Ok so you might find the next few links interesting. These are from around the web, just random snippets that I’ve picked up in my reading, but I found some very cool information in them. You might too. Here goes…

Kia Magentis 2001-06

When new, the first-generation Magentis offered excellent value and the same can be said for pre-owned models. For all model years, the higher values … Read More…

Who's buying?

“I pre-ordered it before I even knew what it looked like,” he said. Six years later, the Prius is “the best car I've ever owned,” he said. … Read More…

Ten Clunker Cars To Avoid

“We are looking to leapfrog totally c and Toyota and be recognized as the pre-eminent quality leader fundamentally, with no competition from Honda and … Read More…
That’s all the news for today guys, so until next time, thanks for stopping by.

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Marketing Strategies to Put Yourself Out of Business
 by: Charlie Cook

Want to learn how to lose a billion dollars?

Just follow the marketing strategies used by GM, Ford and Daimler Chrysler. Yes, some of the largest corporations in the world are missing some basic tenants of marketing and it’s worth taking a look at what they’re doing wrong so you don’t make the same mistakes. You don’t want the following headline written about your company.

“GM Hits Billion Dollar pot hole” – Miami Herald “GM shares fell to a 12 year low.” – New York Times

What are some of the most glaring mistakes a handful of car companies are making?

1. Discount Pricing

GM and Ford offer free loans and rebates worth thousands of dollars to prompt people to buy their vehicles. Good idea?

When you need to resort to bribing people to buy your products or services, it’s a sign that something is terribly wrong. The idea is to provide value, help your prospects understand the perceived value and charge enough to make a reasonable profit. When you start discounting your product as a means to get people to buy it you’ve entered an endless downward cycle.

The next time a prospect buys, they’ll want an even larger discount and there will always be somebody who will undercut you on price. Eventually you’ll end up like GM, losing lots, maybe not billions, but enough to threaten the life of your business.

2. Making Products People Don’t Want

According to the New York Times, “General Motors and Ford have swerved off course for a far more basic reason: not enough people like their cars.” Whoops!

The objective is to market a product or service people want.

3. Not Paying Attention to What People Want

If you want to make money you’d pay attention to what your prospects want? Right?

In the case of Daimler Chrysler you’d be wrong. At the Detroit Auto Show crowds loved the two-seat 8 foot long “Smart Car”. So logically Daimler Chrysler decided not to sell it in the United States despite booming sales in Europe for years. Zap, a Santa Rosa CA firm, saw an opportunity especially with rising gas prices and went direct to the European Daimler dealers to buy the cars. Surprise! Ten thousand U.S. buyers put themselves on a list to order over $55 million worth of cars in just a few months.

Avoid discount pricing, provide products and services your prospects want and you can avoid losing a billion or instead make 55 million. I don’t know about you but if I lose ten thousand dollars I get upset and when I make a million in a year I’m pretty happy.

2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

About The Author

2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Plan eBook, ‘7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business’ at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

ccook@marketingforsuccess.com

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Dodge Magnum RT 2006 Car Review
 by: Andrew Kier

The new Magnum is a great looking car that will get your neighbors talking as you rumble around the block. The unique styling of the Magnum will also attract gawkers in the form of 18-22 year old guys pointing for their friends to “check that out”. And a few people will approach you as you are filling up the gas tank to ask, “Does it really have a Hemi?”, with only a vague notion that it somehow makes the car better.

The Magnum is offered with many different engine sizes (either a 6-cylinder or 8-cylinder) with your choice of horsepower output of 190, 250, 340 and 425. The price of the vehicle also corresponds with the engine size starting at $30,345 to the expensive STR-8 model for $37,320. A big part of the mystique around this car is the Hemi engine. The Hemi is short for hemispherical combustion chamber, which creates more efficient fuel burning and allows larger valves for better airflow. Basically, it produces more power than an engine with its displacement would normally produce. (There are also drawbacks to the Hemi, which is why it isn’t the only engine that Chrysler produces).

