Michigan's congressional Democrats are pushing for $4 billion in aid to the U.S. auto industry as part of a second economic stimulus bill, one that Sen. Barack Obama endorsed to UAW workers Friday.

While Republican presidential contender Sen. John McCain held a town hall talk in Warren focusing on the industry, Obama pledged support for low-interest loans to automakers, saying, "America cannot truly prosper unless Michigan prospers."

"By providing tax credits and loan guarantees for our automakers and by expanding consumer tax incentives for ultraefficient vehicles, I will provide real solutions necessary to help this industry compete and win in the global economy," Obama said in the letter to UAW members released by his campaign.

Obama and other congressional Democrats have said they would push for a second stimulus plan in September that could reach $50 billion, an idea that the Bush administration has not favored so far.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Michigan's two Democratic senators urged Reid to include $3.75 billion in funding for loans, which could provide up to $25 billion that automakers and parts suppliers could use for revamping old factories and engineering new models. The loans would be made directly from the U.S. Treasury to automakers at below-market interest rates. The funding would cover the government's borrowing costs.

Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin also asked Reid to include $250 million for research into advanced batteries.

McCain opposes the loan program, as his campaign says his proposals -- a $5,000 consumer tax credit for buying efficient vehicles, a $300-million prize for electric vehicle batteries and strict goals for building flexible-fuel models -- would accomplish the same thing.

The UAW, which has endorsed Obama, has pushed the loan program for some time as a way to give Detroit automakers aid without the specter of a government bailout. Last year's energy bill authorized the loans, but provided no funding for them after Republicans blocked a tax measure that would have paid for the program.

Automakers have been lukewarm to the idea in the past, but as all three face the worst market in decades, they've warmed to the idea.

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said Friday he would work with Obama and other Democrats "to see to it something of this kind is included in the economic stimulus package."

"The prospects for this are getting better as the economic news gets worse," Dingell said.

via freep 

The family hatchback’s new look has been penned by Martin Smith – the man behind the latest Mondeo and the S-Max people carrier. His mission has been to inject some excitement into the conservative current design, and as our pictures show, Ford fans should have plenty to look forward to.

Unlike the recently revised C-MAX, which simply featured a new front end and a number of tweaks at the rear, the fresh Focus is tipped to benefit from a thorough revamp with many new body panels. Significant improvements are expected inside, with upgraded materials and a more advanced cabin control system – similar to the Human Machine Interface (HMI) which debuted in the Mondeo.
Following its unveiling in left-hand-drive form in September – possibly at the Frank­furt Motor Show – the UK-specification Focus will arrive on main dealer forecourts here before the end of the year.

The compact family Ford aims to fight off the challenge of fresh competition in the shape of the Nissan Qashqai and revised Vauxhall Astra. By committing to a more radical look, designers will try to make the newcomer appeal to a younger audience than the out­going model. With many of its styling cues borrowed from the latest Mondeo and new S-MAX, the Focus’s design is set to turn heads both from the front and rear.

Inside, the newcomer will capitalise on the strengths of Ford’s latest cabin layouts. Practical touches are set to be adopted from the C-MAX in an attempt to give the car even greater versatility.

As we previously reported, plans for a hot RS version of the current Focus have been shelved, but a successor to the potent ST is sure to feature in the future. While there has been no official word on the pro­gress of the RS project, it’s thought the appeal of such a model still burns brightly within Ford – although it’s unlikely that the high-performance flagship will appear in showrooms before 2009.

What is clear is that the revised Focus will herald a period of unprecedented new launches from the brand. Along with the X-MAX compact SUV, Ford will take the wraps off its next-generation Ka and new Fiesta – all within 18 months.
The success of the Focus range is at the heart of this new product plan, and reveals exactly why Ford has taken the decision to facelift the model now.

