If you're like most Americans, you were lectured about the dangers of driving while intoxicated from the time we first set foot into a driver's education classroom – long before you were ever behind the wheel of a car.
NHTSA is meeting to discuss the dangers that quiet-running hybrids and electric vehicles pose to the visually impaired. Bills have already been introduced in Congress and some state bodies to require minimum sound levels so blind pedestrians can hear oncoming vehicles. Hybrids, when running on electricity alone, are virtually silent. Six blind pedestrians were killed in 2007 but none by a hybrid. Automakers say they will cooperate in addressing the issue.
Repair shops can choose to get their parts from wholesalers oriented toward the needs of professionals or from often quicker, less expensive retailers. Service, knowledge, and flexibility are strengths offered by wholesalers who need to maintain positive relationships with their shop customers in order to overcome the advantages of modern retailers.
The sharp decline in the sales of SUVs is having a ripple effect in the used car market. For the past several years lessors and dealers could count on steady residual values. But with gasoline selling at over $4.00 per gallon, used car buyers are walking past used SUVs in search of more fuel-efficient vehicles. Lenders and small businesses will be left to absorb the losses.
It might be far too dangerous for top-level racing these days, but the legendary Nordschleife, built in the mid-1920s, is the world's greatest test track. Find out more in this Big Picture Editorial from Motor Trend editor-in-chief Angus MacKenzie.
