BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –Auto repair shops are playing a key role in protecting the environment with 96 percent reporting they recycle the scrap metal from automotive components, according to a study done by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry…
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A fire at an auto repair shop came dangerously close to injuring firefighters Monday morning.
It started just before midnight at Kiyos Transmission on Queen Street.
Intense flames inside the shop forced firefighters to try and battle the blaze from outside.
But at one point, the fire ignited equipment inside, sending sparks over the heads of firefighters and forcing the crews to pull back for their own safety.
Witnesses described what the scene was like when the fire first started.
We were cruising and we smelled smoke, so we walked by and we saw flames coming out so we called the cops right away, said a witness who identified himself as Wendell.
Firefighters were able to access the inside later on, using a metal saw to get into the shop.
There is no word yet on what caused the fire or what damage was caused.
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New credit check law good for all
Updated at 9:12 am on 7 February 2012
A new law that allows oustanding fines to be included on peoples credit reports is being welcomed by a credit bureau and a budgeting service.
The new law comes into effect on 13 February and means those with overdue fines or reparation could be declined credit.
Veda managing director John Robertson, says the change should promote the prompt payment of fines.
He says people who owe money tend to owe it to more than one place, which is a signal to lenders about their credit risk.
The Federation of Family Budgeting Services also believes the new law is a good thing for consumers.
Chief executive Raewyn Fox says it will mean lenders can be a lot more responsible and check thoroughly to make sure the borrower gets a product that is right for their needs.
She believes the change will ensure irresponsible lenders stick out from the pack.
Copyright copy; 2012, Radio New Zealand
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It may be the frequent butt of jokes, but a new study shows that the auto industry outperforms several other industries, including retail and wireless services, when it comes to providing a quality customer service experience. Savvy dealerships have discovered that delivering good customer service has a direct impact on their bottom line.
A Maritz Research benchmark study compared customer service expectations across 11 industries and 34 types of transactions. Specifically for automotive transactions, customers were asked about experiences purchasing or leasing a vehicle from new car dealerships and having their vehicles serviced there.
Three in four customers rated their experience among the highest ratings on a 10-point scale when purchasing a vehicle or having it serviced.
[5 Customer Service Phrases to Banish]
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Owning a car in London can be extremely impractical, especially for working professionals with no kids and living in a place with no free on-street or off-street parking. Plus, for those who are under a certain age, even if you did have regular use for a car, the car insurance would cost over a thousand pounds a year.
I faced this dilemma and had my bubble burst after passing my driving test in June last year. Pricing up some car insurance quotes online, I found that the cheapest I could get, for even the lousiest Citreon C1 with on-street parking in a nice neighbourhood still came up to around £1,200 for the cheapest quote. Thats alot of money especially since it would mainly be used only on the weekends, as I work in central London. Driving to work would mean parking in central London near impossible.
So I explored car clubs. These sound as though they are small neighbourhood associations that share a car, kind of like borrowing a neighbours car for a trip once in a while. But they are rapidly growing companies, with huge fleets of small city cars, scattered across London. Where I live, the two biggest car clubs are ZipCar and City Car Club.
The car closest to me by City Car Club was a Fiat 500. The closest ZipCar to me was a Volkswagen Golf, although there was also a BMW 1 Series just marginally further away. Rental is done by the hour so £5.20 an hour for City Car Clubs Fiat 500, and £6 an hour for ZipCars VW Golf. Not that expensive but if youre planning to rent for a whole day (ie 24 hours), it is still cheaper to go with traditional car hire firms offering day rates of between £20 and £40.
But for short journeys of a few hours, perhaps to go to IKEA, grocery shopping, or visiting a friend, car clubs are not too bad value for money. Plus, youre bound to find a car from a car club within a few minutes walk of where you live in London, meaning not having to make a big trek to the nearest car rental office (mostly near airports).
However, car clubs are also not for the opportunist driver wanting a backup in case option of a car. Membership to a car club typically costs £50 a year, so if you just end up renting a car once or twice during that year, thats a really expensive membership. City Car Club or ZipCar are probably suited if you plan to use a car more than 10 times a year.
So do have a look at car clubs both ZipCar and City Car Club have small cars that will allow you to enter central London as well free of charge, as the cars are Congestion Charge exempt. What are the differences between the two? Mainly just types of car, slight differences in pricing, and location. And if youre looking for a bit more choice, a new player has just entered the market: Green Wheels. However, they only have a small number of cars at the moment, making them poor value for their £49 yearly membership fee.
Do bear in mind though that you must have had your driving licence for more than a year, and typically over the age of 25, to join these car clubs so if youre under 25 or just passed your driving test, it might be back to asking your parents to be added to their insurance policies. Or renting from traditional car hire firm Enterprise, who do provide car hire to people who have just qualified for their driving license, as long as youre over 25.
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The Tuscarawas County Public Library will help do-it-yourself mechanics tune up their skills.
