Nutson's Nuggets: Last Week's (March 26-31, 2012 ) Automotive News In Case You Were Sleeping

Auto Central Louisville KY April 1, 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 1,342,749 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 26-31 2012

* Fisker Automotive will replace potentially defective batteries in its Karma plug-in hybrid due to a manufacturing problem discovered by supplier A123. The battery problem arose a few weeks ago when a Fisker Karma being tested by Consumer Reports quit and wouldn't start. The recall of potentially defective lithium-ion packs will cost A123 about $55 million.

* A bit of optimistic news for the U.S. economy emerged this week as Edmunds.com released its sales forecast for March of a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 14.9 million units, representing a substantial 16.5 percent increase over March of 2011. Continually high fuel prices are resulting in an 11 percent increase in sales of compact vehicles. Leading the sales numbers is Toyota which last year was emerging from their unintended acceleration and recall problems.

* Next week is the final major international auto show of the season in New York. Among new vehicles we'll see there are two important vehicles for Chevrolet - the freshened Traverse 3-row CUV and the Impala full size sedan. We've seen the Traverse and it's modestly restyled on the outside but beautifully upgraded inside. We've only been teased with Impala, but look for some substantial drama, sleek interior and generous content. That's what it will take to compete in that segment.

* Also in New York we'll see a high-performance version of the recently redesigned Ford Explorer. The Explorer Sport will sport the 3.5-liter, 350-horsepower EcoBoost V6. They'll compete head-to-head with the 375-horsepower Range Rover Sport and the 360-horsepower Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8. Zero-to-60mph time is expected to be about six seconds flat while getting 16mpg city and 22 highway. Not bad for a CUV, eh? You won't get the 16mpg if you're practicing the zero-to-60 time, of course.

* Fleet sales have typically been dissed by analysts as a low-profit way to just keep factories running and inflate sales numbers. Ford told the Automotive Press Association in Detroit this week that's not necessarily the case. Over 31% of Ford sales went to fleets last year, which contributed to their 15.3% market share and posting of a $13.6 billion net income.

* Speaking of sleek and Toyota in the same breath may seem a bit incongruous but we were teased this with images of the concept car Toyota plans to show in New York next week, a car they hint may become the new Avalon. Most reviewers were a bit disappointed in the lack of panache with the new Camry last year. Maybe we'll be more impressed with this one.

* Dodge and SRT Motorsports is getting into rally car racing with its new Dodge Dart and a one of the sport’s biggest stars: Travis Pastrana. The 2013 Dodge Dart will participate in the 2012 Global RallyCross Championship Series with Pastrana — a four-time Rally America Champion and 17-time X Games Gold Medalist — behind the wheel. The new Dodge Dart Rally Car will make its official public debut at the New York International Auto Show. The car will be powered by a 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder, 16-valve turbo-charged engine with 600-plus horsepower engine with 550 pound feet of torque.

* Helio Castroneves' celebrated his win and honored the late Dan Wheldon following his victory in the IZOD IndyCar Series' season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg driving his Chevrolet-powered No. 3 Shell V-Power/Pennzoil Ultra Team Penske car. IndyCar Series race cars were extensively redesigned for 2012 and are powered either by Chevy, Honda or Lotus 2.2-liter V6 turbocharged engines.

* BMW announced that it would recall about 1.3 million 5 Series and 6 Series vehicles worldwide to fix a potential hazard involving a faulty battery-cable connection in the cars’ trunks. About 367,000 cars are affected by the recall in the United States.

* According to a report by the consultancy Strategic Vision, the Top 5 most popular car models for Democrats are the Honda Civic Hybrid, Volvo C30, Nissan Leaf, Acura TSX Wagon and Ford Fiesta Sedan. For Republicans, the Top 5 are the Ford Mustang Convertible, Audi A8, Mercedes GL, Ford Expedition and Ford F-150.

* Honda Motor Co. is recalling about 554,000 CR-V sport utility vehicles from model years 2002 to 2004 in the United States to inspect for faulty wiring in headlights.

* The 2012 Methanol Policy Forum was held in Washington DC, which brought hundreds of attendees (Including TACH Co-publisher Bob Gordon) up to date on the world's adoption of Methanol as a drop-in replacement for gasoline. Seems like the Chinese have taken a giant step by turning plentiful coal into Methanol to power 100,000 flex-fuel optimized vehicles as their first step to replace gasoline. Methanol can be made here in the USA from uber plentiful natural gas for about 35 cent per gallon, so whats the problem we ask?