In Case You Missed It - Nutson's Weekly Automotive News Digest - Nov 28-December 4, 2016; Car Sales, Barra and Chao Trumped; New Car Transaction Price UP!; Connected Car Privacy; Pacifica 84 eMPG;Ferrari Hybrid; Caddy Racer; Ford Recalls, Ford Fiesta Stouter

AUTO CENTRAL CHICAGO, December 4, 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 2,002,889 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 - December 4, 2016

* November new vehicle sales saw a post elections surge with sales of U.S. cars and trucks increasing 3.6% compared with the same month last year. Automakers sold 1.38 million new vehicles in November, for a near-record SAAR of 17.8 million. In the big six, GM and Ford are up while FCA is down due to a big cut in fleet sales and Nissan, Toyota and Honda are up. Trucks/SUVS make up 58.8% of new sales. Even VW/Audi jumped nearly 16%. The industry is on track to set a record of 7 years of steadily increasing sales. American International Automobile Dealers Association analysts note the strong economy and a stabilized industry as reason to expect another record year. International brands have 56% of the market.

* President-elect Donald Trump selected former labor secretary Elaine Chao to be his secretary of transportation this week. Chao led the Labor Department under George W. Bush. Mr. Trump has promised up to $1 trillion in transportation infrastructure and it will be Chao's job to create and honcho that legislation. Chao is married to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell which should give her a leg up. McConnell made it clear he will not recuse himself from her confirmation or in dealing with legislation.

* Chairman and CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, was tapped this week to be part of the new Trump administration’s “Strategic and Policy Forum” an economic policy advisory panel composed of some of the country’s most respected business leaders. Others on the panel are: Micosoft founder Bill Gates, former GE chairman Jack Welch, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and a dozen others. Barra is the only auto industry executive on the panel.

* Ford unveiled its new, wider and lower, eighth-generation Ford Fiesta during one of the automakers special “Go Further” events in Cologne, Germany. More and more automakers are staging major reveals at solo events and not at major auto shows. For the U.S., the Fiesta is currently assembled at Ford’s Cuautitlan Stamping and Assembly Plant in Mexico. The new Fiesta goes on sale in Europe next summit but no word yet on when it will arrive in the U.S.

* The European Car of the Year award finalists have been announced for 2017. A panel of 58 journalists from 22 European countries chose from over 30 contenders in the first round. They narrowed there list down to seven vehicle, which are; Alfa Romeo Giulia, Citroen C3, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Nissan Micra, Peugeot 3008, Toyota C-HR and Volvo S90/V90.

* According to the report "Connected Car Privacy: Consumers Need Assurance on Data Privacy", a majority of consumers in the US, Europe, and China agree that it is important to be able to connect their smartphone to their in-car system, so they can access apps and music through the in-car controls and displays. However, over half of consumers do not want their vehicle to collect driving data, even if it remains anonymous. And most want to be assured that no data from their phone will remain on the in-car system after it is disconnected. This is according to a recent survey from the In-Vehicle UX (IVX) group at Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com).

* The 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid has earned a fuel economy rating of 84 miles-per-gallon-equivalent (MPGe) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). No other minivan has ever come close to this rating. The new benchmark reflects the Pacifica Hybrid’s combined city- and highway-cycle performance in electric-only mode, as tested by the EPA. FCA US had estimated the vehicle would achieve 80 MPGe, which represents the distance a vehicle can travel using a quantity of fuel with the same energy content as a gallon of gasoline. Read my review here: HERE

* The U.S. EPA surprised the industry in announcing its Midterm Review analysis earlier than expected. The EPA has decided that automakers have the ability to meet the greenhouse gas emission standards that are in place through 2025 even though they will get stricter in the coming years and the industry mounted a major lobbying effort aimed at relaxing those standards. In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama announced agreement with major automakers to nearly double fuel efficiency standards to 54.5 mpg, which the administration said would save motorists $1.7 trillion in fuel costs over the life of the vehicles but cost the auto industry about $200 billion to comply with over 13 years. Ford accused the Obama administration of playing "eleventh-hour politics." So, trump that.

* The analysts at Kelley Blue Book www.kbb.com, reported the estimated average transaction price (ATP) for light vehicles in the United States was $34,948 in November 2016. New-car prices have increased by $581 (up 1.7 percent) from November 2015, while dropping $51 (down 0.1 percent) from last month.

* It's one-two for Nico Rosberg. First, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg is the 2016 world champion, following in his father Keke’s footsteps, after a tense 2016 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in which he finished second as winning team mate Lewis Hamilton, the 2015 champion, attempted to back him up as much as possible into the clutches of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. And two, Rosberg, at age 31, stunned the Formula 1 works and announced his retirement five days later. Citing achievement of his life-long goal of becoming world champion. “I’ve climbed my mountain, I am on the peak, so this feels right.” he said. Heavy speculation has just begun as to his replacement on the Mercedes team. Bam.

* NASCAR announced a multi-year deal that will make Monster Energy only the third entitlement sponsor in premier series history. The length and terms of the deal were not disclosed, but both parties hailed the partnership as the perfect fit for both brands. Monster Energy has existing sponsorships with a number of motorsports sanctioning bodies, athletes and teams, but the NASCAR deal signals the biggest sponsorship step in the company's history. Monster will continue to sponsor the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet currently driven by Kurt Bush. The deal also includes Monster sponsorship of NASCAR’s All-Star Race.The Sprint entitlement sponsorship was planned to end on December 31, 2016.

* For the first time since its LeMans effort in 2002, Cadillac will field a purpose-built race car in an endurance series. The Cadillac DPi-V.R will compete in the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Daytona Prototype International series and will make its debut at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in January. In other news, Jeff Gordon will race in the Rolex 24 and we probably can expect Tony Stewart in a driver's seat too.

* And as AutoWeek wrote: To the surprise of virtually no one, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was voted the most popular driver in NASCAR for a 14th consecutive season

* Ferrari’s latest super car, a hybrid-powered LaFerrari with nearly 1,000 horsepower, was slated for a limited production run of 499 units. Sergio Marchionne just announced a 500th car to be actioned this weekend in Daytona at the Finali Mondiali weekend. The proceeds of the sale will benefit the National Italian American Foundation’s Earthquake Relief Fund. RM Sotheby’s will handle the auction. The official price of the LaFerrari is $1.4 million but they’ve been going at auctions for as much as $4.7 million.

* Ford Motor Co. said it was issuing a recall of about 650,000 Ford and Lincoln sedans in North America, including more than 602,000 in the U.S., to insulate seat belt anchor pretensioners that could separate in a crash. The recall covers certain 2013-16 Ford Fusions, 2015-16 Ford Mondeos and 2013-15 Lincoln MKZs.