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Ford is recalling nearly 300,000 Focuses due to a problem which can cause the rear wheels to wobble if driven in cold climates. However, the recall apparently only affects Canada and Northern states. The 2000 Focus has been recalled seven times.
Despite the unqualified success of Jacques Nasser's luxury brand management scheme - integrating Ford components and manufacturing techniques into newly acquired brands such as Jaguar and Land Rover, while leaving the acquired brands largely independent and giving them "equal time" in Ford marketing - Ford is now integrating its English luxury divisions.
Ford was lucky enough to inherit a Range Rover design with large input from BMW when it purchased Land Rover. The new Range Rover has unit-body construction and a BMW engine. BMW had bought Rover, but decided after some time that it could not run the company well, since both of Rover's major lines (cars and Land Rovers) differed too much from BMW's highly profitable core business.
According to Detroit News, Chrysler's new ads have already sparked higher demand and sales in regions where they have aired. /rant mode on/ Allpar readers will recall that, for years, we have advocated dumping the "fire sale" ads which cheapened the Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth brands by emphasizing price above all else - a strategy not even used by price leader Kia. /rant mode off/
The upcoming Mercedes GST, based on the next-generation M-class - which borrows much from the Jeep Grand Cherokee, possibly more than from the current M class - is being billed as having the ruggedness of an SUV with the interior touches of a minivan. It sounds to us like a next-generation Grand Cherokee with media hype - but, then again, it's not a truck. It's a Mercedes.
Mercedes is moving ahead with two new minivans, the compact Vaneo (to be sold first in Europe) and the larger V-class, with plans to sell Mercedes minivans in the United States, according to the Detroit News. When the next-generation Vaneo hits the market, though, it will reportedly be sold as a Freightliner - not as a Dodge or Mercedes - just as the Mercedes Sprinter van is sold in the United States as a Freightliner. (Daimler-Benz bought Freightliner some years ago. The result of the acquisition is similar to the Chrysler buyout.) -- thanks to Bill Cawthon for bringing this story to our attention.
While Chrysler (particularly the Plymouth brand) have done well in recent quality surveys, the group fared poorly in the 2001 long-term vehicle dependabilty study by J.D. Power. This study examines vehicles after four to five years and finds the number of problems. Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Plymouth all had below-average ratings, with an average of more than 3.8 problems per vehicle (Volvo, Land Rover, Mazda, and Volkswagen were also below average). The top company, by a substantial margin, was Lexus. Cadillac, Honda, and Toyota all beat Mercedes and BMW.
The news was not all bad, as the Chrysler Cirrus topped out the entry midsize category (oddly, the Stratus and Breeze were not in the top three), the Jeep Cherokee made the top three entry-level SUVs, and the Dodge Ram Van/Wagon made the top three full size vans.
Chrysler extended zero-percent financing on selected vehicles through January 8, 2002. This offer is limited to 36 month loans.
You may remember a couple of years ago a huge aerospace company with a small car division pretended to merge with Chrysler, but actually purchased it for practically nothing and then started to merge it with Mitsubishi and Mercedes. You may regret not having opposed this move.
On that note, we are stepping outside of cars for a moment to say that the Department of Justice is taking comments on its current penalties for Microsoft. To summarize the case so far, the courts have agreed that Microsoft is guilty of breaking a number of Federal laws. The proposed penalty is less than a slap on the wrist, and industry analysts (notably eWeek) have criticized the unenforceable nature of the settlement (especially given the way Microsoft has ignored a prior settlement). We do not believe this country should send a message to the world that breaking the law is just fine if you make enough money doing it. Your aforementioned chance to do something is to write to the Department of Justice and tell them whether you think the penalty for Federal crimes should be promising not to break some laws in the future. Or, of course, you can write to them and say you support Microsoft's "freedom to innovate" (though we haven't been able to find any Microsoft innovations that weren't pioneered by other companies, perhaps others have).
We now return to our regularly scheduled news.
Several people from California have said that a Neon S is being sold there at bare-bones cost - about $10,000 to start - without rebates. This would be consistent with the "e" minivans and Dieter Zetsche's general dislike of incentives.
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