The interior of the car looks much more expensive than you’d expect for the price of the Magnum. Since Mercedes bought Chrysler, the Dodge vehicles I’ve sampled have had a sharp improvement in interior quality. While on the road, the car is very solid and the seats are comfortable even on long highway runs.

As much as I like the looks, after driving it a while I really have to question the design concept that the Magnum offers. It is a station wagon built to transport a lot of people and a lot of stuff. But mating this with a powerful engine with the taught racing-like suspension is uncomfortable for both. It is like having a Corvette tow a small trailer, and you are in the trailer and the Corvette driver is 15 years-old, pushing the car to its limits. (Only an actual Corvette has a much more comfortable suspension than the Magnum). Even driving on smooth roads, the steering is very darty and difficult to control. And with a large car, all that weaving and road feedback is exaggerated for the passengers and everything you’ve stored in the back.

I like having a navigation system, but figuring out how to use it with the steering wheel controls made me frequently refer to the user’s manual. In spite of the high horsepower and low-end torque I played with when starting from a full stop, the RT model I drove averaged 20 MPG on the higway.

What I presume to be the target market for this car, those 18-22 year-old guys that I mentioned, will probably love this car. And as much as I love driving sports cars, the darty steering and sharp suspension make it too uncomfortable without any spectacular payoff. The 0-60 sprint is fun for a little while, but I’d pass on buying a Magnum as a daily driving vehicle.

About The Author

Andrew Kier is a car fanatic that grew up near Motor City and has been writing for automotive magazines since 1992. He shares his two decades of car comparison experience with recent models. More of his articles are available at http://cars.real-solution-center.com.

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If you’ve been keeping up with my blog posts lately you’ll know I’ve come to adding a few news posts from around the web on this subject. I’ve got a couple more today that are new and updated, so let me know what you think of em…

Pre-Owned: 2006-2009 Ford Fusion

Its ace in the hole, however, is affordability — according to the Canadian Red Book, the 2007 SEL V6 ($14125) is $5875 more affordable than the Toyota Camry … Read More…

Ford and Chevrolet Claim Top Five Spots on AutoTrader.com's Monthly New Car …

AutoTrader.com aggregates in a single location millions of new cars, used cars and certified pre-owned cars from thousands of auto dealers and private … Read More…

A Few Minutes With … Strom Altman

Altman said the new sedan would compete with the Acura TSX, Mazda6, and Toyota Camry among others. He said the Kizashi costs $2000 less than competitors and … Read More…
That’s all the news for today guys, so until next time, thanks for stopping by.

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The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a medium sized sport/utility vehicle produced by Chrysler, that has generally received good marks for its looks, handling and four wheel drive capabilities. But, according to one nonprofit safety group, the Grand Cherokee features a notable defect which it contends has killed hundreds of people.

CAS Complaint

According to a complaint filed by the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) to the NHTSA, the 1993-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee’s plastic gas tank is deadly as it is located behind the rear axle and extends below the rear bumper. The consumer group says that this design exposes the Jeep when in an accident, contending that at least 254 deaths can be attributed to the vehicle.

CAS says that the Grand Cherokee gas tank is defectively designed in that it is subject to rupture, degrades over time, and has other features harmful to vehicle occupants. Some 172 fiery crashes have been reported to date, resulting in hundreds of deaths.

Defect Petition

If the NHTSA decides to pursue the case, some 3 million Jeeps produced over an eleven year period could be recalled. On November 6, 2009, the NHTSA launched a “defect petition” to allow people to file a safety complaint. This step can take months even years to complete with Chrysler saying that the automaker is cooperating with the NHTSA as they begin their investigation.

Beginning with the 2005 model year, Jeep’s former owner DaimlerChrysler AG moved the gas tank and shielded it, effectively reducing but not eliminating the problem. One fatal accident since that time involved a new Grand Cherokee, but no other deadly accidents have been reported.

