Category Archives: Automotive News

Protection From Buy Here Pay Here Autos

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“Buy Here Pay Here” (BHPH) automobile sales are under attack by a new bill that hopes to regulate business practices of these car dealerships. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times stated that 20% of all used car purchases in the U.S. are financed with BHPH deals. Many of these dealerships are known for high purchase prices, interest rates nearly triple the national average, and aggressive repossession practices. These unregulated loans are known for taking advantage of people with poor credit histories who need a car but can’t get a loan.

Senate Bill 956 contains several important protections that will prevent these dealerships from taking advantage of California consumers. The bill hopes to:

  • Impose regulations that requires “Buy Here Pay Here” auto dealerships to obtain a California Finance Lender license.
  • Limit loans to a maximum 17 ¼ % interest rate.
  • Give consumers an eleven day “grace period” after due payments before the vehicles can be repossessed.
  • Require BHPH dealers to provide written notices to their customers informing them of their legal rights.

The Bill is expected to be reviewed within the next month.

Car To Car Networking

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David Strickland, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has announced that the NHTSA is considering new regulations that they say could eliminate up to 80% of traffic accidents. The agency will be conducting a year long study involving about 3,000 vehicles to test technology that will allow car to car networking. General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes Benz, Nissan and Volkswagen will all be working with the NHTSA to provide support for the study.

The above video shows how interconnected sensors in vehicles will gather information about the conditions around it and will send this information through a wireless local network to surrounding vehicles. Other drivers will be alerted about slow-downs, bad weather, accidents and other road problems ahead and can safely reduce their speed. If the new technology is adopted, it could benefit Google as they talk to car companies about developing self driving cars to bring to the market within the next decade.

Paying For The Car Pool Lane Experience

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The car pool lane is a roadway reserved for vehicles with at a specified number of occupants. These high occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV) may have the appearance of being lightly traveled, but statistics show that they carry more people per lane with fewer vehicles and usually at higher speeds. Some places allow hybrid and electric vehicles to access these lanes to encourage the use of a more environmentally friendly means of transportation.

Other states are looking at the concept of putting a price on the convenience of using HOV roadways. They say that tolls would not only raise money to maintain the roads but could manage traffic congestion as well. Motorist would be allowed to “buy their way” into the express lanes using an electronic transponder that logs how long and at what time of day the driver accesses them.

While the goal of the program is to keep traffic in the restricted lane moving at a reliable pace, a coalition of local groups say allowing people to by their way into the lane is having the opposite effect, and they have petitioning to have the program suspended. The state of California has recently restricted some older hybrids from HOV lanes because they were becoming too congested.

Getting The Best Deal On Your New Car

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For many buying a new vehicle can be a daunting task, and with dealers selling vehicles at record high prices, the average consumer needs to do their research in order to get the best price. With the internet, a little research, and some luck, you should be able to find the vehicle that suits your needs at a price you can afford. Edmunds.com, for example, offers services that give true market values, predicts pricing trends, and offers calculators that let consumers do their research before setting foot on a car lot. Below are some factors that can affect the price of a new vehicle.

  • When Sales Are Slow: Car salesmen are more likely to give deeper discounts to get your business. Rainy days, holiday periods and shopping during the week, are times when a car sales person may be willing to give you an extra discount just to close the deal.
  • End Of The Month: If a sales person is short of their monthly quota to receive their sales bonuses, they may be willing to give customers discounts in order to meet the quota.
  • End Of The Year: As year end quotas approach, and new models start rolling in, dealers and manufacturers may offer discounts, cash rebates, and lower interest incentives just to get the cars off the lot.
  • Redesigned And Discontinued Models: If the manufacturer has completely redesigned one of their models, they are usually willing to offer bigger discounts and incentives to get rid of the outdated models. If the vehicles has been discontinued completely, the savings are usually even better.

