Biz Question of the Day
If Britney Spears does buy a house in Hermosa, will that lower property values?
See previous post on rumors of Britney Spears buying a Hermosa home.
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Biz Waves is a one-stop Web hub for business news and content from the South Bay region of Los Angeles County and beyond.
The primary contributor is:
Muhammed El-Hasan, a business reporter at the Daily Breeze since 2000, covers aerospace and everything else about business in the South Bay. Muhammed previously reported at the San Bernardino Sun and the community news division of The Orange County Register. He also worked as a researcher in the Jerusalem bureau of the Los Angeles Times in 1996-97. But his career highlight as a young man was driving a forklift at a Gardena company near Hawthorne, where he grew up.
You can email Muhammed at dailybreeze.com
Hermosa Neighbors Say "Gimme Less" to Britney
More to Come on Britney (maybe) Buying a Home in Hermosa
More to Come on Britney (maybe) Buying a Home in Hermosa
Britney Spears Moving to Hermosa Beach?!
Some interesting CSC quotes that didn't make the article
How South Bay Home Prices Rose in December
« December 2007 | Main | February 2008 »
If Britney Spears does buy a house in Hermosa, will that lower property values?
See previous post on rumors of Britney Spears buying a Hermosa home.
Residents of Tennyson Place in Hermosa Beach hope the rumors that Britney Spears has bought a house on their street are off the mark.
Several gossip Web sites said that the troubled pop princess purchased a Hermosa house for $6 million, about $2.5 million less than the asking price.
The Web site Manhattan Beach Confidential noted that the house at 2805 Tennyson Place was on the market for $8,585,000, which would match the asking price in the gossip reports. The Spanish-style house, which has four bedrooms and four baths, also matches the gossip Web sites' description of the home.
Neighbors say Spears visited the house a few weeks ago, possibly in the week between Christmas and New Year's.
"I'm just hoping it's not that house. Oh, Lord," said Cindy Smet, who lives in a Mediterranean-style house across the street. "I think it would have a detrimental effect on property values. But I'm not so worried about property values as much as I'm worried about the commotion."
Spears' would-be neighbors live on a cul-de-sac. On Thursday, the street was quiet except for gardeners tending to yards and a leafblower wailing in the background.
Garrison Frost, who lives in a California ranch home across from the house in question, said some of the neighbors were "agog" about Spears having visited the property.
"I think it will influence our privacy," Frost said of Spears' possible purchase of the home. "I think crime is related to traffice and the increased traffic will increase crime."
The home has been on the market on and off for years, Frost said.
The property sits behind a black fence. A sign on the gate reads" Trojan fans parking only." The 5,900-square-foot house is owned by David Brubaker, who bought it from Danny Manning, the former LA Clippers forward.
Read about it here.
If true, Hermosa won't be so innocent.
Read about it here.
If true, Hermosa won't be so innocent.
Read about it here.
- Mike Dickerson, CSC director of media relations:
"The corporate headquarters was based in El Segundo, and that remained the case until Mike Laphen was named chairman, pres and CEO in May 2007. And he was based in Falls Church. And he made the decision to remain in Falls Church to remain as close to the heart of the business as possible. . . . Additionally, a lot of our key corporate executives have decided to retire, and their successors are making their headquarters in Falls Church. As a result, there’s an overwleming business case for consolidating the executive leadership and the corporate staff into one geographical location with our global operational headquarters."
- El Segundo Mayor Kelly McDowell:
"We’ve helped them a lot with their security arrangements by closing off part of a traffic lane to enable them to increase the distance from any vehicle that might be on the street and their building. . . . Their old CEO apparently had a tradition of putting the CEOs office on the first floor. So instead of moving the CEO’s office to an upper floor when they became more security conscious, they put up a big wall. . . . Their secruity concerns were hightened when they started doing (security) work in Iraq. . . . And that increased their terror profile."
Computer Sciences Corp. will move its headquarters from El Segundo to Fall Church, Va., within the next 12 months.
About half of the company's 400 El Segundo employees could be affected by the move. The other 200 employees are part of the consulting group doing business in California.
But it's unclear even how many of the jobs involved in headquarters operations will be moved to Falls Church, according to a company spokesman.
Computer Sciences Corp., the global IT company, said Wednesday that it plans to relocate the company’s corporate headquarters to Falls Church, Va.
More to come...
