When Hyundai rolled out its Hyundai Assurance plan on January 3 of this year, it was a little surprising that more automakers didn’t follow suit. And now it’s clear that the program, which recognized the economic plight of consumers by promising to set them free of financial obligations if they became jobless, did a lot [...]

Well, it’s pretty sad to be semi-celebrating when Lexus sales for the month of June are off by 16.68% compared to the same month in 2008; however, the sales gap in June was not nearly as pronounced as in May when year-over-year sales were off a whopping 36.37%! The fine folks at Autoblog.com recently reported [...]

Ford, GM, and Chrysler now have a wide range of vehicles that are E85-compatible—meaning they can run on a blend of up to 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline—plus Nissan and Toyota have outfitted some of their largest trucks for it and it’s now offered in the 2009 Mercedes-Benz C300. There are now about six [...]

Research and statistics firm Nielsen has released more data about U.S. shopping and buying habits, and as always, the company’s findings are pretty interesting. In fact, after surveying 250,000 Americans online, Nielsen has identified a few causes for optimism in the auto industry, despite today’s flailing economy. Most importantly: Nielsen finds that people are shopping. [...]

Final details about the federal government’s new Cash-for-Clunkers program–clunkily and officially titled the “Car Allowance Rebate System”–won’t be released until July 23, but that hasn’t stopped Hyundai from getting a jump on the competition. Hoping to ride the wave of great publicity it’s received for its Car of the Year award, its successful Assurance Program, [...]

BMW recently began leasing the electric MINI to consumers in select areas of the US. The program entailed an application period of nearly 8 months and a detailed selection process that lands the electric car in the hands of a few select individuals. At nearly $850 a month, it’s far from cheap. But the program [...]

Large format battery cells will slowly gain a foothold on the automotive EV market in the coming years.  Companies such as LG Chem, A123 Systems, and EnerDel have been hard at work developing the large format automotive specific batteries, but Tesla still insists that the laptop format, as used in their Roadster, is the best [...]

Potentially good news for automakers this morning: industry analysts predict that when June’s sales stats are tabulated, the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) for light vehicle sales may hit 10 million. That would mark the first time sales have crossed that symbolic line during this calendar year, and it could be a sign that things [...]