As if Detroit didn't have enough to worry about, Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM) has unveiled its long-awaited super-cheap car at the Auto Expo in New Delhi. Called the Nano, it's tiny and kind of cute, in a smooshed jelly bean kind of way. Its most attractive feature, though, is its price. For a mere 100,000 rupees, the equivalent of roughly $2,500, you can drive home in the world's least expensive car (assuming you live in India, of course).
Hazardous air pollutants
Taking aim at hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) containing cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese and nickel, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a tough area source rule covering body shops. The rule, which mandates full compliance by December 2010, requires body shops to:
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Paint only inside filtered, ventilated paint booths or prep stations.
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Use high-transfer efficiency application equipment.
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Clean guns with nonhazardous solvents, in gun-enclosing washers, or use a method that does not involve atomized spraying to the open air.
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Have painters trained and certified every five years.
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Make a one-time facility compliance notification to EPA or the state by December 2009.
Questions on the new rule may be directed to NADA Regulatory Affairs at regulatoryaffairs@nada.org, or call (703) 821-7040.
As part of its continued implementation of the FACT Act of 2003, the FTC recently released three new final regulations impacting dealers:
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The long- awaited "Red Flags" Rule,
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The Address Discrepancy Rule, and
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The Affiliate Marketing Rule.
The Red Flags Rule requires dealers to develop comprehensive procedures to prevent identity theft, and the Address Discrepancy Rule requires dealers to develop procedures to verify a customer's identity when receiving a notice of address discrepancy from a credit reporting agency. (The agency must send a notice when the address it has on file for a consumer differs from the consumer address provided by the dealer when ordering the report.) The final compliance date for these rules is November 1, 2008.
Additional information on these and other FACT Act requirements is available at www.nada.org/factact (NADA login required). NADA will provide guidance on these rules well in advance of their respective final compliance dates
