Car Blog

As state legislatures convene across the country for their 2010 sessions, AAA looks to build on a relatively successful campaign of traffic safety law improvements last year.

“Last year brought more than a dozen big wins for traffic safety on core needs like teen driver safety, primary seat belt laws, and child passenger safety, as well as more than a dozen states enacting text messaging bans,” said AAA Vice President of Public Affairs Kathleen Marvaso.” AAA is working with legislators and other safety advocates in statehouses across the country to draft and pass legislation in 2010 that will make roads safer.

“Traffic safety improvements should generate special interest in states facing budget challenges. These laws reduce governments’ medical and emergency response costs by preventing crashes, injuries and deaths. What’s more, some states could receive millions of dollars in financial incentives for passing some of these laws.”

AAA’s main traffic safety priorities in the states include:

Texting while driving bans: AAA last year launched a national campaign to pass laws in all 50 states to ban text messaging while driving. With a dozen states having enacted these laws in 2009, there are now 19 states with laws prohibiting drivers of all ages from texting. AAA expects nearly every remaining state will consider this legislation in 2010.

Teen driver safety: Although every state has some form of graduated driver licensing for new teen drivers, nearly every state still has opportunities to improve these lifesaving laws, according to AAA. States such as Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, New York, Oklahoma and West Virginia made significant improvements in 2009, such as increasing the age and requirements for getting a license and adding or improving limits on teen passengers and nighttime driving for newly licensed teens. Just six states (Delaware, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia) have graduated driver licensing systems that meet AAA’s guidelines for nighttime limits, passenger limits, and practice requirements.

Booster seat laws: Three states (Arizona, Florida and South Dakota) lack booster seat requirements, which have been shown to improve safety for young passengers. Five states (Alaska, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island and Texas) enacted laws in 2009 requiring booster seats for children under age 8. Despite this progress, booster seat laws in 24 states fall short of including all children under age 8.

Primary seat belt laws: After a record setting year in 2009 in which four states (Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin) improved their seat belt laws to allow primary enforcement by police, AAA and other safety advocates will continue to work to improve laws in the remaining 20 states without a primary belt law. Primary seat belt laws have repeatedly been shown as a low cost way for states to quickly increase belt use, reduce traffic deaths, and lower the cost of crashes.

Move over laws: Nearly every state (47 states) has a law that requires drivers to slow down and, if safe, “move over” when passing an emergency vehicle that is actively working on a roadway. Six states (Alabama, Delaware, Ohio, Oregon, Nebraska and Nevada) improved their laws in 2009 to include tow trucks and other road service vehicles, increasing the number of states with these more comprehensive laws to 38. AAA will continue to promote these laws that have been shown to improve safety for police, tow truck operators, and others who work on our roadways.

Source: AAA

The intense debate underway about the future of the American auto industry has generated a lot of discussion about the public’s attitudes.

“Right now, the American people are justifiably very concerned about the state of our economy and an overriding fear for their futures,” said pollster Peter D. Hart. “Polls I conducted in mid-November showed deep concerns about the harmful impacts of the collapse of the U.S. auto industry,” said Hart.

• 90% fear the harm it would do to America’s manufacturing sector.

• 84% of Americans say it would harm the U.S. economy.

• 70% fear the harm it would do to America’s standing in the world.

• 68% worry about the lack of consumer choice for America’s car buyers.

Some pundits have been citing polls by CNN that indicate that a majority of Americans do not favor “a program that would provide them with several billion dollars in assistance.” CNN does responsible and good polling. However, the question which is being touted on the financial loan assistance for the auto industry is not a good evaluation of public opinion or public sentiments.

Their question reads as follows: “QUESTION: The major U.S. auto companies have asked the government for a program that would provide them with several billion dollars in assistance. The auto companies say they may go into bankruptcy without that assistance. Based on what you have read or heard, do you favor or oppose this program?”

The basic flaw with the question is that the respondent must know the program. They don’t, so it is difficult to assume these respondents voicing an opinion are really talking about the legislation or program the congress is voting on.

There is a much more significant finding in this same CNN survey which has not been highly noted nor much discussed. Fully, 15% of the American public — or roughly 18 million households — tell the CNN pollsters that the auto industry going out of business “would immediately affect their families. Additionally, 77% of Americans say that auto bankruptcy would affect them and their families, if not now, sometime in the future it would affect them immediately.”

“This means that one out of six households would have a ‘goodbye and good luck’ sign put on their house. That is 18 million households directly affected. This would be the same as having a dozen Katrinas hit from coast to coast,” said Hart.

