The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas Morning News
Saturday, June 23, 2007
New GM diesel forcks requiring big ivestment General Motors Corp. willur $100 million into its engine plant in Tonawanda, N.Y., to make a new diesel engine for light-dutycks. The automaker will produce the 4.5-liter V-8 enginer its North American pick up trucks and Hummer H2 sportility vehicles built after 2009. “GM is transforming its product portfolio to reduce fuel consumption and emissions,nd the 4.5-liter V-8 diesel is an integral part of that tansformation,” says John Buttermore, GM’s vice president of global power train manufacturing. Production of the engines to begin in 2009.
37,000 workers to leave Ford as part of restructuring. So far, 27,000 hourly workers have taken buyout or early retirement offers and separated from Ford Motor Co., the automaker says. Another 10,000orkers have agreed to the offers, for a total of 37,000, but have not yet left. Under its restructuring plan, Ford has until September to phase in theartures as it closes plants. Ford says approximately half of the 27,000ho have already left did not qualify for retirement benefits, which will slash the company’s long-term retiree health-care liabilities. About 8,000 workers left last year and 19,000 have exited so far this year, Ford representatives say.
Isuzu could end up supplying Toyota diesel engines Toyota Motor Corp. is negotiating with Japanese partner Isuzu to developsel engines for small cars destined for Europe. According to the Detroit News, Isuzu will set up a plant in northern Japan for low emissionse engines and produce 200,000 engines per year. Demand for low-emissions diesel vehicles is growing, especially in Europe, because of concerns over global warming. By collaborating with Isuzu, toyota can hope to save development costs for “green” diesel engines, the newspaper reports.
Prius redo could be held up due to battery issues Toyota Motor Corp. might postpone the launch of the third-generation Prius gas/electric hybrid model by six months—to spring 2009—
Japanese industrial daily newspaper Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reports.
According to the newspaper, Toyota is delaying the launch to ensur quality after it decided to forego replacing the nickel-metal hydride battery used in the hybrid gas/electric system with a lithium-ion battery
for the first version of the upcoming model. Toyota and battery partner Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. are developing a lithium-ion batteryhat many expected would find its way into the next Prius. The newspaper reports that those plans were also delayed due to safety concerns. Toyota is boosting production of the Prius by 40 percent in 2007 by 280,000 units. Toyota sold 186,000 Prius sedans in 2006 and 313,000 hybrids gas/electric vehicles in total. The company also sells hybrid versions of the Camry sedan and Highlander sport-utility vehicle. On a related note, Hertz Global Holdings Inc. says that it planned to buy 3,400 Prius cars for $68 million, or $20,000 per vehicle.

Both SUVs keep their stock doors front and rear, so the tops seal more efficiently. Dealer cost for a conversion is about 12,000 for the FJ and $19,000 for the H3. or additional information, visit. newportconvertible.com
Company’s topless SUVs are just the thing for summer son Stein Wheel base Communications. There were many stories in the man’s head. After all those years, and memories and cars, there were stories upon stories.
They were racked up like miles on an odometer. The storie showed where he had been and who he had become.
Mostly, though, they helped show how Robert E. “Pete” Petersen had a knack for bringing everything together. They helped show why one of the most successful publishingt repreneurs in the history of the car-magazine business was so good at what he did.
As founder of the company that produced Hot Rod, Motor Trend, Car Craft and many other enthusiast magazine titles, Mr.Petersen was a storyteller. And he made sure his magazines toldreat stories. “An American icon,” Dick Messer, director of the Petersen car museuy Mark Vaughn AutoWeek Newport Convertible Engineering in Placentia, Calif., has been chopping the tops of perfectly good cars since 1983. Now, with summer upon the Northern Hemisphere, they’ve taken to chopping the tops off SUVs, including the Toyota FJ Cruiser and the Hummer H3. the premise of a convertible SUV should raise hundreds of red flags for anyone ho has ever heard the phrase “torsional igidity.” We’ve seen home made cabriolet shere the windshields cracked after three locks of driving because what is left of the frame twists like a pair of plastic salad tongs. But Newport does a solid engineering on every project, and the SUVs are not exception. With welded-in reinforcement round the window frames and behind the back seats, as well as roll hoops welded into all the right places, both FJ and H3 are stiff enough that you won’t have to worry about anything breaking on them. The unibody FJ felt much stiffer than he H3, but even the H3 seemed sound over speed bumps and across water drains. he power tops are hydraulically tuated via a single button, with the final latch done by hand at the windshield header.