Major Recalls

As the NHTSA investigates the Jeep Grand Cherokee, they’re also examining huge recalls involving Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor Company vehicles, along with a smaller, but still sizable recall involving at least 400,000 Hondas.

Consumers can check to see if their own vehicle has been recalled by visiting the NHTSA website at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov.

Matthew C. Keegan is a freelance writer who resides in North Carolina. Matt is a contributing writer for Andy’s Auto Sport an aftermarket supplier of quality parts including Chevy Camaro wheels and Chevy Corvette wheels.

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Ok so 3 more posts today that I’ve dug up – I’m an information JUNKIE on this stuff lately. Give em a browse and let me know what ya reckon. They’re just from a few different sites I’ve been surfing lately that are generally good for information like this…

Auto & Truck2008 Sebring Convertible, Raising Chrysler’s Roof

Auto industry's convertible segment is booming these days.

Chrysler-Fiat Press Conference: 2011 Chrysler Sebring to Get De …

And the great plan for the underwhelming car known as the Chrysler Sebring? The ribs will be removed from the hood during a mid-cycle refresh slated for the fourth-quarter of 2011 2010. We say it's going to take more than…

2010 Ford Fusion Car Sales ahead Chevy Malibu, Impala, Chrysler …

Read the 2010 Ford Fusion Car Sales ahead Chevy Malibu, Impala, Chrysler 300, Sebring blog post, comment and join the discussion in InternetAutoGuide's auto blog.

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.

Have a great day!

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Take a good look around the next time you’re wandering the aisles of your neighborhood shopping emporium. It’s likely that almost every item on the shelf – every apple, every bag of dog food, every pair of blue jeans – was transported via commercial truck. Before that, trucks transferred most of the ingredients, components, and raw materials used from their source to one or more manufacturing plants.

The modern logistics and transportation system is a wonder to behold. A vast nationwide network made up of large delivery companies, independent owner-operators, and everything in between, these trucks are literally the engines that drive the American economy. But according to some experts and analysts, the trucking industry also deserves another distinction – to be ranked among the most serious, pervasive threats to public safety.

Whether you call them big rigs, diesels, tractor-trailers, 18-wheeler, or semi trucks, these large commercial vehicles account for a disproportionate number of collisions, wrecks, and crashes each year. Critics contend that a slew of questionable practices and safety lapses may contribute to the problem, and the gradual but steady deregulation of the industry over the last decade has also come under fire from public safety advocates.

What are your chances of being involved in a collision with a commercial truck? Which factors and variables could increase your risk for colliding with a truck? Read on for hints, tips, and insights from top industry experts.

Truck Accident Fast Facts

- Over the past two decades, the number of registered large trucks has increased by more than 40%, while the number of miles traveled by large trucks has increased by nearly 85%.

- Drivers over the age of 65 are involved in fatal accidents with heavy trucks more than three times more often than their younger counterparts.

- In a collision between a car and a large truck, passenger car occupants are 29 times more likely to be fatally injured.

- According to data gathered by the National Transportation Safety Board, driver fatigue may cause or contribute to up to 40% of all truck collisions.

- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that in 2004 alone, 416,000 large trucks were involved in traffic crashes in the United States; of these, 4,862 involved fatalities.

- In the last year for which comprehensive records are available, 5,190 people died in the United States as result of collisions with large trucks, comprising 12% of all known traffic fatalities. 116,000 were non-fatally injured in collisions with large trucks during the same period.

- In 2004, one out of eight traffic deaths occurred as a result of a collision with a large truck.

What are the Factors that Cause Truck Collisions?