The library’s New Philadelphia location, 121 Fair Ave. NW, will host “For Backyard Mechanics Only” from 6:30-8 pm March 13. This free class will demonstrate how to use a library card to access auto repair reference databases from a home computer.
The Chilton Automotive Repair and EBSCO Auto Repair Reference Center databases will be featured. Library staff will highlight key features of each database, including repair, maintenance and safety recall information.
Registration is required. For more information or to register, call the librarys reference department at 330-364-4474, ext. 101.
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Already a popular regional attraction, the Cleveland Auto Show
is generating even more excitement than normal this year.
Heading into the auto show – the unofficial kickoff to the
Northeast Ohio selling season – a number of area dealerships have
reported strong sales in January and early February, due in part to
the unseasonably warm weather.
Also, high attendance and additional exhibit space at recent
auto shows in Los Angeles and Detroit have organizers of
Clevelands show expecting higher attendance than in recent
years.
Visitors should expect to see a bigger show than in past
years, said Louis A. Vitantonio Jr., president of the Greater
Cleveland Auto Dealers Association, which organizes the Cleveland
Auto Show. More than 1,000 vehicles will be in the I-X
Center.
Attendees arent the only ones looking forward to the show -
which will be held from Saturday, Feb. 25, through Sunday, March 4,
at the I-X Center in Cleveland.
Its a really exciting time for us, said Michael Friedman,
general manager of Ganley Volkswagen of Bedford and Ganley Subaru
of Bedford. Its a great lead generator, and it gets people in the
mood to buy a car. Instead of going to each dealership, you have
everything right under the same roof.
Bernie Moreno, president of Collection Auto Group, which
includes dealerships in Beachwood, Cleveland and North Olmsted,
agreed that the auto show fosters a great environment for the auto
industry.
Theres such negativity in the media, relative to the economy,
he said. When you get to the auto show, its nice to see theres
energy and vibrancy and people talking about moving forward instead
of backward.
Vitantonio considers selling cars to be the main focus of the
Cleveland Auto Show – and he has numbers to support him.
Of those surveyed following the 2011 Cleveland Auto Show, 61
percent of attendees reported the main reason for their visits is
that theyre in the market for a new vehicle, and 47 percent
reported they intended to purchase a vehicle within the following
12 months.
Thats an extremely high percentage, Vitantonio said.
A survey also showed that auto show attendance is highest among
luxury and import brand owners.
Attendance at auto shows prior to vehicle purchase ranged from
11 percent to 37 percent depending on the brand, according to
Foresight Researchs Auto Show Strategy Report.
Highest attendance was among the buyers of luxury import brands
such as Mercedes-Benz, Acura, Audi, BMW and Lexus, while the lowest
was among buyers of brands such as Hyundai, Subaru and Kia.
Our show has a really high percentage of show goers who are
looking specifically for the high-end brands, Vitantonio said.
The percentage of buyers who were highly influenced by auto show
attendance was highest among buyers of luxury import vehicles,
according to the survey.
That bodes well for Collection Auto Group, Moreno said.
Well have basically every brand on the luxury side that people
would want, he said. The auto show is a big deal for us. Well
put on a full-court press.
Friedman also hopes to capitalize, and said hes had his staff
attend the auto show every year hes been in charge.
I have my sales people work the auto show, he said. Theyll
bring their business cards, grab a note pad, and any customer they
talk to and can get into the dealership, well give that customer a
$500 voucher toward a car.
As for what to expect at this years show, Vitantonio said
technology will be a highlight of this years show.
Anywhere from radio systems and iPod integration to fuel
economy, he said.
Moreno agreed, saying connectivity will be a major.
These days, you cant even imagine not having your iPhone with
you, he said. How do you take that connectivity – the idea that
youre constantly connected – and put it in the car?
Moreno said that examples of this include vehicles that have a
built-in Facebook app that checks in a driver on the social media
site when he or she arrives at a destination; vehicles that feature
text-to-voice software that allow drivers to receive and send text
messages by speaking; and vehicles that allow drivers to stream
Pandora through their smart phones.
Friedman agreed with Vitantonio in terms of show goers looking
at fuel economy, among other things.
People want safety, people want a car with great gas mileage,
and people want a car thats going to drive great in the snow, he
said.
In addition, the auto show will feature seven of the popular
Ride-N-Drive stations; the 14th annual Classic Car Competition;
and, for the first time, a stop by the DUB Show Tour, a
30,000-sq.-ft. custom car display presented by DUB Magazine.
With so much buzz surrounding this years show, it has Moreno
already wanting more.
Its 800,000 people who are paying to go see cars, he said.
