How can we tell how small busi­nesses are feel­ing? Find out how many vans they’re buy­ing. Van sales were up 32 per­cent in July over last year, a greater increase than nearly every other vehi­cle type (excep­tion: sports cars), accord­ing to data from Bloomberg Indus­tries. “Van sales offer an insight into cor­po­rate eco­nomic sen­ti­ment, given […]

Man­ag­ing a ser­vice fleet often means serv­ing many cus­tomers. There are the manager’s pri­mary cus­tomers, the vehicle’s users, but also the user’s super­vi­sor, exec­u­tive man­age­ment and, ulti­mately, the pay­ing cus­tomer. For George Sur­vant, senior director-fleet for telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions com­pany Time Warner Cable, suc­cess­ful fleet man­age­ment is always about the basics. “Reli­a­bil­ity is the finest thing a […]

Of the 11 new com­pact lux­ury sedans tested by the Insur­ance Insti­tute for High­way Safety (IIHS), only two earned a “good” rat­ing. The new IIHS test dif­fers markedly from those cur­rently used – and from stan­dards man­u­fac­tur­ers are required to meet under fed­eral law.

Find out who passed and who didn’t. [More]

Drive Safely Work Week is Octo­ber 1–5, 2012.   The cam­paign focuses on issues impor­tant for build­ing and main­tain­ing a safe-driving foun­da­tion, such as always buck­ling up, being well-rested and clear-headed, and elim­i­nat­ing dis­trac­tions. Also included are tips and activ­i­ties to assist in safe park­ing and back­ing. The mate­ri­als wrap up with ways to avoid rear-end […]

With a greater empha­sis on small cars these days, many now offer ameni­ties like heated seats and advanced data con­nec­tiv­ity fea­tures that were likely lim­ited to lux­ury cars in past years.

Find out which brands are expand­ing for 2013 to include eco­nom­i­cal, yet luxury-minded choices. [More]

Sales of the Fiesta, the small­est car in Ford’s lineup, have fallen as pur­chases of the com­pact Focus have risen 31 per­cent through July 31 in the U.S.

Will the Fiesta remain a part of the automaker’s prod­uct lineup? [More]

A new study by Lux Research esti­mates “stop-start” will be offered on 8 mil­lion vehi­cles sold in the U.S. by 2017.

With sig­nif­i­cant advances, read why man­u­fac­tur­ers are anx­ious to get on board. [More]

Even though other estab­lished Prius hybrid mod­els have been around for some time, cur­rent Prius buy­ers are pick­ing the new kid on the block. Yes, that would be a Prius compact.

Can you fig­ure out which model Prius buy­ers are grav­i­tat­ing toward? [More]

A con­sor­tium of automak­ers and sup­pli­ers are work­ing together in Ger­many on a four-year intel­li­gent vehi­cle trial pro­gram aimed at improv­ing road safety and mobil­ity through the use of intel­li­gent com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems. The trial pro­gram has been launched in Frank­furt through what is being called “Safe Intel­li­gent Mobil­ity – Test­field Ger­many.” The col­lab­o­ra­tion is made […]

Audi faces a big prob­lem with its new R8 e-tron. The battery-electric ver­sion of its 2-seat super­car has no back win­dow – thus, it can’t offer a rearview mir­ror. Almost a buyer neces­sity, what to do?

The R8 e-tron will pro­vide a much more detailed and accu­rate image than other cur­rent backup cam­eras. How? [More]

A used-car his­tory report may not tell the whole story, con­sumer experts say. Each year, about 6 mil­lion cars are in crashes seri­ous enough to report to police and insur­ers. Some of these cars are re-built and wind up on dealer lots.

What can buy­ers do to insure the car they buy is solid? [More]

Per­haps a result of the decrease in gas prices ear­lier this sum­mer, accom­pa­nied by increased con­sumer inter­est in trucks and larger units, shop­pers in the mar­ket for late-model used or cer­ti­fied pre-owned pickup trucks may have to shop around a bit more than usual.