Automobile Sales Strong In New Year

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New car automobile sales continue to climb in January, as car makers and analysts predict that 2012 could be the best year auto manufacturers have seen since 2007. The industry’s annual selling rate rose to 14.18 million as sales increased over 11% from January 2011. The strongest sales were seen in small cars, which rose to almost 20%, while truck sales increased less than 4%. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Isuzu all posted modest gains despite inventory shortages from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan at the end of March and Thailand floods in October. Chrysler had an impressive monthly sales increase of 44%, with Volkswagen close behind reporting a 40% gain. General Motors saw a drop of almost 6% mostly due to inflated sales in 2011 from big discounts, and Chevrolet Volt sales suffered in December after a government investigation into battery fires.

Companies Fined Over Auto Harness Price Fixing

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A two year investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, has found evidence that a small group of automotive harness suppliers were working together to control prices for wiring harnesses and other crucial components. It was found that as many as a dozen companies globally, had secret agreements to fix prices and controlled the allocation of parts to automakers. In addition to a $470 million fine, several company executives will be serving prison terms of up to two years. These penalties follow a separate $200 million fine imposed by the Justice Department on Furukawa Electric Co. in November.

Over 45 suits have been filed in federal court against the companies involved. American suppliers, as well as auto dealers and consumers who believe they have paid higher prices because of the price fixing, have begun taking legal action separate from the Justice Department probe. The ongoing investigation is the largest the Antitrust Division has ever pursued.

Autonomous Automobiles And Legal Liability

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In 2012 when Google first tested their self driving car, they said that “even though the project is still in the experimental stage, it would provide a glimpse into the future of what automobiles will be able to do.” They felt that self driving cars would make it safer for motorist on the roads, improve fuel efficiency of vehicles and increase the number of people being transported.

Now, just a little over a year later, automobile technology has come one step closer to driver-less vehicles. Automobile manufacturers are already using autonomous technology to assist and in some cases correct drivers actions; but technologist, legal scholars and government regulators are debating the legal implications of the technology. They all agree that there is a potential to reduce human error and allow better fuel efficiency, but question of legal liability, privacy and insurance regulations still need to be addressed. According to O. Kevin Vincent, chief counsel of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “the federal government does not have enough information to determine how to regulate driver-less technologies.” The technology relies heavily on global positioning satellite data and other systems, which are vulnerable to jamming by malicious computer hackers.

Google has already been lobbying states to permit autonomous driving, which indicates that the company may hope to introduce such vehicles soon. Nevada became the first state to legalize driver-less vehicles last year, , and similar laws have now been introduced before legislatures in Florida and Hawaii. It is expected that a similar bill will be introduced in California soon.

Wireless Technology Makes Autos Safer And Smarter

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Automobile manufacturers like General Motors, Ford, and Mercedes Benz are showing off some new technology that will allow customers to remotely track their cars, diagnose mechanical problems, and help drivers avoid collisions. The plan is to use the internet and develop new automotive technology that will give vehicles intelligence. Your automobile will not only get you to where you need to go, but will have the intelligence to be self aware of what’s happening around it and to it, and could even monitor how the driver is doing.

OnStar is encouraging developers to create apps that use its wireless service to control cars in new ways. The company already offers:

  • Automatic crash response
  • stolen vehicle tracking
  • turn-by-turn navigation
  • roadside assistance
  • real-time data such as mileage, fuel levels, oil life and tire pressure
  • remotely unlock doors, honk horns, shine lights, and start the engine

OnStar is also working with RelayRides, a neighbor to car-sharing service which will launch later this year on Apple’s iOS. The new app will allow car owners to unlock their cars remotely after the person renting their vehicle arrives, or even track where a renter has taken their car.

Most electric vehicles already use similar technology which allows customers to manage their car’s recharging cycles, and it is expected that over half of all new vehicles will be similarly equipped by 2016. But the growing volumes of information processed by the new technology not only creates distractions for drivers but also raises issues of privacy.