Nutson's Nuggets: Last Week's (March 5-10, 2012 ) Automotive News In Case You Were Sleeping

Auto Central Louisville KY March 11, 2012 Each week Larry Nutson, The Auto Channel's Chicago Bureau Chief, along with Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Detroit Bureau give you a nugget of the past week's automotive news you may have missed.

If you are a car nut like we all are, you can easily "catch up" on these stories as well as the past 16 years 1,332,807 automotive stories, articles, reviews, rants and raves by just searching for the subject you are interested in The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive, see ya next week L.N.

Automotive News - March 5-110 2012

* Lots of news and a few "first evers" in the auto world from the Geneva Auto Show. The first ever Range Rover Evoque convertible concept, the first ever VW GTI convertible and the first ever Bentley luxury SUV made their debuts. Also, a bigger Fiat 500…the 4-door 500L, a new Lexus RX crossover and a new Porsche Boxter also appeared.

* Detroit…the city…is broke and may be taken over by the Michigan state government as part of an emergency manager's law. This law gives the appointed manager the ability to sell or privatize assets that could be used to pay off municipal debts. Among the most appealing of Detroit’s assets is the Detroit Institute of Arts, a world-class art museum with many wonderful pieces of art including a number of significant cars. Among them Henry Leland’s personal 1905 Cadillac, John and Horace Dodge’s personal 1919 Dodge Brothers cars, the Detroit Electrics owned by Clara Ford (wife of Henry Ford) and Helen Newberry Joy (wife of Packard chief Henry Joy), a Stout Scarab, a Chrysler Turbine car, a pair of Packard Pan American show cars, the Ford Cougar II concept car, and the 1963 Ford Mustang II show car, each one a big attraction should it ever come up for sale. City officials have said that sale of the art and the cars is not part of the plan. If it were, lawsuits would most likely drag on for years rendering any sale useless.

* American Saab fans should be relieved that the bidders for the 10 vehicles of Saab Cars North America's Heritage collection were sold in one lot to two known Saab collectors. According to Saab, half of the cars went to Bill Jacobson of Wilmington, Delaware’s, Sports Car Service, and half went to Tom Donney of Fort Dodge, Iowa’s, Tom Donney Motors. The two pooled their resources in one winning bid.

* Terrafugia's Transition, the world's first somewhat practical flying car, is coming to the New York International Auto Show in April.The Transition is set to hit the market at the end of 2012 priced at $279,000. The Transition is a light sports aircraft that has been cleared to drive on highways. Anyone with a driver's license can drive the aircraft on the road, but you'll need a light sports aircraft license to fly it. The Transition has a 23-gallon gas tank and gets a range of 400 miles. It gets about 35 mpg on the road and burns rougly 5 gallons of gas per hour when it is at cruising speed in the air.

* Federal regulators plan to announce that automakers will be required to put rearview cameras in all passenger vehicles by 2014 to help drivers see what is behind them. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which proposed the mandate in late 2010, is expected to send a final version of the rule to Congress on Wednesday.

* The Chevrolet Volt, which sells in Europe as the Opel Ampera, has been named European Car of the Year by automotive journalists from 23 countries. The award was made on the eve of the Geneva auto show where the Opel Ampera made its European debut in 2009. Ironically, the award came three days after GM announced it would suspend production of the Volt at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant to stop swelling inventories of the plug-in extended range car. The Volt/Ampera beat the VW Up, the Ford Focus and the Range Roaver Evoque

* According to the DMEautomotive study “The Changing Service Loyalty Landscape,” a comprehensive study of the $215 billion U.S. auto service market and the first-ever analysis of consumer service loyalty rates at dealerships, independent stores and aftermarket chains, two “forces of graying” are significantly favoring aftermarket chains’ service profits - while threatening those of new car dealerships. Data in the report indicates that the dealership service center is becoming a “senior center”, as younger consumer segments are significantly gravitating towards aftermarket chains. And the report provides fresh evidence that the record age of the U.S. vehicle fleet is significantly benefiting independent stores and aftermarket chains, while taking its toll on dealerships.

* As we had previously mentioned, President Obama proposed expanded tax credits and community research grants to make alternative-energy cars and trucks more attractive to buyers. Electric, natural gas and hydrogen-powered vehicles would be covered. Two proposed tax law changes would raise the tax credit to $10,000 from $7,500 for the purchase of a so-called advanced vehicle and allow the credit to be applied instantly at the dealership.

* Toyota said that it's recalling nearly 700,000 vehicles because of various problems. The recalls include about 495,000 Tacoma trucks made during the 2005 through 2009 model years that need to have their steering wheel spiral cable assemblies replaced. In addition, the automaker is recalling about 70,500 Camry sedans made during the 2009 model year and about 116,000 Venza crossovers made during the 2009 through 2011 model years, to replace their stop lamp switches.