When it comes to automotive brand loyalty, American consumers are beginning to place a heavier emphasis on how much fun a vehicle is to drive, according to a J.D. Power and Associates survey released earlier this month.By contrast, the study found resale value fell in importance as a measure of customer loyalty 10 percentage points [...]
German carmaker BMW announced last week that it would launch a pilot program which would allow consumers to rent its vehicles by the hour, following the trend toward short-term rentals for drivers in urban areas. The Wall Street Journal reports that big-city drivers are becoming less numerous even as populations expand, with younger residents especially [...]
To combat the rising tide of car theft in East Los Angeles, officers distributed about 300 steering wheel locks to area residents. Hollenbeck Community Police Station handed out the devices to owners of some of the area's most-stolen types of car.Most of the vehicles topping the list of grand theft auto targets are imports around [...]
American car rental firms are being investigated by a government watchdog over accusations they did not complete necessary repairs to vehicles that were the subject of safety recalls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's action comes months after an alliance of consumer advocates asked the government to find out whether such repairs were completed by [...]
A new website that will allow prospective Ohio car insurance customers to get rough rate estimates and compare prices between companies was unveiled Monday.The director of the Ohio Department of Insurance, Mary Jo Hudson, expressed her gratitude to the efforts of the department and of participating insurers to get the comparison tool up and running."Thanks [...]
Motorists without auto insurance coverage in West Virginia will have a tougher time flouting state law in the future, as officials move to complete an electronic system that will provide up-to-the minute information on insurance status.According to West Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joe Miller, "with the passage of this vital legislation, DMV will [...]
New pay-as-you-drive car insurance policies are being offered in more than half of the states, despite concerns by some that the methods insurers use to track mileage warrant some privacy concerns, according to the New York Times.The policies, which Progressive Insurance began offering a version of in 1998, allows consumers to receive discounts for driving [...]
Despite what may be a decidedly mixed record as a car brand in the American marketplace, Italian carmaker Fiat is set to return, according to Bloomberg News: The company's Fiat 500 sub-compact will be released to the public this winter.Many older Americans may remember Fiat as a make plagued by mechanical problems, driving up repair [...]
The latest car sharing service launched in California in the wake of a recent change in auto insurance law was unveiled this week. RelayRides, which bills itself as "the world's first neighbor-to-neighbor car sharing service," is open for business in the San Francisco area.The concept is the automotive equivalent of a computerized peer-to-peer network. Owners [...]
A law set to take effect at the end of the month in Massachusetts has state officials working on a public relations campaign to inform the public of the ban on sending text messages while behind the wheel. The efforts have targeted mass transit lines, highway billboards, and many others, according to the Boston Globe. [...]