Automobile Retailers

With a shift in customer demand from automakers, states like Alabama will need to adapt their car-making sector.

Why am I picking on Alabama? Do I harbour any particular dislike to the Yellowhammer State? No. But the reality is that Alabama contains factories and automakers that create some of the largest gas-guzzling clunkers in the entire US of A. And something will need to change with those factories quickly in order to keep up with new demands for economical and environmentally-friendly cars.

Luckily, Alabama’s car-makers are listening to Alabama’s consumers.

The three automakers with plants in Alabama are already adjusting their production line to meet the new demands. Honda, Hyundai, and Mercedes-Benz normally produced a realm of SUVs, crossovers, and light trucks in the state. But with new production demands, the shift is towards more economical cars that focus on protecting the environment and the consumer from immensely high gas prices.

Sam Addy, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama, said the state’s auto industry has been a great windfall for the economy and predicted that it would continue to develop and progress in the right direction. “I think the auto industry in Alabama is not yet mature,” he said. “I think we have a chance of landing more plants and of expanding current plants.”

Alabama benefits from having automakers from Asian and European markets, where adaptability is considered a virtue. With a major emphasis on flexibility and adapting to market changes, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and Hyundai have continued to roll out profits while other domestic companies stubbornly refuse to keep up to changing demands.

This spells trouble for some domestic car-making facilities, but may not spell trouble for automakers with a desire and ability to change and change quickly. Because Alabama boasts an automobile field based around such evolving car companies, it’s looking like the state will have no problem adapting to new customer needs and desires.

Gas prices are hurting car dealerships, but most are still finding a way to get people through the doors and to take a test drive. Gas cards are being used to pull customers in and most dealerships say it’s working.

Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge dealerships across the country are using a program called “Let’s Refuel America” at their 3,511 dealerships. The program provides customers with a $3-a-gallon gas card for three years. With gas prices at $4-a-gallon at the moment, that’s a pretty sweet deal. Chrysler initially rolled out the offer earlier this month and was going to end it June 2, but it has recently been extended through July 7. This follows the report that sales last month were down 23 percent from April 2007.

Based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s mileage figures for each model purchased, the gas cards have a top-end limit of 12,000 miles per year. Some car models do not come with standard rebates if the customer selects the gas card. Vehicles requiring more than 87-octane gas carry extra costs to get in on the gas card promotion, too.

Toyota’s in on the act, too. Dealerships are providing customers who purchase four new specified brands of tires before June 30 a gas card worth $50. Toyota Scion dealers like Jeff Belzer is seeing a change because of the program. “It’s been going pretty well,” Belzer said. “I don’t know if we’re setting the world on fire or anything. People need tires, so this is a bonus.”

With the constant battle for car sales raging between dealerships, it’ll be interesting to see how many more dealerships use gas cards as incentives in the coming months. The gas prices show no signs of falling anytime soon and giving away free gas or a great deal on gas will be a considerable incentive to get people to purchase a car from a dealership offering the promotion.

If you’re like me, you love muscle cars. You love the sound they make, the way they look and what they represent. The Pontiac GTO is one of the first cars that was marketed as a muscle car and it still lives in the minds of car lovers everywhere.

The GTO was actually born out of one man’s fight against the establishment. John Z. Delorean, a chief engineer at the Pontiac company, wanted to create a “mild-mannered mid-sized sedan” with a big V8 engine. That sounds simple enough to me.

Delorean began making his creation in 1963 with some other engineers. They used the previous year’s model – the Tempest – for their basic shell. Since it had a four-cylinder engine with a V8 mount, they figured it shouldn’t be a problem to install a larger engine into this vehicle. After some experimentation, the engineers completed a prototype that was ready for the finishing touches.

Delorean, of course, had the honor of naming the car. He named it the Gran Turismo Omologato. In English, that translates into Grand Touring Homologated, or simply GTO for short.

At the time an exotic car company was using the same initials for one of its models, too. But since you can’t copyright initials, Pontiac still used the GTO moniker for its new muscle car. It started out as a car with 325 horsepower, dual exhausts, three-speed manual transmission, heavy-duty suspension and other features you’d expect from a fast muscle car.

Today, you can get a new or used GTO at your local Pontiac dealer. Drive a piece of history down the highway and appreciate what the muscle car represents in American culture before the hybrid revolution takes over!

The Mercedes-Benz A-Class continues to set the bar for passenger cars around the world. With more than 500,000 units produced within three and a half years, the A-Class is among the best Benz sellers and continues to show itself to be ahead of the trends. With recent additions and amendments, the A-Class is showing itself to be more youthful, environmentally compatible, and attractive than ever before.

The A-Class premiered in 1997 and has since been a trendsetter within its class, producing cars that have been innovative and fun to drive. With about 1.7 million customers so far, the A-Class features an outstanding safety rating, great reliability, and incredible flexibility.

With a new five-door sedan and a three-door coupe hitting markets in recently upgraded models, the A-Class is getting set to take yet another run at some major market share. The models feature newly designed headlamps, a redesigned front bumper, a lower air intake, and a newly designed radiator grille.