Read about it here.
Today President Bush was in Torrance to push his trade agenda and highlight America's growing exports. He chose Robinson Helicopter Co. in Torrance to make his remarks because the firm sells 70% of its helicopters abroad.
So what's behind the growth in US exports? Is it that Americans' hard work is finally helping to reduce the trade deficit? Is it because of the plunging value of the dollar? Is it something else?
The first three of Boeing's WGS satellites are under an Air Force firm fixed-price contract. These contracts are meant to keep costs down. But unexpected overruns (such as what happened with WGS) can mean less or no profits for the contractor.
So are firm fixed-price contracts a good thing?
In a conference Tuesday morning, the Air Force's WGS program director, Col. Donald Robbins, said
initial operating capability for the first Wideband Global SATCOM satelliet is targeted for January 2009.
But the Army will begin using the high-powered satellite as early as April.
The satellite was built at Boeing's Satellite Development Center in El Segundo.
Mark Spiwak, Boeing's WGS program director, said: "Our on-orbit testing has confirmed that the satellite is fully functional in all regards."
Food for thought: With Toyota providing thousands of jobs in the South Bay and in the US, is Toyota's surpassing of GM ultimately a good thing? If Toyota's jobs are stable, lasting and growing, will Americans eventually start rooting for Toyota? After all, Japan is outsourcing these jobs to America.
Read the article:
TOKYO (AP) - Toyota may have fallen short of General Motors in global vehicle sales last year.
But the Japanese carmaker has beaten its U.S. rival in global vehicle production.
Toyota says today it made a record 9.4-9-7 million vehicles worldwide in 2007. That's up five percent from 2006.
It's about 213,000 more automobiles than the 9.2-8-4 million GM made last year.
Boeing Co. said Monday that it completed the on-orbit handover to the Air Force of the first of six El Segundo-built Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellites.
The Air Force's 3rd Space Operations Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., will monitor and control the satellite.
Boeing: "WGS-1 is the U.S. Department of Defense's highest capacity communications satellite, offering a quantum leap in communications bandwidth for airmen, soldiers, sailors and Marines. The second and third WGS Block I satellites are scheduled for launch in 2008. The six-satellite WGS system will augment and eventually replace the Defense Satellite Communications System constellation and reduce the U.S. government's reliance on commercial satellite communications services."
Which presidential candidate's economic views are furthest from the political center?
Which presidential candidate would be best for the economy?
But Results Beat Analysts' Views
By Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Military contractor and shipbuilder Northrop Grumman Corp. said Thursday its fourth-quarter net income was basically flat compared with a year earlier, when the sale of a business boosted results. Revenue in the quarter hit a record.
The company said net income for the October-December period was $454 million, or $1.31 per share, compared with $453 million, or $1.28 per share, in the prior-year period. Per-share earnings increased as the number of shares outstanding declined.
Income in the fourth quarter of 2006 included a pretax gain of $111 million, or 21 cents per share, from the sale of the company's TRW Automotive unit.
Earnings from continuing operations rose to $1.32 per share, a penny better than analyst expectations, according to Thomson Financial.
Sales rose 10 percent to $8.82 billion from $8.01 billion, surpassing Wall Street estimates of $8.44 billion.
The company's shares fell 62 cents, or nearly 1 percent, to $77.70 in afternoon trading.
"This was an outstanding quarter across the board for Northrop Grumman and a great finish to 2007," Chief Executive Ronald D. Sugar said in a statement. "All four businesses performed well, posting double-digit increases in operating margin."
The company said it received $9.9 billion in funded contracts during the quarter. That brought its total backlog of funded and unfunded orders to $64.1 billion as of Dec. 31.
Northrop's information and services division generated sales of $3.3 billion, an 11 percent jump from the same quarter in 2006.
Sales in its aerospace unit rose 1 percent to $2.2 billion, while the electronics division saw sales jump 8 percent to $1.9 billion.
The company's shipbuilding division generated sales of $1.8 billion, up 19 percent from the prior year quarter.
The jump in ship sales reflects the ongoing recovery from the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 on Northrop's Gulf Coast shipyards, the company said.
Northrop is in the midst of combining its Gulf Coast operations with those in Newport News, Va.
Northrop said it does not anticipate making any major job cuts or closing any facilities as a result of the realignment.