Expect the line-up to mirror the existing range of three, four and five-door hatches, plus the estate and coupé-cabriolet. Prices have still to be confirmed, but it’s thought they will rise only slightly to keep the car competitive with the likes of the Astra and Volkswagen Golf.

...As current diesel goes out with a bang!

While the revised Focus is around the corner, Ford has just pulled the covers off a new sporty version of the current model that blends ST looks and diesel economy.

Unveiled at the Barcelona Motor Show, this is the WRC-S special edition. Devilish marketing bosses have limited numbers to 666, while every example is signed by Ford rally star Marcus Gronholm. A plaque inside gives each model a unique touch.

Power comes from a standard 2.0-litre four-cylinder 134bhp engine. But WRC and chequered flag decals make the special look like a rally car for the road. The bad news for hot hatch fans is that this Focus will be available only to Spanish buyers. While other European countries will offer similar models, UK bosses have chosen not to bring the ST-styled diesel here.

via autoexpress 

Amidst this week's continuing 2010 Camaro hoopla, Inside Line has learned the 2010 Ford Mustang will make its official debut in mid-November at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show. A Ford source close to the project confirmed that the 2010 Mustang will be unveiled in L.A., and not in Detroit as originally expected.

Ford has not yet released photos of the new Mustang, but spy shots of the heavily camouflaged Mustang prototypes have been circulating on the Web since last fall.

The 2010 Mustang will be unveiled to the media on November 19-20, and the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show opens to the public on November 21.

via edmunds 

On the third floor of the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan rests a tribute to Esquire’s glory years — a collection of 92 covers from the 1960s and early 1970s that have become, in the museum’s words, “essential to the iconography of American culture

That illustrious history hangs over the magazine’s effort to celebrate its 75th year. Its attempt to add to the annals of museum-worthy covers includes a nod to the digital age: an electronic cover, using admittedly rudimentary technology, that will flash “the 21st Century Begins Now,” when it appears on newsstands in September.

“I hope it will be in the Smithsonian,” said David Granger, Esquire’s editor in chief, in a recent interview while showing prototypes of the cover — an early version has a cord sticking out that attaches to a battery pack.

If it does wind up in the Smithsonian, it will need a power source; on its own, the magazine will run out of juice after 90 days. Mr. Granger knows some will see the cover as a gimmick — but he says he thinks the technology behind it, which has been used for supermarket displays but never embedded in a magazine, speaks to the possibilities of print.

“Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years,” Mr. Granger said. “I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry.”

Pointing to the prototype sitting on a conference room table, Mr. Granger said, “The possibilities of print have just begun. In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones.”

The company that produced the cover, E Ink, has a track record of innovation — its technology is used in Amazon.com’s e-book device, the Kindle. E Ink, a private company based in Cambridge, Mass., counts Hearst, Esquire’s parent, as a major shareholder.

“In 2000 or so, we went to Cambridge to see if they could demonstrate the technology,” Mr. Granger said. “They were doing store displays, so it was premature for a magazine.”

Two years ago, at a Hearst management retreat, Mr. Granger again raised the idea. This time it would be possible, he was told, if Hearst invested seed money to create a battery small enough to fit in a magazine.

“This is really the 1.0 version,” said Kevin O’Malley, Esquire’s publisher. “Imagine when the consumer walks by a newsstand and sees that it is alive.”

Digital technology holds the promise of making the dissemination of information much easier and cheaper — no paper, no trucks — but this experiment by Esquire was the opposite.

“The whole chain had to be reinvented,” said Peter Griffin, the deputy editor. “The interesting thing is it has almost nothing to do with the normal way of putting out a magazine.”

First Esquire had to make a six-figure investment to hire an engineer in China to develop a battery small enough to be inserted in the magazine cover. The batteries and the display case are manufactured and put together in China. They are shipped to Texas and on to Mexico, where the device is inserted by hand into each magazine. The issues will then be shipped via trucks, which will be refrigerated to preserve the batteries, to the magazine’s distributor in Glazer, Ky.

