Filed under: Government/Legal , Chrysler , Dodge Remember a couple weeks back when we told you about Chrysler’s improbable legal battle against little Lake Mary High School in Florida? Chrysler’s legal team put the smack down on the school for using the Ram logo as its school insignia, and the law jockeys in Auburn Hills, MI were giving the school until June 15 to remove all instances of the logo at a considerable cost…

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Autoblog

Topics: entry, school, texas, chrysler legal

Filed under: Car Buying , Government/Legal In what might turn out to be one of the biggest games of “he said, she said,” in the history of the world, Maritz Research, an automotive market research company, is claiming that the government’s Cash for Clunkers program actually boosted auto sales by much more than previously thought. Maritz is crediting the program with 765,000 new vehicle sales, higher than the 677,000 claimed by the government, and much, much higher than the 125,000 sales that Edmunds.com famously quoted…

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Autoblog

Topics: maritzstudy, image, clunkers, maritzmarketing

Toyota is looking more like Detroit’s Big three all the time. First the quality problems and now the company has a big incentive campaign to win back loyalty. Toyota is offering 0% financing for up to five years and some discounted lease deals as a way to get buyers to look at its cars in the wake of its seemingly unending recall problems. The latest problem came in San Diego when a driver of …

David Welch

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Auto Beat - BusinessWeek

Topics: time, companies under fire, recession

Filed under: Government/Legal Is CARB backing down on its so-called “cool cars” regulation? On May 7, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will have to turn in its final draft of the controversial regulations, which calls for automakers to build cars and trucks with windows that prevent 45% of the sun’s energy from entering a vehicle by 2014 and 60% by 2016. Vehicle manufacturers have argued that it will be expensive to meet the requirements, and other groups are complaining for their own reasons. Heck, …

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Autoblog

Topics: controversial, ca cool cars, california

Filed under: Government/Legal , Safety , Toyota After Dave Chappelle threw himself overboard the USS Hollywood, he did an interview in which he said, “When a person tells you something’s… just business, that means some ice-cold [stuff] might be about” to happen. We can imagine that Toyota , doing everything it can to make its case better in the eyes of the American government and public, called its fellow members of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers to let them …

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Autoblog

Topics: public relations, press, auto, detroit, publicrelations

Filed under: Sedan , Government/Legal , Recalls , Safety , Hyundai 2011 Hyundai Sonata SE - Click above for high-res image gallery A couple weeks back, Hyundai put a stop-sale on its freshly minted 2011 Sonata sedan because a front door latch could malfunction after a rather labored series of steps. The stop-sale was lifted almost immediately, though, as the Korean automaker was able to quickly ship replacement parts to U.S. dealers, at which point the vehicles in stock were repaired. At that time, though, Hyundai …

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Autoblog

Topics: safety, 2011sonata, entry

Filed under: Government/Legal , Safety , Videos , Toyota Click above to watch the video after the jump And here we thought all that Toyota bashing was happening just in Washington, D.C ., in Midwest bars and on late night talk shows. It appears Toyota can’t even escape the negative press that has come as a result of the company’s recent recall woes at the 82 annual Academy Awards, either. During host Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin’s opening monologue, the two delivered a…

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Autoblog

Topics: alec baldwin, academyawardstoyota, hollywood

Filed under: Government/Legal , Recalls , Toyota If you’re like us and wondering what lengths are required to get your hands on a 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera , we may have the answer. All you need to do is solve the mystery of Toyota’s unintended acceleration issues and our friends over at Edmunds will give you a cool million dollars. Edmunds CEO Jeremy Anwyl claims his company has heard “compelling testimony” from customers, and much of what’s been documented (including …

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Autoblog

Topics: inside line, friends, open-source, entry

Filed under: Government/Legal , Hirings/Firings/Layoffs , GM According to Automotive News (which is citing four separate yet unknown sources), General Motors is preparing to reinstate more than 580 dealers that had applied for government-mediated arbitration to keep their franchises in the United States. For those keeping track, 580 represents exactly half of the 1,160 dealerships that signed up to go through the arbitration process . These selected dealerships would potentially be reinstated outside the …

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Autoblog

Topics: images, general-motors, dealerarbitration, gmdealers, general motors franchise

Filed under: Etc. , Government/Legal , Marketing/Advertising , Videos , Hyundai Hyundai ‘luxury’ ad - Click above to watch the video after the jump There probably isn’t a day that goes by when an automaker isn’t being sued for something. Some suits are extremely serious, while others peg the needle on the frivolity scale. And while Hyundai is flying high on the sales charts right now, the Korean automaker apparently isn’t immune to a trip or two the local trademark infringement court. At question is a Hyundai Sonata…

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Autoblog

Topics: handbag, hyundai commercial, super bowl commercial, hyundai