Peter Hart stated: “The bottom line is pretty simple — the American public does not want the housing industry to fail, the banks to fail, and they certainly do not want the auto industry to fail. This survey has merit, but the figure that counts most is the one that tells us that 3 in 4 Americans say they will be affected and 18 million American households will be affected immediately.”

Peter D. Hart is the founder of Peter D. Hart Research. He has co-directed the NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll for the last 20 years. His firm has conducted research for hundreds of corporations, government agencies, non-profits, including the automotive industry.

Source: Peter D. Hart Research

CEO of Lithium-Ion Automotive Battery Maker Ener1 Says Aggressive Investment in Advanced Energy Storage Systems Is Key to Industry Survival, U.S. Competitiveness

As Congress and the new administration weigh sweeping measures to rescue the U.S. auto industry, advanced lithium-ion battery maker Ener1, Inc. is joining dozens of companies that develop and build technology for hybrid and electric vehicles this week to show their latest innovations and discuss how they fit into this changing landscape. Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer says companies like Ener1 have a crucial role to play in the federal retooling effort.

“The technology is here,” says Gassenheimer. “The question is who is going to win the race to get it to market. Decisions we make as a nation today will determine whether or not our country remains competitive in the global automotive industry.”

By coincidence, the conference and technological showcase put on by the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center from December 2-5 corresponds with this week’s deadline for the Detroit Big Three automakers to present their individual recovery plans to Congress in hope of receiving a $25 billion rescue package.

“Whether it is a plug-in hybrid like the Chevy Volt or a fully electric car like the Th!nk City, the future depends on better batteries,” Gassenheimer says. “We need dedicated federal support to ramp up production and drive down costs. That’s already happening in China, Korea, and Japan, as well as in Europe. It needs to happen here, and it needs to happen quickly or we will miss the boat.”

Ener1 is the first company to commit to producing advanced lithium-ion batteries in the U.S. on a commercial scale for the automotive market. In addition to its plant in Indianapolis, Ener1 recently gained an Asia foothold by acquiring South Korea’s third largest lithium-ion battery producer.

More than 75 hybrid models will hit the market by 2011. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to put one million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015, and he has made clear that Detroit will not get the federal help it wants without clear commitments to change the way they do business. That means swift transition to next-generation technology and a concrete commitment to better fuel economy.

“Advanced batteries are as important to this new market as the microprocessor was to the emergence of the personal computer revolution,” Gassenheimer says. “You can’t have one without the other. Unfortunately, the U.S. manufacturing capacity is just not there today to produce them in anything approaching the numbers we need over the next few years at costs the market demands.”

Automakers are already putting lithium-ion batteries on the road in small numbers today, and growth is expected to be rapid. While it may be a few years before truly mass-market scale is achieved, Gassenheimer says the competitive foundations for the entire sector are being built today.

Auto industry leaders have publicly echoed the call for more aggressive battery development:

“One of the things we need to sort out as a country is batteries,” Ford Motor Company executive chairman William Clay Ford, Jr. was quoted as saying in the New York Times last week. “We really don’t want to trade one foreign dependency, oil, for another foreign dependency, batteries.”

“It’s a game that we are behind in,” GM CEO Rick Wagoner said when the Washington Post recently asked him about the need for advanced batteries. “It doesn’t mean it’s a game that we lost. If we choose to go at it as a country we are really going to have to pick up the pace.”

“From a technological standpoint, the future is now,” Gassenheimer explains. “We know this is going to be a multibillion-dollar market; the question is who will control it. High oil prices will be back the minute the economy begins to recover. This is not a change we can afford to put off.”

For more information, visit www.electricdrive.org.

What you don’t know about your car insurance policy could be draining your wallet right now. Insure.com, Inc. has revealed 12 factors that may be costing you money.

1. You’ll pay for your friend’s bad driving

If your friend borrows your car and crashes it, you’ll have to file a claim with your insurance company. You’ll have to pay any deductible that applies and your rates could go up as a result of your claim, especially if you have made other recent claims.

2. Your personal property in your car isn’t covered by your auto insurance

Stolen or damaged items like compact discs aren’t covered by your car insurance.

3. You may be entitled to payment for sales tax and registration fees for a new car

Most states require insurers to pay sales taxes on total loss settlements. Some states require the insurer to pay it at the time of loss while other states require it to be paid only if you purchase a replacement vehicle within a certain time period. Make your request for a sales tax reimbursement no matter where you live.