“We are trying to combine a 21st-century technology with a 19th-century manufacturing process,” Mr. Granger said.

All of this, of course, is expensive. Which is why it was necessary for Esquire to find a sponsor. In stepped Ford Motor, which will have an advertisement on the inside of the cover that will use the same technology to promote its new minivan-sport utility vehicle, the Flex.

“We wanted the marketing plan for this vehicle to include motion as much as possible,” said Usha Raghavachari, communications manager for S.U.V.’s for Ford North America Marketing. “We had a desire to make our marketing launch as unique as the vehicle. This makes our print plan a little more energizing.”

Esquire has exclusive use of E Ink’s technology for use in print through 2009, and Mr. Granger said he hopes to come up with new ideas for it. “This is probably just a limited view of its use,” he said.

The electronic cover will be used in only 100,000 copies that go to newsstands — its overall circulation is about 720,000.

What Esquire is doing harks back to a big splash National Geographic made in 1984 when it introduced holography to the mass market by placing a hologram of an eagle on its cover.

Holograms did become widespread in things like greeting cards, even if they did not upend the publishing world.

“Part of the iconic DNA of the magazine is our covers,” said Mr. O’Malley, Esquire’s publisher. “I fully expect that in 25 to 30 years, this cover will be in a museum.”

via nytimes 

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

DETROIT -(Dow Jones)- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Thursday he doesn't believe General Motors Corp. (GM) needs a federal government bailout, but if conditions worsen enough for the auto maker, all options need to be considered.

"I hope GM does not require it, but if it looks like it is approaching that, everyone has to consider every option," the Arizona senator said in a phone interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "I'm not ready to assume that's the case right now."

McCain has previously said he doesn't support a traditional bailout of any of Detroit's auto makers, but would offer tax incentives and infrastructure support aimed at encouraging companies to create more fuel-efficient vehicles and increasing availability of alternative fuels.

GM has been losing money since 2005, and matters have worsened this year as consumers shun the large pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles that Detroit's auto makers have depended on for years to generate profits.

Earlier this week, as talk intensified among investors that the top U.S. auto maker faced a cash crunch, GM unveiled a wide-ranging plan to add $15 billion in liquidity, which the company says will provide ample cash through 2009. The plan involves several cost-cutting measures - including white-collar job cuts, reductions in executive compensation and the elimination of the dividend it pays to shareholders - as well as asset sales and debt issuance.

The dramatic deterioration in the operating environment as gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon in the U.S. led to an erosion in investor sentiment in recent weeks that pushed GM shares to their lowest levels since the mid-1950s.

The stock has rallied the past three sessions, following the release of the liquidity-boosting plan, which eased concerns that GM could face the threat of bankruptcy, aided by a sharp drop in the price of oil.

GM shares gained 12% Thursday to close at $12.85, and the stock has gained 37% since Monday's close. The stock, however, is still down 48% since the start of the year.

Sen. McCain will tour a GM technology facility in suburban Detroit on Friday.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, a vocal critic of the auto industry's opposition to stricter fuel economy regulations, took a more sympathetic stand toward Detroit's Big Three earlier this week following news of GM's cuts, noting the combined impact of a slumping economy, rising commodity prices and record gas prices on the companies.

"Obama supports the auto makers' moves to restructure their operations without government intervention, and is willing to work with the companies to develop fuel-saving technologies," campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Obama, of Illinois, said he has met in recent weeks with GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner and Ford Motor Co. (F) Chief Executive Alan Mulally.

McCain is scheduled to meet with Wagoner before Friday's event.

-By Sharon Terlep, Dow Jones Newswires; 248-204-5532; sharon.terlep@ dowjones.com

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http:// www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=3ru6gTaivZCBBtacGq6Qnw%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-17-08 2043ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

via money.cnn 

"I don't think the government ought to be involved with bailing out companies. I think the government ought to create the conditions so that companies can survive," Bush said at a White House press conference.

