Jennifer’s brother’s family loves their 2006 Honda Pilot. But there’s a bit of a problem. Mice also love it. And if you check around, there’s a bunch of other Honda Pilot owners complaining about mice infestations. How do you keep the mice out? [More]
autos
Chrysler Repays $7.6 Billion To U.S. And Canadian Governments
By 5.24.11
Chrysler today paid back $5.9 billion it had borrowed from the U.S. government, along with another $1.7 billion due to the governments of Ontario and Canada. No, Chrysler isn’t suddenly flush from selling cars. The money to pay back the governments comes from bonds the automaker sold to banks and private investors last week. [More]
Chrysler Workers Caught Drinking, Toking Up During Break
By 9.27.10
Last week, MyFoxDetroit showed footage it had secretly taped of at least 15 autoworkers at a Chrysler plant “drinking beer and smoking marijuana before heading to work.” Chrysler has told the television station that it has suspended the employees without pay pending an investigation, and that it will likely determine next actions today. Check out the video below. [More]
Are You Changing Your Car's Oil Too Frequently?
By 9.13.10
According to the consumer advice editor at Edmunds, if you bought a car in the last seven or eight years, you don’t have to change its oil every 3,000 miles. On these newer models, it’s fine to wait until 7,500 miles or more, although a Pennzoil employee tells the New York Times that you should stick with what your manual advises (which is still probably less frequent than every 3,000 miles). You can also check out this California State list of guidelines for different cars. [More]
GM Voids Warranty On Used Truck, Blames It On Chip Owner Didn't Know Was Installed
By 8.24.10
Ken is facing a $13,000 repair bill on his 2007 Chevy 2500 diesel truck, because the full factory warranty the dealership assured him it had was voided by GM. The reason: GM says at some point in the past, someone put a chip in the truck that doesn’t match the info GM has, so they don’t have to service it. The problem for Ken is that the dealership didn’t check for this chip before it sold the truck to Ken, and Ken didn’t know about this loophole when he bought it. In fact, he says he bought it about a year and a half before GM implemented this rule. [More]
How Often Is Your Car Model Stolen?
By 8.3.10
The Highway Loss Data Institute keeps track of insurance claims for stolen cars, and it’s just released a list of the highest and lowest insurance claims for auto theft for 2007-09 models. The winner is the Cadillac Escalade luxury SUV, followed by the Ford F-250 pickup–both of these vehicles have a relatively high claim frequency and high average loss payment per claim of $9,600-$11,000. On the other end, the Mini Cooper and Toyota Sienna 4WD are infrequently stolen and have average loss payments of around $2,000. [More]
Progressive Direct "Glitch" Hikes Premium From $800 to $2,000
By 7.14.10
Kevin received a surprise when he checked the renewal notice for his car insurance recently. A 260 percent surprise, in fact, even though he’s not a bad driver and hadn’t been in any accidents. [More]
Rent Enterprise Car At Twice The Rate, Get Free Dentures (Check Under Floormat)
By 6.21.10
Timothy rented a car from Enterprise last month when he flew into Newark Airport in New Jersey, and he was forced to pay almost twice the amount quoted in his reservation because of problems with a coupon code and an uncooperative manager. But there’s good news: the rental came with a special, stinky surprise that he and his wife didn’t find until the second day of the rental. (Warning: there’s a big close-up photo below.) [More]
Kansas, You Are The Smartest Drivers, NY, The Dumbest
By 5.30.10
Every year GMAC ranks the average scores of their national driver’s test by state — and this year Kansas had the smartest drivers and New York the dumbest. Here are the top 5 and bottom 5 from the ranking: [More]
This Exists: Harrison Ford Mercury
By 5.17.10
We don’t have a whole lot to say about this other than we’re really happy it exists. Also, we wanted to post a picture of Indiana Jones, so there you have it. Mission accomplished. [More]
Holy Crap, GM Made Money
By 5.17.10
GM announced today that it made $865 million in the first quarter, its first profit since 2007. Revenue was up 40%, and the NYT says that GM is on track to being a public company again as soon as the 4th quarter. [More]
Tips For Buying A Used Car This Year
By 5.4.10
The sorry state of the economy the past couple of years has actually led to higher prices for used cars, writes Kiplinger. That’s because more people started buying used cars, which tightened the supply while also reducing the number of fresh trade-ins. It may be a couple of years before prices drop again, but Kiplinger has some suggestions for saving money if you plan on buying a used car this year. [More]
Toyota To Pay $16.4 Million Fine Over Delayed Defect Report
By 4.19.10
The U.S. Department of Transportation is expected to announce today that Toyota will agree to pay $16.4 million over its failure to notify the government about the defects that led to recalls of millions of vechicles earlier this year. The company apparently knew about the problems for several months before reporting them to regulators; it should have done so within five days. [More]
Toyota Stops Selling Lexus SUV After Consumer Reports Says "Don't Buy"
By 4.13.10
It’s a big deal when Consumer Reports awards a “Don’t Buy” rating to a vehicle, and when it announced earlier today that the 2010 Lexus GX 460 should be avoided because of safety risks, the story started popping up all over the web. Now only 12 hours later, Lexus has announced that it is asking dealers to temporarily stop selling the vehicle while it looks into the situation, and that it’s taking the Consumer Reports claim “very seriously.” [More]
Is Your Parking Garage Ripping You Off?
By 4.12.10
Next time you get your ticket from the parking garage dispenser, better grab a clock. [More]
Fake Toyota CEO: "From Now On No Brakes!"
By 3.24.10
Uh-oh, (fake) Mr. Toyoda is mad. He went on Letterman to call the latest runaway Toyota report a hoax, and he’s going to get revenge for this blatant attempt to shame him. “From now on, Toyota no brakes!” Also, he’s apparently upset about Jay Leno for some reason. All are punish-ed!
Fake Toyota CEO Yells at David Letterman, Mocks Jay Leno [Gawker.TV] (Thanks to GitEmSteveDave!)
Mercedes Shows Off New Safety Feature For Cars
By 3.9.10
Last week, Mercedes showed a bunch of journalists some new safety features it’s working on to prevent deaths in the event of a car crash, and BNET describes them. I hope you like air bags going off all around you–the demo even has air bags for the car. Sadly, the people-scooper feature–something about when you hit a pedestrian, the car “scoops” the body onto the hood and keeps the person there, probably so that his screaming can alert you that you’ve been in an accident–will only be available in Europe. [More]
Toyota Clusterfracas Might Free Man Jailed For Vehicular Homicide
By 2.25.10
“Brakes, brakes not working!” screamed Lee moments before crashing his 1996 Toyota Camry into the back of another car, killing a family of three. In 2006, the Minnesota jury didn’t believe this testimony and sentenced Lee to 8 years in prison. In 2010, they might be changing their mind. [More]
