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Nutson's Nuggets: Last Week's (June 11-17, 2012) Automotive News In Case You Were Dozing


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Auto Central Louisville KY June 17, 2012; Each week Larry Nutson, The Auto Channel's Chicago Bureau Chief, along with Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau give you easy to digest nuggets 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 1,344,783 automotive stories, articles, reviews, rants and raves by just searching for the subject you are interested in The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive. Happy Fathers Day! See you next week....LN

Automotive News June 11-17, 2012:

* Exhibiting substantial optimism for auto sales in Europe, Chrysler announced three new Jeep models for that market and a goal of selling 125,000 units by 2015. That represents more than five times the current rate of sale. To begin that push the new, designed-for-Europe Jeep Grand Cherokee S Limited will enter the market this September with a price of 60,000 euro. Sergio Marchionne also announced Fiat will exercise an option to buy another 3.3% of Chrysler from the UAW health care trust bringing its stake to about 62% of the company.

* The good folks at Lexus revealed to the media this week a preview of the upcoming sixth generation of the venerable ES sedan expected at dealers this August. They will add to the line an ES 300h Hybrid with the same drive hardware as Camry Hybrid but with slightly different calibration. With a light foot you can keep it on electric power only to about 25 mph. See the first drive reports here at TheAutoChannel.com.

* After an exhaustive review of available studies an agency of the World Health Organization said this week for the first time that diesel engine exhaust fumes are carcinogenic. In 1988 they had said diesel fumes were "probably carcinogenic," but had made no pronouncements since. At what level these fumes become dangerous they did not say. We've been told that modern diesel technology such as urea injection and sophisticated filtration has resulted in diesel exhaust from cars being so clean that the air coming out the exhaust pipe is cleaner than the air going into the intake.

* Speaking of diesel technology, Audi's R18 e-tron quattro earned a spot in the first row grid for this week's 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The R18 is a hybrid race car with TDI power at the rear axle and an electrically driven front axle.

* We keep thinking the Saab story is over but it keeps on going like the Ever-Ready Bunny. A Chinese-Japanese group bought most of Saab's assets last week and we found out this week that they intend to develop, build and sell electric vehicles. The vehicles would be built in Saab's existing factory, considered one of the most modern. A European auto industry magazine also reported that the new company will collaborate with Indian SUV maker Mahindra & Mahindra to continue the development of the promising PhoeniX platform that Saab had been working on when they went belly-up.

* In March, Chrysler Group LLC announced plans to recall 200,000 Jeep Liberty SUVs from the 2004 and 2005 model-years. A new announcement expands the recall to cover vehicles sold during the 2006 and 2007 model-years. The ongoing recall will now cover nearly 350,000 of the compact SUVs. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the lower control arms in Liberty’s rear suspension can experience excess corrosion that can cause them to weaken and break. The problem appears to be primarily isolated in snowbelt regions where salt it used to clear roads.

* Buick's slightly older and more affluent owners will get a little qucker commute. Buick's Verano compact sedan with a 250HP turbo will go on sale this fall. The front-wheel drive Verano will come with a 2.0-liter turbocharged direct-injection engine and a six-speed manual or automatic transmission. Highway fuel economy will be at least 30 mpg and the car will accelerate to 60 mph in about 6.2 seconds. The Verano's suspension and steering will give a more sporty handling, but the quiet comfortable ride and upscale image of Buick will remain.

* Daimler started sales and production of its first mass-market electric car. Daimler began assembly of the Smart Fortwo electric drive at a factory in Hambach, France. Deliveries will start later this year.

* Total Car Score (Total Car Score), one of the most comprehensive automotive ranking and comparison websites, has named Kia Motors America (KMA) as one of its "Top 10 Best Car Brands for 2012." One of only two non-luxury brands listed, the fastest-growing automotive brand in the U.S. also posted the biggest improvement over 2011 with a gain of 3.76 points.

* The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that it is upgrading the scope of an investigation, an engineering analysis that can be a precursor to a recall, into the safety of Jeep Grand Cherokees and is adding Jeep models to include a total of more than 5 million vehicles. NHTSA said it plans to evaluate 1993-2004 model year Jeep Grand Cherokee, 1993-2001 Jeep Cherokee and 2002-2007 Jeep Liberty SUVs to determine whether the vehicles have fuel tanks that contain a defect that presents an unreasonable risk to safety.

* Mazda Motorsports announced that it will sell racing versions of its new SKYACTIV-D CLEAN DIESEL engines to teams competing in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class of racing's greatest endurance challenge -- the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Le Mans engine program will make its debut at the 2013 running of the race. Mazda was the first -- and to this day, remains the only -- Asian manufacturer to score an overall win at the race, in 1991. Dempsey Racing will become the first LMP2 customer for the Mazda SKYACTIV-D racing powerplant. Dempsey Racing is co-owned by racer/actor Patrick Dempsey.