Bush was asked whether companies like "General Motors, which today is cutting jobs, announcing they're going into the credit market to raise billions of dollars -- are there other entities that are so crucial to stability that require government action to show support for them?"

GM spokesman Greg Martin said the automaker hasn't sought a government bailout. "The action and urgency is on our shoulders," Martin said, saying the company.

Bush also rejected calls to mandate fuel conservation. "People can figure out whether they need to drive more or less; they can balance their own checkbooks," Bush said.

But he noted the shift in consumer demand in the auto industry. "Consumers are beginning to say, wait a minute, I don't want a gas guzzler anymore, I want a smaller car," he said. "The automobile industry is beginning to adjust here at home as consumer demand changes."

via detnews 

It's amazing how quickly time passes when you really are "having fun." My week with Ford's 2008 Shelby GT500 KR Mustang has been awesome. Unfortunately, though, the car's handlers will pick it up today and prepare it for the next lucky magazine guy's opportunity to check it out. One thing I have to say before handing over "The King" is, while I'm not sure how other editors (Motor Trend and Mustang Monthly had the KR before I got it, and I have no idea "who's next" tested this bad-ass 'Stang, I certainly put the car through its paces--on the street, on the simulated dragstrip, and, on the chassis dyno--and gained a lot of respect for the very expensive ($80,000 sticker, plus however many Gs the dealers are tacking on), limited-edition Shelby. With only 1,500 KRs in the production plan, "The King" is sure to be more of a collector's item than standard Shelby GT500s are, and even though the modify maniac in me says, "change this, add that and make it even better," I guess I can ultimately be a little more understanding about not doing anything to a KR, and simply letting it be the King of the Road that Ford...and Carroll Shelby want it to be.

via blogs.mustang50magazine 

Are you ready for a four-cylinder full-size pickup? Sources say Ford is planning to offer a version of the F-150 with a four-cylinder EcoBoost engine by 2013. The move is a response to rapidly rising gas prices and new federal standards that raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy for light trucks to 28.6 mpg by 2015. Lending credibility to what we’ve heard from our sources, Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s group vice president for Product Development, has told Automotive News that Ford is considering this option.

Ford EcoBoost engines use high-pressure direct gas injection and turbocharging to get better performance and up to 20 percent better fuel economy compared to larger displacement engines. V-6 engines are said to perform like V-8s, and four-cylinder engines are said to perform as if they had six cylinders.

In an appearance before the Motor Press Guild, Dan Kapp, Ford’s director of powertrain research and advanced engineering, told journalists that "in probably the most extreme cases (using EcoBoost engines), we’re going to be downsizing on the order of 40, 50 percent. That would take, for example, a three-liter V6 down to a two-liter 4-cylinder engine. A 2.5-liter 4-cylinder could be something on the order of 1.5-liters."

Kapp also said, "With these factors (smaller displacement and turbocharging) in the equation, an EcoBoost 6-cylinder engine can produce like an 8-cylinder and a 4-cylinder engine like a 6."

For 2009, Ford is offering only V-8 engines for the F-150. The company is eliminating its legacy 4.2-liter V-6 for the F-150, officially saying the 4.6-liter V-8 delivers more horsepower and torque with the same fuel economy numbers as the outgoing V-6. According to EPA estimates, a 2008 Ford F-150 4x2 with a 4.2-liter V-6 is rated at 14/20 mpg city/highway. Ford says a new EcoBoost V-6 will debut for the F-150 in 2010. It’s expected to have a 3.5-liter displacement and sources say it will be rated at more than 350 hp and 390 lbs.-feet of torque. Paired with the F-150’s new six-speed transmission, fuel economy ratings are expected to be better than 16/22 mpg city/highway.

