Nutson's Nuggets: Here Is Last Week's (October 8-14, 2012) Automotive News Incase You Were Dozing

Auto Central Louisville, KY October 14, 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 1,354,398 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 TV viewers, I know you are enjoying watching The Auto Channel's TACH-TV on channel 44 WHDT-TV Palm Beach (Cable 17 and 438, channel 9 Miami and channel 32 Fort Meyers-Naples, and thanks for the positive feedback.... See you next week, LN

Automotive News October 14, 2012

* A lot of chatter about alternative fuel vehicles in the news this week. GM is moving its hydrogen fuel cell development team to Southeast Michigan from upstate New York. Some folks say EVs may be more harmful to the environment than good. But meanwhile, Nissan will offer a lower priced Leaf EV. And, due to the drought and shortage of corn, EPA may scale back the required use of ethanol.

* CNG is getting some play with Chrysler getting orders for CNG fueled heavy duty pickups from nineteen different states. A “CNG In A Box�?? fueling system is being unveiled by General Electric (GE) in partnership with Chesapeake Energy Corp. that should give marketers easy access to the growing CNG light vehicle market as well as buses, garbage and delivery trucks. Honda customers who buy the compressed natural gas Civic will receive a fuel card loaded with $3,000 that can be used at public refueling stations owned by Clean Energy Fuels Corp.

* Ford's plug-in hybrid version of the new C-Max has earned an EPA mileage rating of 108 mpg in the city and 100 mpg for the highway and combined ratings, beating the smaller plug-in Prius by 5 mpg. Like Prius, C-Mag is on a purpose-designed platform not shared with any sedan siblings. C-Max Energi, as it is called is about the size of the new larger Prius V wagon.

* More recalls. Honda is recalling about 269,000 model year 2002-2006 CR-Vs due to a problem with the vehicles' power window master switch. Chrysler Group is recalling about 44,300 model year 2009-2010 Ram 1500 and Dodge Dakota pickups for a rear differential that may seize.

*And, Toyota is recalling 2.5 million vehicles in the U.S. from the 2007-2009 model years for a defective power window switch that may lead to fire. This Toyota recall is global and affects 7.4 million vehicles.

* Color my world. White, black and silver continue to be the most popular U.S. car colors. However, these colors are not pure as more and more are enhanced with metallic and reflective elements. And, according to PPG new color trends will have us seeing more oranges and browns. Niche colors like purple may show up on a few new vehicles. While recently in Paris I noted black, silver and grey to be the color of virtually every car on the street. This holds true for the motor scooters that are mostly these colors.

* More trick-stuff coming into autos in the quest for better fuel economy. Ford has developed a carbon-fiber hood for the Focus that is 50% lighter than the standard steel unit. Magna has developed a front grill shutter system that is designed to be adapted to any vehicle to close off the front grill opening at moderate engine temperatures to divert air around the vehicle to reduce drag.

* The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a consumer safety advisory to alert vehicle owners and repair professionals to the dangers of counterfeit air bags. NHTSA has become aware of a problem involving the sale of counterfeit air bags for use as replacement parts in vehicles that have been involved in a crash. While these air bags look nearly identical to certified, original equipment parts—including bearing the insignia and branding of major automakers—NHTSA testing showed consistent malfunctioning ranging from non-deployment of the air bag to the expulsion of metal shrapnel during deployment. NHTSA is not aware of any deaths or injuries connected to counterfeit air bags.

* Dodge announced a high-mileage iteration of the new Dart this week to compete head-to-head with arch rivals Cruze Eco (26/39 mpg), Focus SFE (28/40 mpg with automatic, ) and Mazda3 with Skyactiv. Powered by a new 1.4-liter turbo 4-cylinder the Dart Aero is rated at up to 41-mpg with a base price of $19,295.

* Our colleagues at the Detroit Bureau reported this week Ferrari's plan to build a high-performance, 900-horsepower hybrid sports car featuring lots of ultra-light carbon fiber. Speculation is that it will be the successor to the Ferrari Enzo and include lithium-ion batteries boosting a more efficient V-12 gasoline engine. Pricing is only speculative at this point, but it will certainly be into seven figures.

* The "big one", the wreck in the last lap of last Sunday's Talladega NASCAR race involving over 20 cars got lots of national news coverage due to its immensity and visual drama. The late-week news coming out of NASCAR is that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had suffered a concussion in a tire test session crash at Kansas in late August and the Talladega crash caused another hit. Earnhardt will sit out the next two NASCAR races, and maybe more. His chances at a title are over for this year.