During a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Sugar noted that military contracts obtained last year for weapons programs such as the E-2D advanced Hawkeye and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter should provide the company with profitable revenue for decades.
Already this year, the company has received funding for the next phase of construction for the first Gerald Ford-class aircraft carrier.
Northrop said it expects 2008 profit from continuing operations of between $5.50 and $5.75 per share. Wall Street is looking for $5.60 per share.
Management forecast 2008 sales will hit $33 billion.
"Looking ahead, we expect the positive trends of the just-concluded year to continue in 2008," Sugar told analysts.
For the full year, Northrop Grumman reported net income of $1.8 billion, or $5.12 per share, compared with $1.5 billion, or $4.37 per share, in the previous year.
Revenue for the full year rose 6 percent to $32 billion versus $30.1 billion in 2006.
http://www.northropgrumman.com
Read about it here.
Will Toyota surpass GM this year to become No. 1?
Send in your predictions for how low (or high) the Dow, Nasdaq or S&P will go this year.
Also explain your prediction.
Are you rooting for or against the market?
Did you get out of the market recently and now you're waiting for it to drop further so you can find bargains?
Send in your predictions for how low (or high) the Dow, Nasdaq or S&P will go this year.
Also explain your prediction.
Are you rooting for or against the market?
Did you get out of the market recently and now you're waiting for it to drop further so you can find bargains?
Read the story here.
By Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writer
DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. is in danger of losing its 76-year title as the world's sales leader, as totals for 2007 released on Wednesday showed the automaker in a virtual tie with Toyota Motor Corp.
GM said it sold 9,369,524 vehicles worldwide last year, up 3 percent from 2006. Earlier this month, Toyota reported global sales of 9.37 million vehicles, but the Japanese automaker did not release a number down to the last vehicle.
"The race is too close to call," Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis said during a conference call Wednesday with reporters and industry analysts. "I don't think anybody knows at this point."
Detroit-based GM has held the title of world's largest automaker since 1931, but Toyota's strong U.S. growth and GM's U.S. sales decline helped Toyota move closer to the top spot in recent years.
John Middlebrook, GM vice president for global sales, service and marketing operations, said sales in China, Russia and Brazil helped drive the gain.
"This is the kind of emerging market growth that fuels our global performance," Middlebrook said in a statement. "Customers are responding to our fuel-efficient and dynamically-designed product lineup around the world."
GM said 2007 sales were the second best global total in the company's 100-year history and marked the third consecutive time, and fourth time ever, that GM sold more than 9 million vehicles a year.
Toyota's share of the U.S. market has more than doubled since 1990, when it controlled only 7.5 percent of the market with just over 1 million in sales, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank. Its sales have grown briskly in recent years, sometimes by double digits, as people bought its smaller, fuel efficient cars with a reputation for reliability. By 2007, Toyota controlled 16.3 percent of the U.S. market, selling 2.6 million vehicles.
GM, while still the U.S. sales leader, has seen its U.S. market share drop dramatically since 1990, when it controlled about 35 percent by selling nearly 5 million vehicles. Last year GM's share was roughly 23.8 percent, with sales of 3.8 million vehicles.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner has pledged to defend his company's title, but said it would not abandon its U.S. strategy of reducing incentives and low-profit sales to rental car companies in order to win.
"Great cars, smart marketing, growth in the emerging markets. And hopefully that will keep us on top. If not, we'll come back to work the next day and work even harder," Wagoner said earlier this month.
The title in coming years likely will be decided by sales in burgeoning markets such as China, Russia, South America and other regions with a growing middle class.
Mature markets in North America and Europe, meanwhile, are likely to post slower growth, analysts say, and Japan's auto market is shrinking.
Toyota is setting up overseas plants to achieve growth in new markets -- aiming to sell 9.85 million vehicles worldwide this year, up 5 percent from last year, under an ambitious plan it announced last month. Toyota executives also said they projected better vehicle sales in the U.S. this year.
Shoichiro Toyoda, a member of the founding family and former Toyota president, said gaining the top spot in the auto industry could be transient.
"We are not No. 1," he said when asked recently by The Associated Press how he felt about becoming the world's biggest automaker.
"It's just one moment," he said at a reception for auto manufacturers this month. "We need to just keep working harder."
Other Toyota executives have also consistently brushed off questions about becoming No. 1.
