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In Case You Missed It - Nutson's Weekly Automotive News Digest - Nov 21-27 2016: Bolt Slow Rollout; VW Sans Diesel; Recalls Of Course; Toyota Getaround; Soon Mobile Car Mode; Collector Car Price Surprise


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AUTO CENTRAL CHICAGO, November 27, 2016; Every Sunday Larry Nutson, Senior Editor and Chicago Car Guy along with fellow senior editors Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau, give you TACH's "take" on this past week's automotive news in easy to digest mega-tweet sized nuggets.

If you are a car and driving fan like we all are here at The Auto Channel, you can easily "catch up" or put these stories in context by searching the past 25 year's 2,001,998 automotive pages of news, automotive stories, articles, reviews, archived news, video, audio, rants and raves accessible from The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive.

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Enjoy and thanks for the positive feedback and ratings. See You Next Week, LN.

Nutson's Weekly Automotive News Digest - November 27, 2016

* As Black Friday kicks off the official holiday shopping season, a National Safety Council poll found two-thirds – 66 percent – of drivers would make phone calls while driving through a parking lot, and 56 percent would text. Given the increased traffic in and around parking lots during the holiday shopping season, the Council is urging drivers and pedestrians to exercise additional caution.

* According to CARS.COM, if you hail a taxi in this country, you could have as high as a 40 percent chance of getting into one that has not had its federally mandated safety recall work completed, an investigation by Cars.com and several Tegna TV stations has found. That means consumers are riding in vehicles with issues ranging from the benign to the potentially catastrophic. The study involved reviewing thousands of vehicle identification numbers for taxis in major cities including New York, Tampa, Seattle, Houston, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

* The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that 90% of all drivers and front-seat passengers were belted, according to a survey it conducted in June. That's a statistically significant increase from about 89% in a similar 2015 survey.

* Volkswagen is planning to withdraw from selling diesels in the U.S. market. The German automaker’s chief executive, Herbert Diess, said the company is “working under the assumption that we will no longer offer diesel vehicles in the United States,” according to a report from the German business publication Handelsblatt. VW’s was the most popular passenger car diesel in the U.S. At their peak they represented about 25% of the brand’s sales here. However, VW's US-Chief has said there may be diesels in select vehicles. We'll see.

* Problems with diesel emissions reporting may not be limited to VW and Audi. We learned this week that a class action lawsuit has been filed against FCA and Cummins over alleged misleading emissions claims regarding Ram diesel-powered heavy-duty pickups. The allegation is that the actual level of particulates is greater than FCA claimed in their advertising, resulting in catalytic converters going bad causing greater fuel usage.

* Toyota is the latest newcomer in the ride-sharing arena as they made a substantial investment in Getaround, a ride-sharing program that works with people leasing vehicles to defray some costs. The Getaround service allows registrants to loan their cars out using a Smart Key Box installed in the car’s dash that can be accesses with a coder. Toyota’s part of the project allows leassees to make payments from an earnings pool created by Getaround.

* You may have to wait for a Chevrolet Bolt. The winner of the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year and finalist for the 2017 North American Car of the Year was supposed to go on sale all over the United States before the year’s end. Chevy has announced availability will be very limited in the short term. Only customers in California and Oregon are getting the Bolt before the year’s end, with the rest of the states to follow in 2017 in what is being described as a “slow flow” roll out of the small EV.

* Fiat Chrysler is recalling nearly 89,000 cars and SUVs. One recall covers nearly 35,000 Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs worldwide from the 2016 model year with 3.6-liter V6 engines. A fuel tube may have been damaged in manufacturing, and that could cause a gas leak and fire. The other recall covers more than 54,000 Dodge Dart compacts from the 2016 model year in North America. Windshield wipers can fail due to electrical voltage spikes caused by a windshield washer pump short circuit.

* Kia is recalling nearly 72,000 Sportage SUVs in the U.S. because an electrical short in a computer can cause engine fires. The recall covers models from 2008 and 2009.

* Toyota is conducting a safety recall of approximately 744,000 Model Year 2011-2016 Toyota Sienna vehicles in the U.S. for a sliding door issue. It is possible that the sliding door motor circuit could be overloaded, opening the fuse for the motor. If this occurs when the door latch is in an unlatched position the door could open while driving.

* In an unusual move the NHTSA has allowed GM to delay the recall of 2.5 million vehicles with allegedly-flawed Takata airbags. GM contends the airbags, in Silverado and Sierra pickups are fine and the government apparently has not been able to show otherwise. The unusual move by the safety agency buys time for GM to do long-term tests of Takata air bag inflators in the older trucks and SUVs. Meanwhile, folks are driving these? Puzzling?

* First Airplane Mode and now Driver Mode. Government safety regulators want smartphone makers to find solutions that block use of mobile device apps while driving. The NHTSA released voluntary guidelines to minimize driver distraction both with factory-installed touch screens and mobile devices, especially as smartphones are carried into vehicles and used by drivers. The goal is for smart phone makers to come up with a Driver Mode, similar to the airplane mode programmed into smartphones that prevents them from interfering in flight with the aircraft's electronics.

* The average age of light vehicles in operation in the U.S. has once again climbed slightly this year, to 11.6 years, according to industry experts at IHS MarkIt. Registrations of cars and light trucks in the U.S. also reached a record 264 million — an increase of more than 6.2 million or 2.4% since last year. The aging fleet is likely the result of the increasing quality of vehicles built plus recovery from dismal sales levels after the economic slump.

* Seven is Heaven. Jimmy Johnson is NASCAR's 2016 champ with his win of the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Johnson joins Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt as seven-time cup season champs.

* NASCAR star Tony Stewart drove his last NASCAR race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and is retiring. He'll make cameo race appearances such as the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Dale Earnhardt Jr. expects to get medical clearance from his concussion and return to racing in 2017 at the Daytona 500 in February. He hasn't raced since July 9. And, Toyota celebrated its first NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championship.

* Porsche Motorsports North America has opened a $60 million facility where Porsche enthusiasts can hone their driving skills on a 4.1-mile track, featuring a 3/4-mile straight away, banked curves, water hazards and a slalom driving area. The 53-acre Porsche Experience Center is designed for Porsche potential customers and owners who can drive one of 77 high-performance Porsches stored at the track.

* Hagerty’s collector car marketplace monthly indicator was down slightly reflecting a nearly two-year slowdown. Most of the metrics evaluated each month were down including average sales in the private market. Surprising exceptions to the trend include 1968 to 1976 Ford Torinos, up 42%, 1970 to 1979 Lincoln Continentals, up 39% and 1979 to 1993 Ford Mustangs, up 35%. What’s up with those?