4. You may be entitled to a diminished value claim in some states

Diminished value is based on the idea that any car that has been in an accident, regardless of how well the repairs are done, is worth less than the exact same car that hasn’t been in an accident. However, most states allow car insurers to use policy language that officially disallows diminished value claims.

There’s one way you may be entitled to a diminished value claim: If someone else hits you and you make a damage claim on that person’s insurance. That’s called a third-party claim and it’s possible to get diminished value damages as a third party.

5. You may be able to “stack” your coverage

Stacking uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage means you can collect payment more than once within the same auto policy or across two auto policies. There are two scenarios for stacking: First, if you have multiple cars, you can collect the limit of your UM/UIM policy to cover full payment for damages. Second, if you have more than one policy with UM/UIM coverage, you can make a claim under each policy until all your damages are recovered. Check the language of your policy.

6. Making a claim could increase your car insurance rates, but by how much?

When an insurance company decides to raise your premiums because you make a claim, it doesn’t follow any hard and fast rules; many factors are involved. For example, if you make a claim and have a birthday before renewal time, your birthday might bump you into a higher risk category along with the claim.

Some insurance companies have “accident forgiveness” guidelines. When you buy or renew your policy, ask how to qualify for accident forgiveness.

7. If you don’t drive much, “usage-based” car insurance could save you money

“Usage-based” car insurance allows you to buy coverage based on how much you actually drive. If you don’t drive much, this can save you up to 60 percent on your insurance. Progressive is the first insurance company to offer “pay-as-you-drive” policies through its MyRate program. Your mileage will be measured by a wireless device installed in a car port.

If your insurance company doesn’t offer usage-based coverage, inquire about “low-mileage discounts.”

8. Your credit history may affect your car insurance premium

Car insurers believe that your credit history is an indicator of whether you are going to make a claim, and price your insurance policy accordingly where states allow it.

9. You must officially cancel your insurance policy when you switch insurers

You can cancel your coverage at any time by notifying the company in writing of your intended date of termination. Most consumers assume that if they decide to terminate the policy at the end of the coverage period, they can simply ignore the bill. Insurance companies don’t see it that way. They will send you another bill for the next premium payment, and when you don’t pay it, the company can cancel you for nonpayment, which goes on your credit record.

10. You can wait to add your teenager to your policy until he or she is licensed

In most cases, insurance companies don’t require you to add your teenager to your policy until the teen has his or her driver’s license. The exception may be if you are in a high-risk insurance pool; you may then have to add your child when they receive their permit.

11. Paying in installments will usually increase your overall bill

“Fractional premium” fees are usually charged when you divide your annual premium payment into installments rather than pay for a year of coverage all at once. It can be as little as a few dollars per payment, but the more you break it down, the more it adds up. When you apply for the policy, ask what the fees are for paying in installments. If you can, pay your annual premium all at once.

12. Your car model affects your premium, but by how much?

Auto insurers have a premium-rating system for every car model, usually based on “Vehicle Series Ratings” (VSRs) received from the Insurance Services Office (ISO). This rating indicates how comparatively expensive your vehicle should be to insure. Factors include susceptibility to theft and typical claims losses for the vehicle.

If you are shopping for a new car, contact your insurance company and ask about the premium difference among the cars you are considering.

Source: Insure.com, Inc.

Used car market problems discussed
Siasat Daily, India
The Auto Zone Market, located at Riqqa Al Hamra, near Sharjah International Airport, will be constructed at a cost of more than Dh1 billion. “In response …

VietNamNet Bridge

Auto market: purchasing power rises sharply VietNamNet Bridge, Vietnam At that time, when automobile joint ventures were criticised by clients and state management agencies for keeping overly high sale prices, the market of car …

Canada.com

DesRosiers hikes auto sales forecast, after healthy Q1 Financial Post, Canada The analyst cited several reasons why he believes the auto market will inch higher than previously believed, including Canada’s strong economy and …

GulfNews

Sharjah to shift used car showrooms and ease residents’ parking woes GulfNews, United Arab Emirates The construction of the new Auto Market will be completed in two phases. The first phase will include 423 showrooms and car accessories, while the second …

Auto Insurers Paying Up To Compete For Drivers
Wall Street Journal
Bernstein Research analyst Todd R. Bault upgraded Allstate to outperform from market perform. Both the softening auto market and the issue of reserve …

12 tips to pay less in auto insurance. Some unexpected factors play a role in how much you pay in premiums.

With automobile insurance costs on the rise, it pays to periodically review your insurance costs and coverage to make sure it is the best deal for your current situation. The strategies presented below will generally position you for the best auto insurance deals.

Read more about  Reduce Your Auto Insurance Premium