Some company officials acknowledge they are even nervous about wresting the honors because of fears about a U.S. political backlash reminiscent of the "Japan-bashing" in the 1980s and 90s, when the nation was accused of taking jobs from American workers.
Earlier this month, Toyota deposed Ford Motor Co. as the No. 2 auto-seller in the U.S. in 2007.
GM shares rose 4 cents, or 0.17 percent, to $23.69 in morning trading Wednesday, while Toyota's U.S. shares fell $1.97, or 2.03 percent, to $94.94.
General Motors Corp.: http://www.gm.com
Toyota Motor Corp. http://www.toyota.com
- Boeing Co.: $77.60, down 1.02%, but up from a low of $74.40.
- Northrop Grumman Corp.: $78.20, down 0.46%, but up from a low of $75.53.
- Raytheon Co.: $59.82, down 1.22%, but up from a low of $56.27.
- Honeywell International: $53.95, down 2.44%, but up from a low of $52.05.
- The DirecTV Group: $20.06, up 1.98%. The low was $18.20.
- Toyota Motor Corp.: $96.91, down 2.80%, but up from a low of $91.21.
- Honda Motor Co.: $28.79, down 2.70%, but up from a low of $27.35.
- International Rectifier Corp.: $25.69, down 3.06%, but up from a low of $25.01.
- OSI Sytems Inc.: $22.46, down 2.01%, but up from a low of $21.65
12:30 a.m. South Bay time
Boeing Co.: $77.62, down .99%, but up from a low of $74.40.
Northrop Grumman Corp.: $78.30, down 0.33%, but up from a low of $75.53.
Raytheon Co.: $59.87, down 1.14%, but up from a low of $56.27.
Honeywell International: $54.12, down 2.12%, but up from a low of $52.05.
The DirecTV Group: $19.76, up 0.47%. The low was $18.20.
Toyota Motor Corp.: $96.65, down 3.06%, but up from a low of $91.21.
Honda Motor Co.: $28.67, down 3.11%, but up from a low of $27.35.
International Rectifier Corp.: $25.70, down 3.02%, but up from a low of $25.01.
OSI Sytems Inc.: $22.61, down 1.35%, but up from a low of $21.65
10:20 a.m. South Bay time
Boeing Co.: $78.17, down .29%, but up from a low of $74.40.
Northrop Grumman Corp.: $78.28, down 0.36%, but up from a low of $75.53.
Raytheon Co.: $59.65, down 1.50%, but up from a low of $56.27.
Honeywell International: $53.85, down 2.62%, but up from a low of $52.05.
The DirecTV Group: $19.84, up 0.86%. The low was $18.20.
Toyota Motor Corp.: $96.78, down 2.93%, but up from a low of $91.21.
Honda Motor Co.: $28.76, down 2.81%, but up from a low of $27.35.
International Rectifier Corp.: $25.84, down 2.49%, but up from a low of $25.01.
9:03 a.m. South Bay time
Boeing Co.: $77.58, down 1.05%, but up from a low of $74.40.
Northrop Grumman Corp.: $77.80, down 0.97%, but up from a low of $75.53.
Raytheon Co.: $59.59, down 1.60%, but up from a low of $56.27.
Honeywell International: $53.98, down 2.39%, but up from a low of $52.05.
Toyota Motor Corp.: $96.17, down 3.54%, but up from a low of $91.21.
Honda Motor Co.: $28.61, down 3.31%, but up from a low of $27.35.
THE DIRECTV GROUP: $19.68, up 0.05%. The low was $18.20.
International Rectifier Corp.: $25.73, down 2.91%, but up from a low of $25.01.
Here's my email: mel-hasan@dailybreeze.com
Northrop Grumman: down 1.65%
Raytheon: down 1.75%
Honeywell Intl: down 2/57%
DirecTV: down 0.1%
Boeing: down 0/4%
Boeing down 2.77%,
DirecTV down 1.88%.
Send predictions to mel-hasan@dailybreeze.com
Read about it here.
In a move taken to enhance share value for investors, El Segundo-based The DIRECTV Group, Inc. said today that its board of directors has approved the repurchase of up to $1 billion of its common stock, from time to time through open market purchases or in negotiated transactions, using available cash on hand and cash expected to be provided by operations.
The timing and amount of such transactions depend on a variety of factors, including market conditions. The program may be suspended or discontinued at any time.
DIRECTV Group had recently completed its $1 billion stock repurchase program announced Aug. 9.
