Leather 8 Passenger,sunroof,power Sliding Doors & Hatch,ldw,fcw,free Ship W/bin on 2040-cars

Auto blog

United States drivers buying fewer Mexican-made cars

Crossovers and pickup trucks are not only growing in market share, they're also more profitable than cars. A crossover on the same platform as a sedan retails for thousands more, despite similar components. It's one of the reasons we've seen automakers rapidly shifting production of their sedans and hatchbacks to Mexico, where cheap labor preserves the thin profit margins on these inexpensive vehicles. But as the market continues to shift in the United States, Mexico is getting burned by its lack of product diversity. The country's auto exports, which are heavy on cars, suffered a 16-percent drop last month, Automotive News reports. In total, year-over-year exports fell from 233,515 to 197,020 last month, while year-to-date exports are down by 7.4 percent, from 922,029 to 854,118. The number one culprit? America – which usually accounts for 75 percent of Mexico's exports – and its appetite for crossovers and pickup trucks bolstered by cheap gas prices. While Mexico does build some light truck models – AN specifically calls out the Ram 2500, Honda HR-V, GMC Sierra, and Toyota Tacoma as export leaders – the vast majority of vehicles rolling out of its factories are sedans and hatchbacks. In fact, the three biggest drops in Mexican exports came from companies whose south of the border factories only build cars – Ford (Fusion/Lincoln MKZ and Fiesta), Mazda (Mazda3), and Volkswagen (Golf and Jetta). Mexican Automotive Industry Association President Eduardo Solis told AN the export shortfall will likely be sorted out sooner rather than later, thanks to a pair of new factories – a Kia car factory and an Audi SUV plant – that are coming online by year's end. The two facilities will add around 100,000 vehicles to the country's export totals, which Solis said should leave the industry on the verge of breaking another export record in 2016. But how sustainable will these record-breaking years be? Slapping an "Hecho en Mexico" sticker on a new German SUV won't be enough to change the fact that Mexico's product mix is tilted too heavily towards body styles that are not growing in volume. Mexico's record-breaking export years probably aren't at an end, but we'd argue they're certainly under threat. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Omar Torres / AFP / Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Ford GMC Honda Mazda RAM Volkswagen Truck Crossover SUV Mexico

Will states start to prevent you from registering cars that have pending recalls?

The impact of 2014 – henceforth known as Year of the Recalls – will have long-ranging consequences on the auto industry. One of the biggest changes, though, might not be in the way manufacturers inform the government of pending recalls or in the way Uncle Sam punishes automakers that violate its rules, but in the ability to sell cars with pending recalls. And strangely enough, the charge is being led by an automaker. Honda Executive Vice President Rick Schostek, pictured above, argued during a meeting of the Senate Transportation Committee that the government needs to take a role in mandating that consumers have recall services performed. That could include withholding registration for vehicles with pending recalls, Bloomberg reports. Honda is just one of the automakers currently embroiled in the massive Takata airbag recall. "It's a good idea," safety advocate Clarence Ditlow said, according to Bloomberg. "California won't give you a registration if you have an emissions recall. Why not a safety recall?" "Honda is going to use any innovative tools to find customers and get these recalls done," Schostek told the Transportation Committee. The exec, aside from echoing Ditlow's viewpoint, also argued for requiring dealerships and garages to inform vehicle owners of incomplete recalls, regardless of the service provided. Schostek also made an argument that state governments could step in, as well. Whatever ends up happening, it's fair to say that between Takata and General Motors, the future of recalls for American consumers are set for significant changes. News Source: BloombergImage Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP Government/Legal Recalls Honda Ownership Safety

Toyota tops Consumer Reports best, worst used car values

We often mock Toyota for building boring, soulless cars, but a new study by Consumer Reports suggests that regardless of whether that's true, the company has some of the best used cars on the market. In its report on used cars from 2004-2013, the Japanese automaker had 11 vehicles among its brands on the list - more than any other automaker.
CR breaks the list down by cost and vehicle size, and Toyota has at least one entry at every price point and in nearly every segment. To score a recommendation, a vehicle had to perform well in the magazine's initial tests and score above-average reliability results. It also tried to only suggest cars with electronic stability control. Of the 28 recommended vehicles, Honda/Acura had the second most mentions at six, and Ford, Hyundai and Subaru managed two each.
The Detroit brands also made it to the list, but not in a positive way. Consumer Reports compiled a list of 22 vehicles it wouldn't recommend because "they have multiple years of much-worse-than-average overall reliability." General Motors had the most unrecommended models on the list at six, but Chrysler and Ford weren't far behind, with five cars each from their brands not making the grade. The full list of recommendations is available on CR's website.