We just wish that would happen every day.
mbutz@cjn.org
2012 Cleveland Auto Show
Dates: Saturday, Feb. 25 to Sunday, March 4
Hours: 11 am to 10 pm Monday through Saturday; 11 am
to
8 pm Sundays
Location: I-X Center, One I-X Center Dr., Cleveland
Admission: Adults, $12.50; Seniors (62 and older), $10.50;
Pre-teens, (7 to 12), $10.50; Children (6 and younger), free
Parking: Free
Website: clevelandautoshow.com
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Ford Motor Selling $1 Billion of Bonds Backed By Auto Loans
January 17, 2012, 2:04 PM EST
More From Businessweek
By Sarah Mulholland
Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co. is marketing $1 billion of bonds backed by auto loans after vehicle sales last year reached a four-year high, according to a person familiar with the deal.
The offering, issued through the automaker’s finance arm, may be sold as soon as this week, said the person, who declined to be identified because terms aren’t set. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company last sold similar debt in July, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Ford is issuing asset-backed securities as car sales climb and rating companies raise their outlook on the automaker’s unsecured debt. Ford’s U.S. sales exceeded 2 million in 2011 for the first year since 2007 amid signs that growth in the world’s largest economy is gaining momentum.
Standard & Poor’s lifted Ford Motor Co. and Ford Motor Credit’s debt grade on Oct. 21 to BB+, one step below investment grade, and Moody’s Investors Service raised its rating to an equivalent Ba1 on Oct. 27.
Ford sold $1.39 billion of bonds backed by auto loans on July 19, Bloomberg data show. The top-rated slice maturing in two years priced to yield 19 basis points more than the benchmark interest rate.
Bond offerings linked to automobile loans and leases are set to dominate sales of asset-backed debt for a fourth straight year in 2012 as a strengthening U.S. economy spurs consumers to buy vehicles. Sales of the securities may jump 11 percent to $63 billion next year, accounting for about 55 percent of bonds tied to consumer borrowing, according to Wells Fargo Securities LLC estimates. About $57 billion of bonds tied to auto debt were sold in 2011, or 54 percent of new deals, the bank said.
Top-ranked securities backed by auto loans are yielding 81 basis points more than Treasuries, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index. The spread has narrowed from 94 basis points on Dec. 31, the data show. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
–Editors: Shannon D. Harrington, John Parry
To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Mulholland in New York at smulholland3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net
READER DISCUSSION
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While the Chicago show draws far more shoppers, NAIAS status as an officially sanctioned international auto show attracts thousands of journalists, engineers, financial analysts and executives from around the world.
An automaker must be at both shows, for totally different reasons, said Jeremy Barnes of Mazda USA. Chicago draws more than a million people, and theyre all potential buyers. NAIAS gets seven or eight hundred thousand … but its one of the global shows, and you must have a presence. You must be seen to be a player on that stage, even though youll sell more cars elsewhere.
The Detroit-based shows contribution to Michigans economy has been estimated at up to $400 million, more each year than Super Bowl XL brought in 2006. Thats a recent development, and its thanks to the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, which runs the NAIAS.
Chicagos show ruled for decades.
Detroits automakers scoffed in the 1980s when the Detroit Auto Dealers Association asked its hometown companies to introduce important new vehicles at home.
European and Asian shows were then the venues for releasing news. But no North American show filled that role, said Jim Seavitt, president of Village Ford in Dearborn, Mich., and chairman of the 2013 NAIAS.
The DADA officials saw an opening. And they did something that Chicago never did: They got accreditation from the governing body of international auto shows. They changed the name from Detroit Auto Show to NAIAS and asked the Detroit Three to help raise the profile of the event.
Still, they got bubkes.
Seavitt remembers that a Ford bigwig told the dealers, No, that Chicago was more important because of media coverage and greater exposure in general. The dealers got the same response from GM and Chrysler, so they looked further afield and hit the jackpot in Japan in the late 1980s.
Toyota and Nissan were about to launch their new Lexus and Infiniti luxury brands. They wanted a big, international stage.
They chose the 1989 North American International Auto Show and made history. The Detroit 3 wouldnt be embarrassed in their backyard. They anted up their own major vehicle introductions.
European luxury brands wouldnt cede the luxury spotlight to the Japanese upstarts. They joined the party, and what had been a sleepy local auto show became a global news event.
Since then, DADA has campaigned ceaselessly to convince the worlds automakers that Detroit provides the best stage for their vehicles, technology and news.
Other auto shows around the world would love to steal NAIAS limelight for the international attention, visitors and money a top-shelf auto show brings.
We go to six or seven auto shows around the world every year, said DADA executive director Rod Alberts. We sit down with every manufacturer on their turf and ask how we can make the show better.
This year, Detroit benefited from a triple conjunction of newsmaking events: NAIAS media days, a Society of Automotive Analysts conference, and the Automotive News World Congress. All three drew journalists, analysts and executives from around the world.
NAIAS industry days, where engineers pay a stiff premium to evaluate the competition up close and without the crowds of public days, brought in another 22,788 from 28 countries. Meanwhile, Chicago will draw its usual million-plus this year.
First and foremost, were about selling cars, said Dave Sloan, president and general manager of the Chicago show.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Mark Phelan is the auto critic for the Detroit Free Press. He can be reached at mmphelan@freepress.com.
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