Since February 2006, DIRECTV Group has repurchased about $5 billion of its common stock through repurchase programs that have been approved and announced from time to time.
DIRECTV Group had total assets as of Sept. 30, 2007 of approximately $15 billion, total revenues for the first nine months of 2007 of approximately $12 billion, and cash or cash equivalents of approximately $1.2 billion.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors' CEO said its sales network isn't shrinking fast enough and the automaker wants to step up dealer consolidations.
Rick Wagoner said efforts will be specific to combining Pontiac, Buick and GMC dealerships into one channel, The Detroit News reported Saturday.
"It's time to do that and the payoff is significant," Wagoner said during a recent presentation to Wall Street analysts.
General Motors Corp. reduced its dealer network by about 7 percent between 2005 and 2007, to 14,118, The News reported. In some cases Hummer and Saab have merged.
While the Toyota brand and GM's Chevrolet brand sold almost the same number of vehicles in 2007, there are just 1,244 Toyota dealerships, compared to more than 4,000 for Chevrolet.
Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have also been working to shrink their dealer networks.
"The profit per store is much lower at the domestics, and this contributes to the strength and health of Toyota and other networks," Tom Libby, an analyst with J.D. Power and Associates, told The News. "It's obviously out of sync to have 4,000 dealers versus 1,200 and have the same amount of volume, and they need to fix it."
Dale Willey, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, said a large number of franchises drives competition, with consumers benefiting.
"Dealers make the decision to get into the business, and the manufacturers accepted the dealers getting into the business," said Willey, who is a GM dealer. "It ought to be the dealers' decision to get out of the business."
The glut of GM dealers is most common in larger markets, especially in the Northeast, said Mark LaNeve, GM North America vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing.
"Our dealer system went in at the end of World War II, when we put in a dealership in every little hamlet," he said.
LaNeve would not say how many dealers GM would eventually like to have.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) - Virginia lawmakers are urging Northrop Grumman to preserve local jobs and make Newport News the headquarters of its newly realigned shipbuilding division, the Associated Press reported Saturday.
In a letter to Northrop Chairman Ronald Sugar, the delegation said moving the jobs to the company's Gulf Coast operations "would have a detrimental impact on the local economy."
The letter comes after Northrop announced plans to combine two shipbuilding sectors.The company said it did not anticipate any closures or significant job cuts.
The Newport News sector, which builds aircraft carriers and submarines, would merge with the Mississippi-based Ship Systems sector, which builds several types of surface warships.
Northrop officials have declined to discuss the letter.
The Toyota Yaris 1.0 VVT-i topped the list of most searched-for "green" cars on website fish4cars.
The company said 74% of the seven million searches on its site in the last three months of last year were for environmentally-friendly cars.
-- The Press Association
El Segundo-based Wyle has completed acquisition of RS Information Systems of McLean, Va., a federal
systems integrator providing advanced services in information technology, systems engineering, telecommunications, scientific support and management consulting.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition of the privately held company increases Wyle's 2008 annual revenue projection to about $800 million and the number of employees to more than 4,200.
"This acquisition makes Wyle a major federal information technology provider with a significant presence in Washington, D.C.," said George Melton, Wyle's chairman, CEO and president. "RS Information Systems is the fourth operating group within Wyle and will operate as Wyle Information Systems."
Wyle provides specialized engineering, professional, technical, and information technology services to military and civilian government agencies on long-term outsourcing contracts. The company's core
competencies include test and evaluation, program management, systems engineering, life sciences, information assurance, research and diverse engineering services.
Two Realtor groups combine. Read the story.
By TOM KRISHER – 22 hours ago
DETROIT (AP) — The world's two largest automakers are working on ultracheap cars to sell in emerging markets and possibly compete with the $2,500 subcompact unveiled last week by India's Tata Motors Ltd. — but whether they can match the price remains in question.
During the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, top executives from General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. said their companies' engineers are working on low-cost vehicles similar to Tata's Nano.
"There is a huge market for low-cost/price vehicles," Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe told reporters this week.
Such a vehicle would have to meet Toyota quality standards, Watanabe said, and building a car to sell for $2,500 might be difficult.
"To do that properly is very important," he said.
GM has bolstered its engineering staff in India to around 1,000 and also has been working on a low-cost car in other parts of the world, Jim Queen, group vice president of global engineering, told The Associated Press in an interview.
