Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: January 2012

After capping 2011 with four decent months, the auto industry hit 2012 running. Analysts expect auto sales to outpace 2011 figures anywhere from 6% to 10%, which could make 2012 the best sales year since 2007.

January enticed consumers with total incentives — including financing offers, automaker and dealer cash, and trade-in bonuses — amounting to 16% off the average car’s MSRP, CNW Marketing Research reports. That beats January 2011, when shoppers saw only 13.5% off the average MSRP.

Shoppers took advantage. January sales jumped 11%, beating Tuesday’s expectations. This marks the best annualized month since 2009, Automotive News reports. Chrysler, Nissan and Hyundai-Kia saw double-digit sales gains, with GM the only top-seven automaker to post a loss.

Car Talk Chats With Former GM Exec Bob Lutz

Former Marine pilot, GM insider, author and ultimate car guy Bob Lutz has covered a lot of automotive ground in his 79 years. After stints at BMW, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, he’s joined the board of Via Motors, an aftermarket hybrid car company. How did this former global-warming heckler move to promoting 100 mpg cars?

Car Talk sat down with Lutz to discuss the reinvention of the Detroit Three, electric cars and the future of the U.S. auto industry. Check out the conversation:

Bob Lutz: The green-car guy who says Global Warming is @#$%&*

Volt Owners Could One Day Tap More Renewable Charging

OnStar and PJM Interconnection, a major electric transmission company, are teaming up to help make clean, renewable electrical charging easier for Chevrolet Volt owners.

Together, the firms have developed software that manages the use of renewable energy via the Volt's OnStar data connection. The software, which is still in beta testing, would notify Volt owners by about time-of-use energy pricing, identify new charging locations and manage the energy put into the Volt.

For instance, the software could inform Volt owners that peak wind generation typically happens between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., making charging at those times most advantageous. Customers can also indicate that they'd like to use renewable energy sources, and OnStar would regulate the charging by using only those sources. Furthermore, the software could track the demand for renewable energy sources by consumers, which would help companies like PJM with investment in the proper infrastructure.

The software is part of a greater effort to improve the sustainability and efficiency of our electrical grid by focusing more on information gathering, also known as smarting the grid.

GM Offers Loaners to Concerned Volt Owners

To alleviate fears involving recent evidence that a severe crash in a Chevrolet Volt could result in a car fire, GM today announced it’s offering free vehicle loans to wary Volt owners.

In May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration discovered that a severe impact and intrusion into the Volt’s battery assembly can over time result in an electrical fire. After the initial crash test, it took three weeks for the Volt’s lithium-ion battery pack to catch on fire, according to NHTSA.

The May incident was recreated three times by NHTSA more than two weeks ago; so far, the preliminary investigation has shown that one vehicle battery pack ignited while another began to smoke and emit sparks shortly after the crash test.

UAW and Detroit Three Agreements Bring Jobs, Cars to U.S.

The United Auto Workers and Chrysler reached a new four-year contract today, capping Detroit Three negotiations that included ratification with GM on Sept. 28 and vote-pending ratification with Ford, which union officials expect by Monday.

The contract agreements should add to the UAW’s Detroit Three ranks — currently at 112,000, a fraction of its membership in the 1970s and ‘80s — with jobs and cars returning to the U.S. Despite ruffled feathers at Chrysler when the UAW bumped Ford ahead in its negotiations, the process wrapped up in orderly fashion, with little apparent strife.

The agreements should create more than 14,000 new jobs: 2,100 at Chrysler, 5,750 at Ford and 6,400 at GM, the UAW says. Those are proportionate additions to current GM and Ford ranks, with a smaller addition to Fiat-owned Chrysler. The three automakers will invest more than $13 billion in U.S. salaries and infrastructure over the next four years, with a handful of future models locked in. Rather than getting hourly raises, UAW employees at all three companies will receive signing bonuses and profit-sharing programs, an important step for Detroit carmakers to keep labor costs down. Entry-level workers will get an hourly raise.

