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AR Index     611.62  +39.17  (+6.84%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  78.93  +3.86 GM        0.70    +0.06 Ford      7.62   +0.57 Dow 9885.80  +286.05   (+2.98%)  The year-to-date chart is looking like things are moving in the right direction doesn't it? Not bad considering the anchor being dragged along that is GM.

For those readers too young to remember, a car used to be a simple piece of machinery, something like a very fast rider mower but better because you couldn't mow the lawn with it. You started this up, drove off at pretty much any speed you desired, and then exercised a variety of constitutionally guaranteed liberties.... No more--nowadays if a car cannot survive a drop from the Gateway Arch and emits any vapors more noxious than Evening in Paris, the federal government won't let you own it, and what they will let you own you can't really drive, because fifty-five miles an hour is the speed at which a spirited person parallel-parks, not motors to Chicago...

This looks like it's going to be the week to get out there and take some spectacular fall scenery drives here in the Northeast. We had to drive from State College to Pittsburgh yesterday and the colors are really starting to come out. With expected temperatures in the 40's for the rest of the week (I had to scape the windshield twice already) the colors should explode this week...

The Tokyo Auto Show is this month and auto shows mean concepts, which are one of the things I love about the shows. This 122 inch long, 43 inch wide two-seater is the Nissan Land Glider concept. You ride tandem-style in this electric vehicle and the body and tires lean up to 17 degrees into turns like a motorcycle...

From the Wall Street Journal:  Mark LaNeve, General Motors sales chief and a longtime executive, will leave the company Oct. 15 for a job with a company in another industry. LaNeve headed sales and marketing until GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson restructured the management team and put former product head Bob Lutz in charge of marketing...

DETROIT — Auto parts maker Delphi ended four years in bankruptcy court Tuesday, emerging as a private company and removing a major uncertainty for former parent General Motors. The group acquiring the now much smaller Delphi will forgive nearly $3.5 billion of bankruptcy loans and will invest $900 million in capital. It may remove some uncertainty from GM's situation, but that doesn't mean GM should plan on being the big dog in town any time soon.

In less enlightened times, the best way to impress women was to own a hot car. But women wised up and realized it was better to buy their own hot cars so they wouldn't have to ride around with jerks. ~ Scott Adams...

AR Index     572.45  -39.10  (-6.39%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  75.07  -5.56 GM        0.64    -0.07 Ford      7.05   -0.44 Dow 9599.75  -189.61   (-1.94%) So you wonder why the "imports" (you can hardly call them that anymore) are so attractive to people? Check out "Saturn and Me: GM Loses a Customer" by Allan Sloan in the Washington Post. Once a customer loses trust in a brand, it's very difficult to get it back, and GM has managed to do that with so many customers who used to be loyal buyers that it's hard to envision them regaining even a shred of their former status in the automotive world.

Seems like the demise of Saturn might have been an iceberg waiting to be hit. Part of what happened when Saturn was born was an attempt to change the relationship between GM and the UAW. Saturn sales peaked at 286,000 cars in 1995.  But that year saw another, more menacing development...

I have been an automotive service consultant since 2001. I have seen this business change over the years, yet sadly many of the people who are in this business have not changed. This is a profession with not enough professionals; perhaps we can change that...