Cash for Clunkers Is Almost Over
Today is the last day for the government program Cash for Clunkers. Although they expected it to last till November, it took only one month to use $3 billion in funding. The U.S. Department of Transportation is going to end the program at 7 p.m. Central time today, August 24. The experts projected about a quarter of a million car trades in the CARS program, but in fact the dealerships across the country have sold almost five hundred thousand cars. Many people considered $3,500-$4,500 rebates as a great...

Calif. car auction nets $14M from collectors | detnews.com | The Detroit News
More than 800 car collectors spent $14 million at an auction in California, snapping up Duesenberg and Mercedes-Benz models and passing on a 1939 Auto Union racer that was estimated to fetch as much as $10 million. Jay Leno, the comedian and talk-show host, was among the selective crowd at the Bonhams & Butterfields sale in Carmel that had been forecast by the organizers to make as much as $35 million. Last year's event totaled $21 million. The Auto Union racing car had been expected to make the most...

Inventive engineer sees light in LED wrenches | detnews.com | The Detroit News
"I don't how many times my dad asked my mom to hold a flashlight for him when he was working on a car." That's from Clifford Wright, whose father, Rollo "Buddy" Wright, restored vintage automobiles: Cords and Duesenbergs and such. "One day, as a kid, I remember him telling me, 'If you can't find or buy a tool, you just have to make it yourself,'" Clifford recalled, adding that his father often had to create his own unique tools to complete a restoration project. And, as they say, like father, like son...

Germany invests millions in race for battery-powered car | detnews.com | The Detroit News
-- Forget that they're cramped, have a limited driving range and outstrip the average consumer's pocketbook. The race is on to create a viable electric car. Germany -- home to brands including Volkswagen, Porsche and BMW -- became the latest country to fast track development of electric cars, the government approving a plan Wednesday that aims to put 1 million of them on the road by 2020. The goal is ambitious. Of the 41 million cars in the country, only 1,452 are electric, and Germany is entering an...

Companies eye Wixom plant for energy park | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Plans by two out-of-state companies to redevelop Ford Motor Co.'s abandoned Wixom plant into an energy park could help further solidify Michigan's effort to become an alternative energy hub, some industry observers say. But the $725 million project hinges on Xtreme Power of Austin, Texas, and Clairvoyant Energy of Santa Barbara, Calif., winning federal loans and state tax breaks to refurbish the 318-acre property. The project could create about 4,300 jobs. It also could establish a North American...

Marchionne makes himself at home with new condo | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Sergio Marchionne is a man with two jobs and now two homes on two continents. The chief executive officer of Chrysler Group LLC in Auburn Hills and Fiat SpA in Turin, Italy, has purchased a condo in Metro Detroit, where he is spending a lot of time restructuring the ailing U.S. automaker. Purchasing a place to call home in Birmingham can be seen as a commitment to the area as well as to the automaker, which was not the case with the last man whose job it was to turn Chrysler around. Marchionne "needs to...

Big 3 sales fade as 'clunkers' wraps up | detnews.com | The Detroit News
-- The Detroit Three automakers' share of "cash for clunkers" sales fell sharply, compared to foreign nameplates, in the final week of the $3 billion incentive program. General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC sold 38.6 percent, or about 266,000 of the nearly 700,000 clunker replacements. That's far below their combined 45.3 percent share of 2009 auto sales. The U.S.-based companies said they were hampered by a comparative shortage of small, fuel-efficient vehicles that buyers were...

How I claimed a (very small) part of Corvette history | detnews.com | The Detroit News
-- It's a rare opportunity to drive a piece of history. But sure enough, sitting in a parking lot full of 2010 Chevy Corvette Grand Sport models was a white Corvette with 1,500,000 written across the top of its windshield. The once-in-a-lifetime machine will spend its days at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., not far from the assembly plant that puts it together. But on Wednesday, this beautiful ride was parked in Milford and Chevrolet officials said I could take this convertible for a...

Corvette Grand Sport fills gap in price, performance | detnews.com | The Detroit News
-- There's now a new 'Vette in the mix. For the 2010 Chevrolet Corvette lineup, General Motors Co. has added a Grand Sport model to fill the price and performance gap between its base model Corvette and the high performance Z06. At the top of the Corvette food chain, of course, is the ZR1. "We felt there was a need for something in between the base model Corvette and the Z06," said Tage Juechter, chief engineer for Corvette. "Some people want a little more performance but don't want to spend over...

Sneak peek: 2010 Mercedes E Class | detnews.com | The Detroit News
The new E-Class models replace the smaller CLK models, and carry several of the styling cues from the Fascination concept shown at the Paris Motor Show. The new coupe and E-Class sedan launched together this summer as a 2010 model, with the convertible following several months later. And, of course, the coupe and convertibles will offer the full range of E-Class powerplants. [source]