Final displacement hasn’t been determined but the four-cylinder EcoBoost is expected to be around 2.5-liters with power ratings greater than 260 hp and 300 lbs.-feet of torque. It will likely be available only for the two-door Regular Cab F-150 4x2 and 4x4, where it would work best for light-duty commercial applications. The same engine is also expected as an option under the hood of the upcoming F-100...

via  pickuptrucks

Are you ready for a four-cylinder full-size pickup? Sources say Ford is planning to offer a version of the F-150 with a four-cylinder EcoBoost engine by 2013. The move is a response to rapidly rising gas prices and new federal standards that raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy for light trucks to 28.6 mpg by 2015. Lending credibility to what we’ve heard from our sources, Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s group vice president for Product Development, has told Automotive News that Ford is considering this option.

Ford EcoBoost engines use high-pressure direct gas injection and turbocharging to get better performance and up to 20 percent better fuel economy compared to larger displacement engines. V-6 engines are said to perform like V-8s, and four-cylinder engines are said to perform as if they had six cylinders.

In an appearance before the Motor Press Guild, Dan Kapp, Ford’s director of powertrain research and advanced engineering, told journalists that "in probably the most extreme cases (using EcoBoost engines), we’re going to be downsizing on the order of 40, 50 percent. That would take, for example, a three-liter V6 down to a two-liter 4-cylinder engine. A 2.5-liter 4-cylinder could be something on the order of 1.5-liters."

Kapp also said, "With these factors (smaller displacement and turbocharging) in the equation, an EcoBoost 6-cylinder engine can produce like an 8-cylinder and a 4-cylinder engine like a 6."

For 2009, Ford is offering only V-8 engines for the F-150. The company is eliminating its legacy 4.2-liter V-6 for the F-150, officially saying the 4.6-liter V-8 delivers more horsepower and torque with the same fuel economy numbers as the outgoing V-6. According to EPA estimates, a 2008 Ford F-150 4x2 with a 4.2-liter V-6 is rated at 14/20 mpg city/highway. Ford says a new EcoBoost V-6 will debut for the F-150 in 2010. It’s expected to have a 3.5-liter displacement and sources say it will be rated at more than 350 hp and 390 lbs.-feet of torque. Paired with the F-150’s new six-speed transmission, fuel economy ratings are expected to be better than 16/22 mpg city/highway.

Final displacement hasn’t been determined but the four-cylinder EcoBoost is expected to be around 2.5-liters with power ratings greater than 260 hp and 300 lbs.-feet of torque. It will likely be available only for the two-door Regular Cab F-150 4x2 and 4x4, where it would work best for light-duty commercial applications. The same engine is also expected as an option under the hood of the upcoming F-100.

via pickuptrucks 

It hasn’t even hit UK roads yet, but Ford is already chasing the warm hatch pack with the Fiesta Zetec S.

The Zetec S will sit at the top of the new Fiesta range when the car is launched in October, keeping the throne warm until the true king arrives – the scorching Fiesta ST.

But the pretender will not be short on thrills, thanks to an all-new 118bhp 1.6-litre Duratec petrol engine. Designed to deliver a great mix of performance and economy, 0-62mph is dealt with in 9.9 seconds, CO2 emissions are a scant 139g/km and a gallon of fuel should be enough for almost 50 miles.

It might not be quite as outlandish as its RS siblings, but the Zetec S will stand out from the hatchback crowd thanks to a dynamic body kit, including deeply-sculpted flanks, jagged side skirts and an aerodynamic splitter.

Both handling and safety will benefit from improved torsional rigidity over the last car – all new Fiestas will be ten per cent stiffer than their predecessors. 55 per cent of the body structure will be fabricated from high-strength steel, so the Fiesta will be less prone to body roll and much more resilient to impact.

The new Fiesta will be officially unveiled at this month’s UK motor show, but in the meantime make sure you pick up Auto Express issue 1,021 – on sale Wednesday 16th July – for all the details on the Zetec S and the rest of the range.

via autoexpress