Nutson's Nuggets: Last Week's (August 20-26, 2012) Automotive News In Case You Were Dozing

Auto Central Louisville, KY August 26, 2012 Each week Larry Nutson, The Auto Channel's Chicago Bureau Chief, along with Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau give you easy to digest nuggets of the past week's automotive news you may have missed.

If you are a car nut like we all are, you can easily "catch up" on these stories as well as the past 16 years 1,349,329 automotive stories, articles, reviews, rants and raves by just searching for the subject you are interested in The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive. Hey South Florida TV viewers, I know you are enjoying watching The Auto Channel's TACH-TV on channel 44 WHDT-TV Palm Beach (Cable 17 and 438, channel 9 Miami and channel 32 Fort Meyers-Naples, and thanks for the positive feedback...See you next week, LN

Automotive News August 20-26, 2012

* The oldest and by far the most prestigious Concours d'Elegance (invitational classic and collector car show) was held for the 62nd time in the shadow of the Lodge at Pebble Beach overlooking Monterey Bay along California's dramatic central coast. Rare and significant cars come from all over the world to contend for awards that often make a car famous. This year's Best of Show was a custom-bodied 1928 Mercedes-Benz 680S Saoutchik Torpedo owned by Paul and Judy Andrews of Texas.

* At the opposite end of the car show spectrum, in so many ways, was last weekend's Woodward Dream Cruise, also drawing spectators and participants from around the world. This rolling car show moves at a crawl along Detroit's Woodward Avenue and is open to anyone who wants to drive the route while over a million people line the street. Hot rods, custom cars, street rods, antiques, and even a garbage truck converted into a cruiser entertain the throngs of people while local police try to keep it civilized.

* Back at Pebble Beach: when you have that many folks with seriously deep pockets and a lust for beautiful cars it makes sense to maximize collector car auctions. Auction companies RM, Gooding & Company, Russo and Steele, Mecum and Bonhams moved an amazing total of just over $260 million worth of cars, with Gooding & Company alone doing $133 million. Preliminary numbers compiled by Hagerty Insurance Company shows an average sale price of $345,272. Top selling car was a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster that brought $11,770,000. Six of the top selling ten cars were Ferraris.

* Another big event this week was the NASCAR race at Michigan International Speedway where Greg Biffle in a Ford took the race. He now leads in the points standings by 20 points over his teammate Matt Kenseth. A crash by Mark Martin into the entrance barrier from pit road to the garage penetrated the side of his race car. Fortunately there was no injury but this crash has NASCAR looking again at improving safety.

* Honors for the most often stolen cars were announce this week by the National Insurance Crime Bureau with the 1994 Honda Accord taking the top spot for the fourth year in a row. Cited for its popularity and lack of security features. Second place goes to 1998 Honda Civic and third to the Ford F150 pickup.

* We thought the Federal government's 54.4 mpg rule for 2025 was a done deal but this week we hear that they've postponed the final decision. While most auto manufacturers have dedicated themselves to meeting the standard there seems still to be substantial resistance. Some pundits believe it may be a hot potato because of the upcoming elections and the Democrats reluctance to have that as an up-front issue.

* Hybrid car maker Fisker is voluntarily recalling the Karma luxury plug-in sedan to replace a cooling fan believed to have caused a fire earlier this month. A defect in the fan caused it to "fail, overheat and start a slow-burning fire," the company said in a statement, stressing the fire was not caused by the lithium-ion battery pack.

* The U.S. DoT will launch a 3,000-vehicle test of "smart car" technology in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Vehicle-to-vehicle technologies could help motorists avoid crashes altogether. Wi-Fi-like technology allows vehicles and highways to "talk" to each other and perhaps reduce crashes and improve traffic congestion. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute will conduct the project in Ann Arbor where 3,000 privately owned cars, trucks and buses equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication devices will "talk" to each other and highway devices. Auto manufacturers working closely with NHTSA are Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen.

* Suzuki is recalling almost 102,000 of its 2004-2006 Forenza and 2005-2006 Reno models because the headlights might fail. It is the second recall of those vehicles in the last five years for headlight problems. A wiring problem could cause the sudden loss of the low- and high-beam headlights.

* We stay out of campaign politics but note that GM, saved by federal loans a few years ago, desperately wants to avoid becoming the centerpiece of campaign rhetoric. So it has banned candidates from its plants at least until after Election Day, Nov. 6, despite the fact that the U.S. Treasury remains its largest shareholder. This writer notes that this practice is not really new. Many corporations across the U.S. have policies like this in place.