Each traffic collision is different, but analysts have found that a number of factors are more likely to be involved when the wreck involves a large commercial truck. According to government safety statistics, the most common causes of big rig wrecks include:

- Driver fatigue

- Excessive or unsafe speeds

- Tailgating or close following

- Driver inattention

- Cell phone usage

- Improper maintenance

- Failure to adapt to changing weather or road conditions

- Excessive or improperly secured cargo loads

- Sudden lane changes

- Aggressive driving habits

- Drug or alcohol intoxication

The Heller Law Firm – http://www.seriousinjury.org
If you have been injured in a truck accident, The Heller Law Firm can help you understand your options and protect your legal rights. They promise to treat your concerns with the consideration and respect you deserve. Please contact the attorneys at The Heller Law Firm for a free consultation with a personal injury attorney, or call them direct at 866-461-5791. You will hear from them either the same day or within 24 hours. Their lawyers provide high-quality legal representation for personal injury clients throughout the Southern California area, including Los Angeles, Calabasas, Sherman Oaks, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks. They offer consultations in their offices or other locations which are convenient for you, including a hospital or your home.

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Each day, U.S roadways are traveled by passenger vehicles, patrol cars, emergency vehicles, and delivery trucks, all heading to various destinations across cities and states. Given the sheer number of automobiles on the road, accidents are very common and may range from simple fender-benders to serious injury accidents.

Accidents that involve delivery trucks may carry significantly higher risks of injury due to the typically larger size of vehicles involved. Delivery trucks often have more powerful engines and are of a higher weight-class than passenger vehicles like cars and light trucks. In addition, delivery trucks are often burdened by merchandise or items destined for another location, which often requires a greater breaking distance and additional room to maneuver.

If the delivery vehicle is attached to a trailer, the risk to others on the roadway greatly increases. There have been many recorded accidents involving delivery vehicles that involved the attached trailer tipping over, flipping, or obstructing a highway after a collision. In any event, a vehicle used for the transport of goods can be very destructive in the event of a collision.

If an accident is the fault of reckless or negligent behavior on the part of the delivery driver, other individuals involved in the accident may be eligible for compensation for medical bills, pain, suffering, lost wages, and punitive damages. It is important for drivers of vehicles used for commerce to operate their vehicles with the utmost care and awareness of others on the road.

There have been many cases of injury due to the recklessness of drivers of large delivery vehicles, but there have also been documented cases of persons being hurt in collisions with smaller cars and trucks, including mail vehicles, transport vans, and pizza delivery vehicles. As with other collisions, if the delivery driver is behaving in a reckless manner and is involved in a collision with someone else, he or she may be held liable for the damages.

Specific cases have involved pizza delivery drivers colliding with other vehicles or pedestrians on neighborhood streets. The demands of the job often require drivers to run their product to the customer on a strict time limit. These pressures may result in faster speeds and reckless maneuvers on the road to get the product to the customer on time. In any event, delivery drivers of any type of vehicle should be aware of the need for caution and responsible driving.

If you would like to know more about transport vehicles and personal injury lawsuits, visit the website of the Madison personal injury attorneys of Habush Habush & Rottier, S.C.

Joseph Devine

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Cycling in Chinese city is anything but leisurely – Yahoo! News

GUANGZHOU, China – A friend sent me a YouTube link to a video called “Insane Cycling — New York City.” I clicked on it, hoping to glean a few tips for my own cycling on the anarchic streets of China.

I came away feeling like someone who expects to see “Mad Max” and is shown “Sesame Street” instead. New York seemed like a wonderful place to ride. Pedestrians used the crosswalks. Buses lumbered along like gentle whales. Taxis used their turn signals. The streets looked so clean. No one honked.

If that’s insanity, what can be said of cycling in Guangzhou, the muggy, traffic-clogged city once known as Canton? It’s my constant dilemma — hit the road or stick to the treadmill at the gym?

Cycling always wins. Not only is it more fun being outdoors but it’s a way of taking China’s pulse.

When the economy began stumbling last year, some of the earliest signs of trouble in this industrial southern city were on the roads. On my early morning rides, I noticed far fewer migrant workers pedaling to work in their yellow hard hats with shovels and toolboxes strapped to their rusty, squeaky black bikes. Many had been laid off and returned to the countryside.