The agreements bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

2012 GMC Terrain Gets Accident Avoidance System

The 2012 GMC Terrain will feature a new crash avoidance system that’ll also serve as a lane mitigation system, according to GM. It will be the first such system in a GM vehicle. 

Unlike other precollision and lane mitigation systems, which typically use a series of radar or laser sensors to detect vehicles in front of them, the GMC system uses a digital camera mounted on the windshield in front of the rearview mirror. The digital camera, combined with object- and range-detecting software, determines if an accident is pre-eminent. If it is, the system illuminates a warning icon and beeps to warn the driver. The system also will pre-charge the brakes, like other systems, if an accident is unavoidable. GM doesn’t mention if the system will pre-emptively tighten seat belts, adjust seating position, raise head restraints or close the windows as similar systems do. GMC’s precollision system only works at speeds above 25 mph.

GM Introduces Industry-First Front Center Airbag

GM will add a front center airbag to its 2013 Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave vehicles. This industry-first airbag deploys from the right side of the driver’s seat and creates a barrier between the two seats in the front row.

Why create a barrier between the two seats? When far-side collisions — a front occupant is involved in a crash on opposite side of where they’re seated — occur, head, chest and spinal injuries can be severe. This happens because far-side occupants are either flung into the other seat or a passenger, if present, causing harm to both occupants, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Nearly 29% of fatalities for belted front occupants in side-impact non-rollover crashes are caused by these incidents, according to NHTSA.

The front center airbag is designed to restrain the driver and front occupant from colliding with each other or other objects in the cabin, and it acts as an energy-absorbing cushion to absorb the colliding vehicle’s reciprocal force.

The airbags will be standard on the 2013 Buick Enclave and standard on GMC Acadia and Chevy Traverse when equipped with power seats. The added airbag would give the large crossovers seven airbags, when equipped. All three crossovers already have top safety accolades from NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The center airbag will also help improve roll-over safety, says GM.

Toyota said it’s also working on a center airbag, but it hasn’t released the safety system on a model yet.

Update: GM has cofirmed that the 2013 crossovers will debut a year from now, in the fall of 2012. 

OnStar Reverses Proposed Privacy Change

Updated: OnStar has reversed its proposed privacy policy change that would have allowed it to continue to record some vehicle information after the service had been canceled.

Last week, OnStar told customers that starting Dec. 1 it would continue to record information like a vehicle’s speed, location, use of safety devices and vehicle features even after termination of the service. The only way stop the data collection would be to opt-out of the service.

Now that decision has been reversed, meaning customers automatically opt out of the data collection after canceling OnStar. Owners who are OK with giving OnStar the information can choose to have the data collected after cancellation.

OnStar says the data is “anonymized,” meaning it can no longer be identified as belonging to you or your car. It’s used for GM’s future product development or is sold or shared with third parties, such as public safety or traffic services, according to OnStar’s updated privacy statement.

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OnStar Privacy Measures Questioned

OnStar Privacy Measures Questioned

Recent changes to OnStar’s privacy agreements are being called into question by some U.S. senators, according to the Detroit News.

Last week, OnStar told its customers that it will continue to record some information about vehicle operations even if the service has been canceled, according to Wired. That information includes your speed, location, use of safety belts, use of vehicle features and more, according to OnStar’s terms and conditions.

OnStar collects this data through cell phone services and GPS satellites. Owners can opt out of this policy change, but they need to contact OnStar to do so.

Would You Buy a GM Car Built in China?

General Motors revealed an all-new brand and an inaugural sedan under this new banner yesterday. Why wasn’t this monumental move all over the news? It happened half a world away in China, where GM is looking to increase sales to the rapidly expanding automotive market there.

Called Baojun, the new brand is a joint venture with Chinese automaker SAIC that will be sold to smaller markets outside of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in its first year, expanding nationally after a year.

The first car, the Baojun 360, will cost between $9,760 and $11,470. This is a rock-bottom price for such a large vehicle in China, and no, there is no longer any new car in the U.S. that costs less than $10,000 — let alone a sedan of this size. Chevy’s Cruze, a similarly sized car, starts at $16,525.

Could the Baojun 360 come to the U.S?