Newsletter Franks Automobile Shipping & Transport
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August 11 2009
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Dear Customer:
We want
to take the time to thank you for your business . In an effort to
continue ongoing communication with our clients , we have provided you with our
bi-weekly news letter.
We strive to grow in the years to come and ask that
we may add you to our growing family of dedicated customers.
Sincerely,
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GM says Volt to get 230 miles per gallon in city |
 DETROIT - General Motors said Tuesday its
Chevrolet Volt electric car could get 230 mpg in city driving, making
it the first American vehicle to achieve triple-digit fuel economy if
that figure is confirmed by federal regulators. But
when the four-door family sedan hits showrooms late next year, its
efficiency will come with a steep sticker price: $40,000.
Still,
the Volt's fuel efficiency would be four times more than the popular
Toyota Prius hybrid, the most efficient car now sold in the U.S. most automakers are working on similar designs,
but GM would offer the first mainstream plug-in with the Volt, which
seats four and was introduced at the 2007 Detroit auto show. The Volt will join a growing fleet of cars and trucks powered by systems other than internal combustion engines.
Unlike the Prius and other traditional hybrids,
the Volt is powered by an electric motor and a battery pack with a
40-mile range. After that, a small internal combustion engine kicks in
to generate electricity for a total range of 300 miles. The battery
pack can be recharged from a standard home outlet.
Hybrids
use a small internal combustion engine combined with a high-powered
battery to boost fuel efficiency. Toyota's Prius - which starts at
about $22,000 - gets 51 mpg in the city and 48 mpg on the highway.
The
number of all-electric vehicles available to U.S. consumers remains
limited. The Tesla Roadster, a high-end sports car with a range of 224
miles, is perhaps the best known. But its $100,000-plus price tag keeps
it out of reach of all but the wealthiest drivers.
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Scrap yards get busy crushing clunkers
Auto recyclers hope to make profit; effects on market uncertain
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 Jim Biggs, yard supervisor at B&F Towing
Co. in New Castle, Del., is getting ready to destroy a 1997 green
Nissan Pathfinder SUV that looks in pretty good shape except for some
wear and tear. "They're
nicer than what we're used to crushing," said Biggs. He climbed into a
front-end loader and drove over to the Pathfinder to take it on its
final journey to a giant compactor known as a "car crusher."
The
government's hugely popular "Cash for Clunkers" program is keeping
B&F and other scrap yards across the country busy crushing
roadworthy vehicles and sending them on for shredding. Not everybody is happy with the program, which
was extended for at least a few weeks when President Obama Friday
signed into law a $2 billion extension.Some
auto recyclers are particularly incensed with provisions that limit the
ability of the yards to recycle parts from the vehicle.
"There's a mixed feeling out there among auto recyclers," said Jennifer Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Automotive Recyclers Association. Under the law, the engine of each "clunker" must be destroyed by a process that involves
pouring sodium silicate, known as liquid glass, into it until it ceases to operate.
In addition the drive train
cannot be sold without being disassembled. Those two parts typically yield 60 percent of the profit from a recycled vehicle.
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eBay, GM set to start car-selling trial Tuesday
Web site will allow consumers to haggle with dealers over new vehicles
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SAN FRANCISCO - General Motors and eBay Inc.
are expected to announce Monday that hundreds of the auto maker's
 California dealers will let consumers haggle over the prices of new
cars and trucks through the online marketplace, as part of a previously
disclosed trial. About
225 of California's 250 GM dealers are set to take part in the program,
which will begin on Tuesday. They will be selling Buick, Chevrolet, GMC
and Pontiac vehicles on cobranded Web sites through eBay's online auto
marketplace, eBay Motors, until Sept. 8. The cars will also be
searchable through eBay Motors and eBay's main site.
The
trial is part of Detroit-based GM's turnaround plan, making more
official a practice some of its dealers had already participated in on
their own. It expands an existing partnership covering GM certified
used vehicles sold through eBay.
It also marks a shift for San Jose,
Calif.-based eBay, since most of the vehicles sold on eBay Motors - a
site that sells various types of vehicles and auto parts - have
traditionally been used. Starting
Tuesday, eBay visitors will be able to visit Web pages like gm.ebay.com
and chevy.ebay.com, where they can browse new 2008 and 2009 vehicles,
ask dealers questions and figure out financing.
The
cobranded sites will also include a Web tool currently on eBay Motors
that helps shoppers determine if they're qualified to trade in their
old car for money toward a new one under the government's just-refilled
"cash-for-clunkers" stimulus program.
Car
buyers will be able to choose between the two standard options
currently offered on eBay Motors: Negotiating a price with a dealer
through the site or purchasing right then at a fixed price. Cars will
be picked up at the dealerships.
EBay
Motors Vice President Rob Chesney said the companies decided to run the
trial in California because there are many tech-savvy consumers there.
EBay users who live outside California can contact dealers to see if
they're willing to sell and ship vehicles to them, he said.
The
test comes a month after GM made an unusually quick exit from
bankruptcy protection with ambitions of becoming profitable and
building cars people are eager to buy. Once the world's largest and
most powerful automaker, new GM is now leaner, cleansed of massive debt
and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without additional
federal loans.