Fuel economy is also up from other models. The car will use a direct-injection diesel engine that has reduced fuel consumption by more than 8% over recent models of the same car. By fall of 2008, Mercedes will introduce the BlueEFFICIENCY package. This package will add further improvements to fuel efficiency, rolling resistance, aerodynamics, weight, and general energy management. The package is, so far, only scheduled for availability on the three-door coupe.

Also available for release in fall of 2008 will be an automatic shut-off switch that switches the engine off automatically while idling. The driver will be informed of the engine shut-off by a special display on the dash. Within fractions of a second, the engine is restarted as soon as the clutch is operated or the brake is released. To this end Mercedes-Benz uses a starter generator which is linked to the crankshaft via the drive belt, allowing the engine to start-and-stop much quicker and more comfortably than with a conventional starter.

Watch for the new A-Class to hit Mercedes-Benz retailers soon and take one out for a test drive to experience these changes for yourself.

Before Toyota knocked one out of the park with the advent of the Scion, they tried something else called Toyota Project Genesis to bring in the more youthful market of car buyers. The media considered Toyota Project Genesis to be one of the worst flops in the company’s history, but many market insiders commented that the results of the project actually served to be highly influential when it came to developing the winning market strategy that gave the Scion its boost.

Toyota Project Genesis was launched in 1999 as a task force. It was created by Yoshimi Inaba, the president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, and James Press, the COO of Toyota Motor Sales. The idea was to use the task force to heavily market three new products from Toyota.

The three new products were the Celica, the MR2 Spyder, and the Toyota Echo. The cars would actually be bundled together and the advertisements would be significantly different from other ads featured by the carmaker at the time. In America, the cars were in segments that were shrinking and youthful drivers were not attracted to those particular vehicles. Regardless of this fact, Toyota in Japan pushed for the American market to push the vehicles as “youth cars.”

This broad failure in market research and stubbornness started to be felt soon after the launch of the project. While the Echo sold well in its first year to its targeted demographic, the age of average buyers soon crept up and the market share within the youth demographic waned. The MR2 Spyder didn’t sell well at all. Only the Celica sold well at first, but sales of that vehicle trailed off by 2005 by several thousand a year.

In the end, it was said that a perfect storm of limited budgetary assets, strong internal resistance to the project, and poor market research brought down Toyota Project Genesis. The plug was pulled in 2001 and Toyota announced the introduction of the Scion, which would be targeted to the market that Project Genesis worked so hard to grab. The success of the Scion is directly attributed to Toyota’s learning experience from the failure of Project Genesis.

This week’s Pontiac vehicle that was featured in popular American culture comes straight out of the 1980s NBC lineup. I, being a boy between the ages of nine and 13, couldn’t wait until the crime fighters Michael Knight and KITT graced my television screen each week.

But even though Michael Knight did all the work, my eyes were glued to the sleek black Pontiac Trans Am as it sped through the streets, deserts and anywhere else it needed to go to catch the bad guy. If you’ve forgotten some of the fascinating things about this vehicle, here is a quick refresher course:

• KITT stands for the “Knight Industries Two Thousand,” the company that actually built the car with artificial intelligence for fighting crime.

• The voice of KITT was William Daniels, the same guy that rose to fame as Mr. Feeney in the 1990s TV series Boy Meets World. He was also in Quincy and many more shows over the years.

• This popular Trans Am had a revolutionary Molecular Bonded Shell, allowing it to resist any damage by a variety of weapons and even heavy artillery.

• NBC actually used a stock 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am for creating KITT. Engineers customized it into what it became in the TV show.

• There’s a rumor saying that GM sent the very first of that model straight from the assembly line to Universal Studios. While the show was popular, people would go to their nearest Pontiac dealer and ask for the Knight 2000. Unfortunately, this actual vehicle did not exist.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see the new Knight Rider this fall!

When you’re in the car business, it doesn’t take long for a competitor to arrange to go head-to-head with a similar model. With Toyota’s extremely popular and successful Scion, it was only a matter of time that a competitor stepped into the arena to take on the economic car face-to-face. This spring in the United States, the battle for the small economy car has another entrant in the race: the Kia Soul.

Kia is billing the new Soul as “rebellious,” which is a way to say that the Korean automaker plans to take Scion to task as the car that represents the youthful generation.

The Soul apparently provides a creative platform for the buyer and will go into production in Korea in September. The production car will make its international debut at the Paris motor show in October.

Scion, meanwhile, will continue to roll out its popular model and will continue to add special edition vehicles to compete with other cars on the market. The latest Scion xD Special Edition was covered here yesterday.

So in essence Kia has its work cut out for it. It’s extremely tough to go head-to-head with the Scion xD or any other Scion model, as the Toyota vehicle has proven to be durable, spacious, and extremely efficient when it comes to gas mileage and handling.

The Soul is based out of concepts shown at the Geneva motor show in March, which were in turn developed from an earlier concept shown at the Detroit show in 2006. The compact styling has roots to the style of the Land Rover LRX concept. The front-wheel-drive vehicle is expected to pack a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, which is plenty of punch for a car of its size.

