Tdi One Owner 5 Speed Selling No Reserve Diesel Sunroof Heated Seats New Tires on 2040-cars

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Ram and Alfa Romeo top J.D. Power study of best automaker websites

Imagining a new car can be terrific fun, especially if the new car is an Alfa Romeo. So say the fantasy engineers at the J.D. Power agency, who’ve found that Alfa and Ram, sister brands under the Stellantis umbrella, offer potential buyers the most attractive consumer websites, which are often their first viable encounter with those vehicles. Power found that those marques lead the mass market and premium categories in its twice annual Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study. In the premium segment, Alfa Romeo led with 755 points, up six points over BMW, 10 points ahead of Infiniti, 14 points past of Jaguar, and 18 points up on Porsche. By contrast, Volvo and Audi trail the pack with 689 points, and are behind Genesis (699 points), Tesla (720), and Cadillac (721), all of which perform worse than the premium segment average of 724 points. The summerÂ’s study showed that in the mass market segment, Ram leads with an impressive 735 points, which puts it six points ahead of GMC, seven points atop its stablemate Jeep, eight points beyond Subaru, and 22 points ahead of the industry average. Volkswagen finished dead last among mass market names, but only one point behind Ford, 684 to 683 out of a possible 1,000. Segment average, as noted, was 713 points. “Website satisfaction can be volatile, and automotive websites are not immune to changing preferences,” said Jon Sundberg, director of digital solutions at J.D. Power. “However, manufacturers have shown to be very agile when it comes to website design and ensuring their sites meet modern standards, more so than many other industries, as exemplified through the study data.” Marketing/Advertising Alfa Romeo Audi BMW Ford Volkswagen

German carmakers recall 630,000 diesel vehicles in Europe

Mercedes, Opel, Porsche, and Volkswagen will recall over 630,000 cars in Europe, according to reports Friday. No diesel car has been able to get under the legal emissions limit in real-world driving, according to a German government investigation. While only Volkswagen Group has been using a specific "defeat device", other carmakers have been playing with their exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems. Depending of the manufacturer, the systems have been cut off at a certain temperature. In a specific test cycle the systems operate to fulfill the legal requirements, but in everyday use the limits are exceeded. According to the magazine Der Spiegel, the supplier Bosch is behind this programming and has provided it to all German automakers. The mentioned carmakers have announced recalls, but many other manufacturers are also mentioned by name in the report, including Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet, Dacia, Fiat, Ford, Hyundai, Jaguar, Jeep, Land Rover, Nissan, Renault, and Suzuki. PSA Group, which produces Peugeot, Citroen, and DS cars, declared yesterday that its offices were raided following an emissions investigation. Related Video: News Source: AutocarImage Credit: Getty Images Government/Legal Green Recalls Mercedes-Benz Porsche Volkswagen Opel Emissions Diesel Vehicles diesel emissions investigation

Taxpayers wasted $51 million on VW diesel credits

The scope of Volkswagen's diesel emission rules evasion continues to widen with 11 million vehicles now potentially affected around the world, and the company is setting aside over $7 billion to start paying for it all. However, the costs could go even deeper. In a piece that's well worth a read, an analysis by The LA Times finds that the government distributed as much as $51 million in green car subsidies to buyers of these models in 2009 – the first year of the dishonest engine management software. The short-term effects of this scandal on VW are already quite dire. On September 21, the company's stock fell over 20 percent at one point on the German exchange, ended down 17.8 percent that day, and have continued to tank. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency has forced a stop-sale on 2015 and 2016 diesel models with the 2.0 TDI, and the agency has begun analyzing the 3.0-liter V6 TDI in the Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5, Q7, and Porsche Cayenne to look for similar issues. The Justice Department has also started a criminal investigation, and the automaker has instituted its own external probe, as well. The emissions irregularities were first discovered by researchers at West Virginia University and the International Council on Clean Transportation. The EPA and California Air Resources Board were eventually made aware and launched their own investigations.