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In an effort to spur sales, General Motors is offering no-interest, six-year loans on new vehicle purchases through June 30th. Unfortunately, only the slow-selling models (i.e., not very fuel efficient) are included in the sale. Oh, also they’re raising prices on 2009 models. [New York Times]
The results of the Harris Interactive survey that tracks the reputations of the 60 most visible companies in America has been released and here they are: Google is tops and Halliburton is not. Not shocking, but there are some interesting findings. Honda is the only car company to make the top 10, and Comcast, Sprint and Northwest Airlines are the least well-regarded in their respective industries.
Reader Chris spent some extra money on a Toyota extended warranty which comes with free roadside assistance in the event his vehicle breaks down or runs out of gas. Unfortunately, that’s what happened to Chris’ girlfriend one day when she ran out of gas on a Cleveland freeway. She called roadside assistance for help, but when the rescue driver finally arrived he’d only brought a half-gallon of gas, not enough to get her RAV 4 started. Since the roadside assistance terms allow for 3 gallons of gas she asked the driver to bring additional gas to which he replied, “They don’t pay me enough for that,” and drove off. Chris’ letter, inside…
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Honda will become the first company to lease hydrogen cars to U.S. consumers. [Bijzournals]
QVC has recalled the “Topsy Turvy Tomato Tree” after 155 consumers reported injuries including lacerations, broken toes and bruises. The CPSC says there have been 347 reports of the planters collapsing! First the salmonella outbreak, then a “outbreak of raw tomatoes” at BW3… and now this?
Poor Howard Castleman. All he wanted was a little PR for his car dealership. Castleman planned to give four scholarships to students at Patterson High School in Baltimore, but instead of honoring Castleman’s charity by inviting the media and displaying his dealership’s banner at the senior’s farewell ceremony, the school instead decided to honor a long-time teacher who recently died of a heart attack…
The era of the pickup truck is over. For the first time in 15 years, the Ford F-Series has lost its position as the nation’s top selling vehicle. The new king is the Honda Civic, followed by three other economy models. That’s right: the F-Series plummeted to fifth place in sales last month.
Gas prices are changing consumer behavior says G.M., forcing the manufacturer to slash production and close 4 plants as they make the shift toward more fuel efficient vehicles. They also announced that they may sell the “Hummer” brand.
Another update to the Kieffe & Sons “Sit Down and Shut Up” ad fiasco: The quasi-apology issued by the California Ford dealer on Wednesday was mandated by Ford Headquarters. Kieffe & Sons remains unrepentant, so to speak, and blames the imbroglio on “Blog-lo-dites.”
Apparently, Scotts forgot that they were supposed to register their fertilizer with the EPA because they were caught selling products that not only had never been registered, they had “invalid” registration numbers printed on the packages and some products had misleading labels with inadequate safety instructions. Whoooops.
If you’ve got a kid and you don’t want it to choke to death– make sure its not playing with the Little Tikes Chit ‘N Chat Toy Cell Phone. The CPSC is recalling about a million of these toys because there’s a piece that can break off and pose a choking hazard.
On Monday, we wrote about Kieffe & Sons, the California Ford Dealership that ran a pointlessly offensive radio ad attacking non-Christians and supporters of secular government. Today, the owner of Kieffe and sons apologized for the ad.
Kieffe and Sons, a California Ford dealership, decided for some reason to launch a radio ad attacking non-Christians and people who believe that prayer shouldn’t be in public schools. Audio and transcript of the ad, inside.
The formerly mocked and neglected Geo Metro is finding new popularity amidst high gas prices. According to CNN, the Geo Metro is making a spectacular comeback, especially on eBay. You might be surprised to learn that the Geo Metro and Toyota Prius get nearly the same gas mileage. Now consider that a Metro can be found for about $7000 compared to a new Prius which costs $21,000+, it becomes easy to see the attraction. Details, inside…
Chrysler has extracted the DNA of our executive email carpet bomb and used it to create a weird new outreach program: starting next week, 300 Chryslers execs will each call a different recent purchaser of a Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep vehicle and ask if there are any problems. According to Cars.com’s blog Kicking Tires, they’ll keep doing this “until Chrysler chairman and chief executive officer Bob Nardelli is satisfied that if his customers have troubles, their problems will be fixed. Nardelli, by the way, is going to make the calls, too.” That last sentence—well, really the whole idea—becomes funnier when you know where Nardelli once worked.
Chrysler is betting that you’re worried about volatile gas prices. So worried, in fact, that you’ll leap at the opportunity to “lock in” a price of less than $2.99 a gallon for 3 years by buying a new Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep.
Those Honda Civic SI owners who were holding protests in front of dealerships about the widespread transmission problem (where the 3rd gear kept grinding, popping out and randomly going into neutral), finally have their day. Honda issued a TSB (technical service bulletin) on the issue, so now owners experiencing the problem can go their dealership and get it repaired for free, provided they are still under warranty. It’s not quite the recall owners were hoping for, but it’s something. Guess Honda has now heard of the problem they previously said they “never heard of before.” Must have been all that negative news coverage. Here’s links to the TSB (for Honda dealers, for Acura dealers (PDF)) so you can print it out and bring with you. Inside, one of the original newscasts covering the uproar.
This is Round 30 in our Worst Company in America contest, Clear Channel vs Toyota. Vote which sucks more, inside…
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