2014 Kia Sportage Lx on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Good Samaritans rescue driver from sinking car in Florida

A pair of good Samaritans and three police detectives saved an elderly Florida man from drowning in his car after it crashed into a pond this week. According to Port Saint Lucie police, Hixford Banton was traveling westbound along Port Saint Lucie Boulevard in Port Saint Lucie when his Mercedes sedan was struck by another motorist attempting a turn on to the street from Arioso Boulevard. The collision caused Banton to lose control of his Mercedes. In his confusion, he ran off the road, drove across a lawn, and crashed into a pond in front of the town's City Hall. James "Randy" Brazier was across the street when he heard tires screeching, and turned to see Banton's Mercedes go into the pond. He rushed across the busy street, jumped into the pond, and swam to the rapidly sinking Mercedes to save the driver. Once Brazier reached the car and opened the door, it immediately capsized and sank to the bottom of the pond. "When I got to the guy, he was real scared, so I told him to calm down, " Brazier told the TCPalm newspaper. "I opened the door and got him out, he panicked, took us both under and then I hit the bottom, pushed ourselves back up." Brazier was assisted by another passerby named Charles Proulx, who waded into the pond to help the struggling men. Three Port Saint Lucie police detectives–Stephen Reuther, Peter Chunn, and Maiga Auguste–arrived soon after with a rescue ring and helped to pull the men out of the pond. Once everyone was ashore, salvage divers were brought in to locate the car and pull it out of the pond. Thanks to the murky water and the pond's surprising depth, roughly fifteen feet, it took divers nearly thirty minutes to locate the car. Later, at the police station, Banton said that he had yet to meet his rescuer. "Somebody I have yet to meet came in and helped me. He came to me and he said, 'I got you, I got you, are you ready?'" Banton said. "And he opened the door, and I just went out." Banton also stated that he could not swim, and that he would have died had Brazier not come to his aid. Soon after, the two were reintroduced under less stressful circumstances. News Source: TCPalm, Palm Beach Post, WPBF Government/Legal Weird Car News Kia Driving Safety Autoblog Minute accident

Trump encouraged by talk of 'a level playing field' on trade with South Korea

South Korea is a longstanding American ally, but President Donald Trump has spoken harshly about U.S. trade imbalances and threatened to tear up the bilateral trade pact. "We will do more to remove barriers to reciprocal trade and market access," Trump said, adding that the two leaders had talked about the thorny trade areas of steel and autos. Trump said he was encouraged by South Korea's President Moon Jae-in's assurances that he would seek a level playing field for American workers and businesses, particularly automakers. A joint statement said the two sides had agreed to work together to reduce over supply of basic materials such as steel and non-tariff barriers. It also said Trump had accepted an invitation from Moon to visit South Korea this year. Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said it was unwise for Trump to air the trade issue so publicly. "Public complaints by Trump about unfair trade and inadequate defense spending provide opportunities for China and North Korea to drive a wedge between the allies," she said. The U.S. goods trade deficit with South Korea has more than doubled since the U.S.-Korea free trade pact known as KORUS took effect in 2012. The agreement was forecast to boost U.S. exports by $10 billion a year, but in 2016 they were $3 billion lower than in 2011. At the start of Friday's talks, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the largest component of the deficit was automotive trade and many non-tariff barriers to U.S. auto exports to South Korea remained. "I think the way to address it is to deal product by product with what we can do to change the export side and what we can do to reduce the bad imports side," he said. Ross said later on Friday that some progress had been made in the talks. The current pact was agreed to despite protests by supporters of Moon, who was then in opposition. But analysts have suggested that given the need to preserve a unified front in the face of a hostile North Korea, there could be compromise on both sides to resolve issues. (By David Brunnstrom and Lisa Lambert. Additional reporting by Fatima Bhojani, Roberta Rampton, Tim Ahmann, David Chance, David Lawder and Eric Beech; Editing by Bill Trott and Andrew Hay) Related Video: Image Credit: Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters Government/Legal Genesis Hyundai Kia trade

Goes Both Ways: Free-trade pact sees South Korean brands losing share at home

France has been vocal, but not alone, in noting the rise of the South Korean automakers in Europe. The signing of a free-trade pact in 2011 between South Korea and the EU, along with the especially value-conscious buyers in a crisis-stricken Europe, has seen market share increases measuring in the double digits for Hyundai and Kia - analysts expect 14-percent growth for the two in 2012.
A report in Bloomberg has found that there's pain at the other end, too: The pact more than halved import tariffs on European cars headed to South Korea to 3.2 percent, and prices are now close enough to domestic offerings for more South Koreans to pay the premium for foreign luxury nameplates and the cachet they confer. Products sold by the five domestic automakers hogged 92 percent of the market last year, and sales have dropped 5.2 percent this year whereas import sales have risen by 24 percent. This will mark the first year that imports claimed ten percent of the market; compare that to 2002, when domestic market share in the world's 11th largest auto market was 99 percent.
The Germans are at the head of the arrow, counting for 65 percent of imported car sales, but every foreign maker has seen double-digit gains. Analysts think foreign makes could ultimately grab 15 percent of the market.