscreen wiper blades. Sainz claims the problem forced him to slow down for 12 kilometers since his vision was so compromised. In total, the Dakar rally stretches 13 stages and 9,500 kilometers. Today’s stage is 500 kilometers from San Miguel de Tucuman to San Salvador de Jujuy.
Sainz isn’t the only former champ faring well at Dakar. Three-time motorcycle champ Cyril Despres is having his way with the two-wheeled competition, as the talented pro took his second straight stage. Despres leads Marc Coma of Spain by two minutes 35 seconds.
2010 will be forever known as the year after that really bad year. 2009 was a horrible string of days for just about everyone who had two pennies to rub together, but automakers were hit particularly hard. 
December sales ended 2010 on a largely positive note for most manufacturers. You’re probably more interested, however, in how these brands and companies performed for the entire year of 2010. Hold on to your Sirius satellite radios, because those numbers are on their way, but first we have to dispense with December.