Although officials were denying reports of a wave of factory closures, I was finishing my rides much faster because I didn’t have to weave through the pedaling multitudes. Assembly lines were shutting down and millions of migrant workers were going back to the countryside.

Those throngs are an iconic image for China, but it’s becoming outdated. Led by a swelling middle class, people in Guangzhou and other cities are ditching bikes for clean, new subway trains.

And cars.

Two years ago, Guangzhou proudly announced that the number of cars on its roads had reached 1 million. The metropolis of 10 million people has several auto factories, and aspires to be China’s Detroit. Last year, 180,000 new vehicles hit the city’s roads, the government said. That’s nearly 500 a day.

Cyclists feel themselves being pushed aside. A bike lane near my home is marked with a thick white line, a sign and a bike symbol painted on the pavement. But the line has been chopped up for parking spaces. It’s now a bike lane only when motorists aren’t using it.

Anyway, lanes may as well not exist — drivers seem to think their cars are protected by a force field. And it’s not just drivers who are a menace, but pedestrians and even other cyclists. I recently slammed into a migrant worker who blindly pedaled into an intersection. Neither of us was seriously injured, but I badly bruised my hip and wrist as I hit the road and bounced for a few feet.

While leisure bikes are catching on among Chinese yuppies and college students, few take to the busy streets. Those who do wear helmets, as do I, but we’re a tiny subculture. The commuting laborers don’t wear helmets.

Many of the people behind the wheels of the shiny new cars just got their licenses, and their driving sometimes reminds me of my own in high school.

Some drivers are courteous to cyclists, perhaps remembering that they were among them not long ago. But others, especially the nouveaux riches in their Audis and BMWs, show an obvious contempt. They cut off cyclists and deny them the right of way. A honk is usually not a warning to be alert, but a “get out of my way” threat.

I encountered an extreme example during a training ride with a friend. It was 6:30 a.m. and we were hammering down an empty three-lane thoroughfare at 40 kph when a black Volkswagen Passat behind us opened up with its horn. As it raced beside us we exchanged obscenities until the driver — a beefy man in the kind of crew cut that’s popular with police, military and the mob — swerved in front and nearly knocked us down.

Few people seem annoyed by Guangzhou’s cacophony of car horns. Sometimes drivers seem to be beeping just as a way of saying hello to the weird spandex-clad foreigner.

Once, while I was barreling through a tunnel, a cement truck rumbled up on my back wheel and the driver started honking. The sound echoing off the tunnel’s walls was deafening.

Then I saw the driver and another guy in the cab laughing and yelling “Jia you!” It means “Add fuel!” — a Chinese sports cheer.

Being tailgated is especially unnerving because roads are so poor. If your skinny racing tires hit a brick or pothole, you can quickly find yourself under a car.

Guangzhou is hosting next year’s Asia Games, and a construction frenzy keeps the roads under a constant cover of dirt, gravel and debris. Water trucks cruise the streets before rush hour each morning, spraying water to control the dust. But they have no sweeping mechanism, so they leave a slippery layer of gritty mud that clogs expensive bike parts and can bring a cyclist down.

Each new pothole must be marked on the cyclist’s mental map. Recently after a hard rain, I thought I was speeding through a harmless puddle but it was a hole. It cracked my custom-made bike frame and broke the wheel.

Speed bumps are another hazard. The Chinese authorities love them. Their purpose seems designed not to slow speeders but to punish them. Rarely are they signposted, and they are usually unpainted and hard to see. Near my home, officials have opted for the cheap option — a thick pipe across the road, anchored by roughly cut spikes of rebar that can slice open a bike tire.

Perhaps the most hazardous obstacles are created by the midnight mystery dumpers. Their trucks bring construction waste — cement chunks, broken bricks, scraps of dry wall, splintered plywood — to unlit stretches of road and dump the loads where they can easily bring down any unwary biker.

Now that’s what I’d call Insane Cycling.

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