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Carmakers rush to refill depleted dealer stocks
One dealer's reaction to shortage of new inventory: 'It's killing me'
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 TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - Under normal circumstances, it would take Ford Motor Co. about a month to replace a Focus sold at one of Richard Bazzy's two Pittsburgh-area dealerships.Today,
with customers across the country clamoring to trade in old gas
guzzlers under the "cash for clunkers" program, Bazzy says Ford can't
tell him when it will send him the bulk of the 50 compact cars he needs
to replenish what he sold in the two weeks since the program began.
"I
do not have a definite, acceptable answer to that," said Bazzy, who
maintains he could sell 200 more Focuses if he could get them. "It's
killing me."
Bazzy, like many dealers for just about every
automaker, is worried that he won't be able to get cars to take
advantage of the second installment of clunker cash that was approved
by the Senate Thursday night.He's
got only two Focuses left and says Ford has told him it will ship only
six more within the month. He's complained to his regional manager to
no avail and said the clunkers program has cleaned out the Pittsburgh
region's inventory.
Annette
Sykora, who runs two Ford dealerships near Lubbock, Texas, is running
into the same problem. She was conservative, keeping her inventory lean
because of the depressed market. Like many dealers, she didn't expect
the high showroom traffic and demand from the clunkers program.
She's
happy for the increased business, even though she's sold all six
Focuses she had. She's also out of midsize Fusions, and after today,
will have no more Ford Escapes or Mercury Mariner midsize sport utility
vehicles.
If the
renewed program expires on Labor Day weekend, she won't be able to take
part unless she sells vehicles before they arrive or somehow gets them
from nearby dealers.
"I won't be able to restock by then," she said. "It'll be a while before I am replenished."
Ford
is trying to ramp up production of the Focus, which ranks No. 2 on the
purchase list of those trading in clunkers. The Toyota Corolla is first.
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Pump prices had minor impact on car market
Data show last year's gas spike had a marginal effect on buyer habits
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 What looked like a permanent divorce,
triggered by $4-a-gallon gas, has proved to be just a temporary lovers'
quarrel between Americans and their light trucks. According to new industry data, last year's fuel price
spike had only a marginal impact on the U.S. car market. After an
initial, knee-jerk response toward smaller cars, most motorists went
back to buying what they would have if prices hadn't risen at all -
including pickups, SUVs and other light trucks.
"Everyone reported on the rapid escalation of small-car demand, but the rapid descent of small-car market share went somewhat unnoticed," says Jeff Anderson, head of consulting and analytics for Experian Automotive, a consulting firm.
Sales of small and economy cars peaked at 17 percent of the U.S. market
in May 2008, when the national average for a gallon of unleaded was
$3.70, according to Experian Automotive. By the time prices crested at
just above $4, the segment already was losing steam. By September, it
was back to just 10 percent, roughly where the segment had stood prior
to the fuel crisis.
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This time, Ford's iconic Taurus is really back
2010 version of the automaker's famous sedan looks fresh, dramatic
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 Ford's venerable Taurus family sedan retired in 2006 from its sales wars with old rivals Toyota Camry and Honda Accord with all the decisiveness and conviction of Brett Favre walking away from the NFL.The
company thought the car's image, battered by years of service in daily
rental fleets, was as tired as Favre's body. But then-new Ford
president and CEO Alan Mulally was aghast to discover that his
predecessor had killed what, in Mulally's view, was the bull that laid
the golden egg for Ford.
So
for 2008, the company performed a quick face-lift on the Taurus'
would-be replacement, the forgettable Five-Hundred, and began hurriedNow the Taurus really is back for 2010, with a
more-thoroughly refreshed model that boasts the kind of imposing visual
presence that made Chrysler's 300 a hit a few years ago. This fresh,
dramatic exterior styling, a cabin sumptuous enough to make us forget
the cheap interiors that infested so many recent Fords, and an
astonishing coterie of high-tech widgets to satisfy even the most jaded
technophile combine to promote the Taurus to the level of personal
luxury car.None
of this comes for free, but with a $26,000 base price (for the SE
model) that is the same as the outgoing model, the charge is not
onerous. As a large, opulently equipped car, the Taurus is
substantially more expensive than the popular Camry and Accord,
however. Its equipment and price position it more directly against the
Toyota Avalon, Buick Lucerne and even European prestige products such
as the Audi A6 and its technical cousin, the Volvo S80.
That
could prevent the Taurus from vying for sales honors again, once
consumers get a look at the new model, predicts Joe Phillipi, president
of AutoTrends Consulting.
"Also, it is only being built in one plant, which puts some constraints on Ford on how many units they can churn out," he added.
Regardless
of whether Taurus can reclaim its sales title, Ford has achieved the
goal of remarkably boosting the car's perceived quality through stylish
design, thoughtful features and improved quality of the materials used.
For example, the dashboard has a softly padded top. And the padding on
the door panels has molded-in stitching that makes it look convincingly
like real stitched leather from Gucci, but at a Target price.
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What is success? To
laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the
affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and
endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the
best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy
child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one
life has breathed easier because you have lived; That is to have
succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sincerely,
Frank Kimbrough
Franks Automobile Shipping & Transport
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