GM's Chinese mini-vehicle joint venture, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., already is building a car that sells for around $3,500, Queen said, calling the Tata vehicle an impressive way of meeting demand in emerging countries.
"I want to keep learning more about it," Queen said. "We've got a lot of, I'll call it technical work, that's been under way for some time in order to achieve a vehicle in that class."
Queen said GM could match the Tata vehicle, but it needs to better understand the business case for it before rolling one out.
"We are working on our lower-cost architecture to try to see if we can come up with lower-cost versions," GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner told reporters.
GM engineers in the U.S. and Europe have difficulty understanding the market for such a car, said Queen, who has visited India several times. Functional transportation, he said, is important in India, where parents often travel clogged roads, taking several children with them on bicycles or scooters.
"It's just so different than what you would see in mature markets," he said. "So you begin to appreciate such a bare bones — and not that $2,500 is completely bare bones. But air conditioning? Who cares? Power windows? Who cares? I've got a little bit of structure around me, I'm shielded from the elements a little bit, and it gets me from point A to point B."
Such a small car could bridge the gap in an emerging country such as India from its current transportation system to more expensive cars as wealth increases, Queen said.
Watanabe said that last year he drove an early prototype of Toyota's low-cost vehicle but said it wasn't at a stage where he could give the go-ahead for production.
The cheapest new car currently sold in the U.S. is a version of the 2007 Chevrolet Aveo at $9,995, according to the Edmunds.com automotive Web site.
The basic Nano, the world's cheapest car, is expected to roll off assembly lines later this year. It will sell for 100,000 rupees, or about $2,500, but analysts estimate customers could pay 20 percent to 30 percent more to cover taxes, delivery and other charges.
Company Chairman Ratan Tata, who introduced the car at India's main auto show, long has promised a $2,500 "People's Car" for India — a country of 1.1 billion where only seven of every 1,000 people own a car. That vow has been derided by a global industry that said it would be impossible without sacrificing safety and quality.
The basic version has no radio, passenger-side mirror, central locking or power steering, and only one windshield wiper. Air conditioning is available only in deluxe models.
The Nano has a two-cylinder 0.6-liter gasoline engine with 33 horsepower, giving it a top speed of about 60 mph, according to Tata. It gets 50 miles per gallon.
For now the car will be sold only in India, but Tata said it hopes to export it to developing nations across Asia, Latin America and Africa in two or three years.
The emergence of the Nano has fueled a host of concerns, including that more drivers on the roads will cause greater pollution and increase the demand for fuel.
El Segundo's Barbie division has teamed with Cougar Golf, a division of golf gear distributor Sports Source, to provide girls ages 4-9 with Barbie golf gear.
The Barbie Golf sets, available in two different sizes, incorporate shorter shafts and girl-favorite features and detailing in their design.
"With girls’ interest in golf at an all-time high, the Barbie Golf line will make girls’ time on the greens more fun
and functional than ever before," Mattel said in a statement.
The Barbie golf line will be introduced by Sports Source at the 2008 PGA Merchandise Show, from today through Saturday, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
DETROIT (AP) — While they may or may not end up in America's driveways, there were plenty of vehicles turning heads at this week's North American International Auto Show, including Hyundai's new luxury sedan, a Cadillac coupe, Chrysler's green concept cars and a hybrid Toyota pickup.
Read the entire story.
DETROIT — Honda is giving visitors to the Detroit auto show a sneak peek at its future clean diesel engine — on the Acura stand.
Read the article.
DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) — Two decades after Americans abandoned diesels as smelly, loud and unreliable, German and Japanese automakers are placing bets that they can entice a new generation of drivers with clean diesel technology.
Read the story.
A forecast by J.D. Power and Associates found that by the early part of the next decade, the annual growth in demand for diesel light-vehicles in North America, Asia and Eastern Europe, combined, will surpass growth in Western Europe.
Here's what the report says about the North American market:
"In response to strict tailpipe emissions limits, high fuel prices and a growing awareness of greenhouse gas issues among both consumers and policy makers, rising demand for both diesel cars and light trucks is forecast for the North America market. Many manufacturers now have firm plans to enter the U.S. diesel market, which is projected to lead to a significant rise in diesel light-vehicle penetration, from 3 percent in 2007 to 14 percent by 2017."
Read about it.