Automotive Journal

Car donation makes up the practice of turning over no-longer-wanted cars and trucks to charitable establishments. In the U.S.A., charitable contributions allow for a tax break; in and of itself, this type of contributing has become very fashionable. For appraisals less than $500, the amount of the tax write-off derives from the donor’s personal appraisal of the automobile’s value, even if the charity gets lower profit from actually selling the auto. Tax deductions for contributions above this sum are limited to the sold value of the vehicle (typically at …

Is the federal government determined to have another bridge disaster like what happened in Minneapolis earlier this year? That would seem to be the case. MSNBC explains in a detailed article that the government has allowed states to delay inspections even on the more riskier bridges. Here are some bullet points from the article.

The Federal Highway Administration has allowed states to take advantage of a loophole in federal regulations, delaying bridge inspections to every four years instead of the two years normally required. While most states don’t use this loophole, calling it unsafe, others drive …

Interesting piece in Autocar with a pic of a baby Rolls Royce that is under development. Bentley’s Continental GT success must have been eyed with a little envy in Munich/Goodwood. Some sharing with the 7 Series …

General Motors Corp.’s chief financial officer Fritz Henderson told the Associated Press that car prices may rise because of increased prices on raw materials, increased technology costs and fuel regulations from the government.

Fritz Henderson said the industry has less manufacturing capacity than in the past and therefore less pressure to sell vehicles cheaply just to move inventory.

It also faces higher raw materials costs, rising technology costs and increased costs from fuel economy and other …

Hearing about the clean diesels struggle for initial market acceptance in the US reminds me very much of the situation in the UK not so many years ago. Perceptions in the market lag and they change slowly. But eventually, word gets around that diesels aren’t necessarily dirty, slow or noisy (’diesel knock’).
And in the …

Today’s Financial Times carries an interview with Jaguar head of design Ian Callum that leads on the fact that he’s nice and relaxed about the prospect of the firm’s ownership transferring from Ford to Tata. No great surprise there. Even if he felt differently, which I doubt, he’s hardly likely to voice those doubts publicly.
However, buried near the bottom of the article in the pink ‘un is this little gem:
‘He disclosed that, in spite of Jaguar management denials at the time, the X-Type small Jaguar – sales of which have fallen far …

The Audi R8 is the Robb Report’s choice for Car of the Year for 2008. It’s a fast, lightweight vehicle with a V-8 engine. Audi is planning to sell about 200 of the luxury vehicles in the U.S. this year. Autoblog reports that the voting was very close.

It was apparently “the closest voting in the award’s recent history,” which is not hard to understand based …

Over at PSA Peugeot Citroen CEO Christian Streiff is well aware that introducing more upscale products helps the whole group become more profitable. For Peugeot, the 308 RCZ two-seater production concept is a clue. It will be a vital statement of brand intent when the production version goes on sale later this year. It will have to be very good to compete with the likes of the Audi TT, but there are very positive reports about the drive and …

The trouble with the web is that you can find yourself going off at tangents finding connections that take you along way from your starting point. …

I’ve received an interesting response today from John Storey in South Africa in response to a blog item way back in …