Scion is certainly setting the bar high for vehicles like the Kia Soul and other competitors. Toyota shows no signs of stopping and will likely have a more than satisfying answer to the question of spirit and Soul.

Have you grown tired of seeing the meter continue going higher at the fuel stations? Are you excited about the electric car technology? If so, you don’t need to trade that vehicle you adore for one of the newer models.

Al Pugsley, a truck owner in Prairie Village, Kansas, has an anomaly of a truck. From the outside, it looks just like a normal pickup truck. But on the inside, it runs on electricity. You wouldn’t know it from riding in it, though. According to Pugsley, you can “driver it like a normal car.” It can reach speeds of 70 mph, but you don’t need to worry about how much fuel you’re using by going so fast.

This is just one example of what the EV Blue company is doing throughout the United States. Since Pugsley’s story was featured on MSNBC, EV Blue has had hundreds of calls from car owners wanting their beloved gas-powered vehicle turned into an electric vehicle. So far, the company has converted many vehicles, including a Pontiac Fiero (which is typically known as a gas-guzzling muscle car).

The engineers accomplish this conversion by taking out about 90 percent of the stuff under the hood because you simply “don’t need it anymore,” according to EV Blue mechanic, Wayne Alexander. And even though it sounds like a million-dollar process, most vehicles can be converted for right around $10,000. When you think of how you can enjoy your favorite car for another 30 years without worrying about fuel prices, that’s a relatively cheap price! In fact, EV Blue claims that your vehicle can go another five million miles after the conversion with little to no maintenance concerns.

Does this sound appealing to you? If so, visit your local Pontiac dealer and get the car of your dreams. After that, consider getting it converted to an electric vehicle for a low cost. That way, you can have the best of both worlds!

For Scion to put out a limited edition model of something is becoming rather common, as the Toyota car offshoot is certainly expanding their selection. The latest to head into the fray is the Scion Limited Edition xD Release Series 1.0. This car hits markets in June and marks the third limited edition production car for 2008 from Scion.

The car features Hot Lava paint and a DAMD body kit. There is also a rear spoiler, TRD lowering springs, and wheel covers from Release Series. The interior features Hot Lava accented seats and interior trim, as well as a RAZO Release Series shift knob.

An individually numbered badge will come with each vehicle to indicate the uniqueness of the model.

Scion will only build 2000 models of the Limited Edition xD Release Series 1.0, so get one quick before they’re gone. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) is $14,550 for the manual transmission model. The automatic transmission model carries a MSRP of $15,350. There is also a delivery, processing, and handling fee (DPH) for all models of $620. The DPH is not included in the overall MSRP of the car.

Toyota’s funky youth brand has hit it big with this model, in my opinion. The design looks to be captured somewhat from the Toyota Yaris, only it has a bit of a sportier feel. The colour of the car and the way it interacts with the trim and the seats is incredibly fun, too, and should sell well amongst younger drivers and those interested in holding on to their youth in an affordable way.

And of course the price is right, too. Coming in at a very affordable MSRP to the purchaser, the Scion xD Limited Edition Release Series 1.0 is a steal. With only 2000 available for purchase, however, those interested had better get down to their local Scion dealerships and get the scoop in a hurry.

Mike Horn is a South African explorer and motivational conference speaker who is heading out on a four-year expedition around the world. The motto of the expedition is “explore – learn – act.” Horn’s expedition is based around finding solutions for global warming, so he will use his boat (the Pangaea) to serve as a platform for young adults to experience the natural world. By raising awareness about what’s out there, Horn hopes to push awareness for taking care of the planet.

Pangaea is Greek for “all earth.” Because of Horn’s extensive history with exploration, he feels he is the ideal explorer to sail his boat around all five continents.

The boat itself took over 22,000 hours of design time and years of experience. It is a specially-designed craft that integrates the latest technology to be sustainable and safe for its crew at all times in all situations. The boat will also be used for research and will showcase environmental projects from many different ports of call around the world.

The boat was built in an environmentally friendly way, using BlueTec engines, solar panels, a recyclable aluminum hull, and trawling nets that will be used to collect bottles and other trash that has fallen into the sea.

When it came to finding a sponsor for the expedition, Horn wanted to find a company that shared his dedication to the environment. When Mercedes-Benz stepped in, Horn knew he had found the ideal partner.

“Mike Horn and Mercedes-Benz are both pioneers in their fields and they both use their expertise and resources to protect our natural environment and our climate,” explained Dr. Olaf Göttgens, Vice President Brand Communications Mercedes-Benz Cars.

Mercedes-Benz continues to work towards emissions-free mobility with its “TrueBlueSolutions” wing of operations, an ambitious strategy that has led towards the establishment of new technologies for automobiles.

By partnering with Horn and sponsoring the Pangaea expedition, Mercedes-Benz will continue to raise their exposure as an environmentally friendly car company and a sponsor of environmental exploration the world over.