Nutson's Nuggets: Last Week's (July 23-29, 2012) Automotive News In Case You Were Dozing

Auto Central Louisville, KY July 29, 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 1,346,176 automotive stories, articles, reviews, rants and raves by just searching for the subject you are interested in The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive. Hey South Florida viewers, get out of the sun watch TACH-TV on channel 44 and 9 and 32 and let us know what you think! See you next week, LN

Automotive News July 23-29 2012:

*According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study owners shifting to smaller vehicles are finding that the ones they buy are just as appealing as the larger ones they previously owned. Further, 27 percent of new-vehicle buyers who replaced a vehicle downsized, only 13 percent of buyers "upsized," while 60 percent purchased a new vehicle in the same size segment as their previous vehicle. In segment awards, Chevrolet got three. Two awards went to Audi, Dodge, Ford, Kia, MINI, Nissan, and Porsche. The Audi A8 achieves the highest APEAL Study score of any model in the industry in 2012. Porsche is the highest-ranking nameplate for an eighth consecutive year.

*Toyota is back on the sales gravy train. Having been temporarily sidetracked by recalls and natural disasters the past couple of years, sales are up 34% for the first half of 2012, selling 4.97 million vehicles world wide. That puts the Asian company solidly in the lead over GM at 4.67 million and VW at 4.45 million. Toyota first took the lead in 2008 but lost it just last year.

* Legendary racing and performance car pioneer Carroll Shelby who died over two months ago may finally rest in peace. His sixth wife and his children have been fighting over who gets to decide what happens to his remains. The kids say they have a legal directive that gives them the authority and the widow claimed the directive was a forgery. The negotiated solution has him being cremated and all sharing the ashes with one measure being deposited in a burial plot in east Texas. Let's hope he'll rest in peace now.

* Lincoln announced pricing for the new, substantially redesigned MKZ - their midsize luxury sedan. Base price is $26,800 and includes a 240-hp turbo four-cylinder engine and push-button shift. That price puts it about two grand above the fully loaded version of its lesser sibling Ford Fusion.

* Also at Ford we hear that the new C-Max plug-in hybrid will challenge the popular Toyota Prius with 20-mile range on just electric power maxing out its lithium-ion batteries and a 550-mile range on both gas and electric. C-Max has been sold in Europe for over two years now and we'll just be getting it here on this side of the pond soon.

* With sales of higher mileage cars cutting in to gas tax revenues leaving highway maintenance seriously underfunded in most areas of the country, San Francisco thinks they might have a solution - pay-per-mile driving fees. A preliminary plan is being reviewed by Bay Area government entities. It's not a new idea as it has been tried in other parts of the county on a test basis. After all, EVs need to pay for their share of using the road.

* Amazingly, we found out this week that less than half of all 17-year-olds today have a driver's license. A study by the University of Michigan found that "the observed decrease in driver licensing is consistent with the continued increase in Internet usage," according to the study. Thirty years ago it was 69% and now its 46%. What's this world coming to, we ask.

* Ford announced this week a voluntary recall of nearly a half million V6 Escape compact SUVs from 2001 to 2004 because of a potential for the cruise-control cable to snag which could cause the vehicle to accelerate uncontrollably. The NHTSA recently launched an investigation into the problem but Ford wanted to get ahead of it. Mazda followed with its announcement of a recall of over 200,000 virtually identical Tribute SUVs from the 2001 to 2006 and also 2008 model years.

* The Michigan State Police are now riding BMW motorcycles. They have joined California, Arizona, Florida and some Michigan municipalities in using the BMW police motorcycle which is faster, has superior handling and safety features, and even cost a little less than the Harley-Davidson police motorcycle.

* The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened investigations into leaking power steering fluid on the 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV and rear wheel lockup on 2009-10 model-year Ram 1500 pickups.

* Consumer Reportsā€™ latest testsshow that new fuel efficient engines are shaking up sporty compact SUV ratings. Full reports are available on ConsumerReports.org and in the September issue of Consumer Reports on newsstands.

* The pony car wars are alive in NASCAR. Chevrolet announced this that its Camaro will join Dodge Challenger and Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Nationwide Series next year.