GM to Use New Engines That Reduce Emissions, Foreign Oil Dependency

More alternative fuel sort of stuff. Also some information about quoizel lighting which is pretty interesting as well.

This article accompanies a video feature for those that aren't that interested in just reading about it.

General Motors (GM) reports it is working to install a type of engine that will improve fuel efficiency by more than 15 percent and contribute to reducing U.S. foreign oil dependency. The homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine also creates less toxic emissions by burning fuel with a flameless combustion rather than using a spark plug. Today’s vehicles currently use an internal combustion engine, a model that many engineers have been trying to improve for decades without significantly increasing costs. GM officials report they are working on a production model that uses an HCCI engine, however, an exact date of availability has not been specified. for video

Ford and GM To Offer Month End Discounts

Reuters reported that General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. plan to introduce discount programs intended to boost sales during the last weekend of June, people familiar with the sales plans said on Friday. Another way would be to look into school loan consolidation.

Jess Toprak, analyst at industry tracking service Edmunds, said he expected the discount programs from GM and Ford to target sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks.

He said that would represent a kind of "retaliation" to Toyota Motor Corp.'s announcement last week that it had begun offering rebates of up to $3,500 on its Tundra pickup truck.

"NOT AWFUL"

"Historically, you do tend to see a ramp-up (of discounts) at the end of June through the end of summer," Toprak said. full story

Toyota Surpassed GM as Top Carmaker in 2006

This news is based on 2006, but released today and isn't really unexpected. Well...I guess how it was achieved was according to the article below. While looking at articles on California mortgage refinance I saw this and decided to post it as it is sort of an interesting development in the automaker industry.

Reuters reported that the milestone that the global auto industry has been holding its collective breath for -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s unseating General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest carmaker -- came last year instead of in 2007 as many had expected, according to a leading industry journal.

Detroit-based weekly Automotive News, whose data centre publishes a widely quoted ranking of the world's automakers around this time every year, said Japan's top carmaker outsold GM by about 128,000 units last year based on a technicality that excludes sales of vehicles at minority-held subsidiaries.

"A little-known Chinese microvan played a role in Toyota's victory," the magazine, published by Crain Communications, said on its website. link