Nutson's News Blast - Automotive World Week January 12-18, 2015

By Larry Nutson
Senior Editor and Bureau Chief
Chicago Bureau
The Auto Channel

Auto Central Chicago IL, Jamuary 18, 2015; Every Sunday, along with senior editors Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau I give you our "take" on this past week's automotive news in easy to digest nuggets.

If you are a car nut like we all are here at The Auto Channel, you can easily wish to "catch up" on these stories as well as the past 19 year's 1,799,409 automotive news, automotive stories, articles, reviews, archived news, video, audio, rants and raves just search The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive.

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Nutson's Auto News Blast - Week Of January 12-18, 2015

* Press Days at the North American International Auto Show and the Automotive News World Congress, both in Detroit, dominated the news this week as journalists and industry execs from around the world swarmed the Motor City for this dead-of-winter tradition. The bitter cold of a Michigan winter was no surprise but plenty of news was made at the show and surrounding events. Look for full coverage here on TACh.

* Ford set the tone for the show by insisting that everything they do from here forward will be “green, global and high-tech.” They followed that philosophical commitment by introducing three hot-shot performance cars with no serious green or global aspirations but all certainly high-tech: Mustang GT350R (“R” for racing), a new Ford GT super car and a new version of the hot-rod, off-road Raptor pickup.

* The first news from the 2015 North American International Auto Show was the Volkswagen Golf/GTI named the 2015 North American Car of the Year, beating out the Ford Mustang and Hyundai Genesis. The 2015 North American Truck/Utility of the Year award went to Ford's all-new F-150, beating out the Chevrolet Colorado and the Lincoln MKC.

* One of many surprises at the show was Chevy’s reveal of a stylish sub-compact electric car with a reported 200-mile range and potential $30,000 price tag…it's $37,500 before the federal tax credit of $7500. With that said, it is only a concept but appears ready for production. GM’s design boss Ed Welburn promised that everything the design teams do for Chevy from now on will have a hint of Stingray and we can see a few styling queues that could qualify.

* Many auto writers questioned the name of this EV concept from Chevy, called the Bolt, as it might be confused with the Chevrolet Volt. We understand Bolt is not the intended production name.

* As a comment regarding the Federal EV tax credit of $7,500, one must have at least paid that in total annual Federal income tax liability to get the full amount. If you pay less in taxes you get less of a credit…just thought I would point that out one more time.

* Europe saw the first increase in car sales in seven years with a 5% rise for 2014. Automotive News Europe reports the increase was primarily due to incentives, tax policies, fleet sales and buyers moving to less expensive brands like Skoda and Dacia. Consumer confidence remains in question so sustaining such an increase may be difficult.

* Toyota decided to pull the plug on their smallest model in the U.S. lineup, the Scion iQ city car, after sales dropped 50% over the past year. Scion, Toyota’s youth-oriented brand, saw sales slump over the past few years but they plan to introduce three new models in the near term previewed by the concept sedan shown at the Detroit auto show this week.

* A serious Chinese automaker showed up at the Detroit auto show this week looking for a distribution partner to enable them to bring cars into the U.S. by the end of 2017. Gaungzhou (pronounced gwan-jo) is an established producer of cars, trucks, busses and motorcycles in their home market and they brought their mainstream sedan, the new small crossover they would first market here and a gull-wing SUV concept with an aquarium in the console.

* While we all enjoyed new cars at the NAIAS, news from GM's ignition switch compensation fund is that it has approved three new death claims and 9 injury claims — with about two weeks left for owners and relatives to submit claims. In total, GM compensation adviser Kenneth Feinberg has approved claims for 45 fatalities and 67 injury claims linked to defective ignition switches. The number of death claims rose to 303 and serious injury claims rose to 202.

* After months of rumors and speculation about which car manufacturer he’ll represent, 16-time NHRA Funny Car champ John Force has made it official. Force announced that after nearly 20 years with Ford as the manufacturer of record on his Funny Car and those of daughter Courtney and son-in-law Robert Hight, John Force Racing has now switched affiliations and will return to Chevrolet, where the winningest driver in drag racing history began his professional career more than 30 years ago. With no other Chevrolet-branded Nitro Funny Cars in the sport, John Force Racing will essentially have the Chevy brand exclusively all to itself.

* InsuranceQuotes.com reports that 51 percent of Americans say the would NOT consider enrolling in a pay-as-you-drive insurance plan which requires the installation of a tracking device in your car to monitor your driving pattern. A year ago 37 percent said they would not join this program.

* Toyota announced plans to conduct a safety recall of approximately 5,000 Model Year 2014-2015 Prius V vehicles. The front passenger seat occupant classification system may malfunction impacting air bag deployment.