Vehicles

In a blow to the company that is poised to be the largest automaker in the world, Toyota Motor Corp. fell so far in Consumer Reports' annual reliability survey that the magazine will no longer automatically recommend the company's new cars and trucks to readers. The Toyota brand slid from first place last year to fifth place in the 2007 rankings, which were released yesterday, and Honda replaced Toyota in the No. 1 spot. What's more, "below average" ratings were given to two of Toyota's vehicles: the six-cylinder Camry sedan and four-wheel-drive Tundra pickup truck.

WASHINGTON -- If there's an eternal optimist still floating around the offices of Detroit's automakers, it might be wise to keep him away from Consumer Reports' latest overview of the best and worst cars and trucks. Sure, the bible of consumer reviews had some positive words in its annual auto issue released yesterday for Ford Motor Co.'s mid-size sedans, and it noted some improvement in the fit and finish on General Motors Corp.'s newest models. But, as occurred last year, no Detroit vehicle ranked in the magazine's 10 Top Picks, in which Toyota Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. had seven models.

DETROIT -- DaimlerChrysler AG and Ford Motor Co. beat analysts' sales forecasts last month, benefiting from strong truck demand and heavy discounts as the auto industry's second-best U.S. sales year drew to a close.Ford, the world's No. 2 automaker, said sales of domestic cars and light-trucks rose 6.1 percent, ahead of the 0.6 percent predicted. DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler sales rose 6.9 percent, surpassing the 5 percent forecast. General Motors Corp. said it will beat estimates when it posts sales today.

New SUVs, trucks protect passengers and the environmentTom Horton's May 15 article, "Down with sport utility vehicles," misrepresents the emissions levels of current SUVs and light trucks and could lead consumers to make purchasing decisions hazardous to their health.His assertion that 65 million light trucks produce higher emissions than 120 million cars is not supported. The fact is that late-model cars and light trucks, especially those built since 1994, are already low-emission vehicles, with emissions of major pollutants reduced more than 90 percent from earlier vehicles.

According to a study commissioned by the Virginia-based Go RVing Coalition, family vacations in a recreational vehicle cost about 50 percent less than driving the family car and staying in hotels and motels.Of course, that figure doesn't include the price of buying and maintaining -- or renting -- the RV. And everyone has a different idea of what makes an acceptable hotel or motel.Gary LaBella, speaking for the industry group, says the savings from skipping hotels and restaurant meals "are so significant that it wouldn't take many trips to recover the initial cost of the RV."

State police in Westminster are advising owners of all-terrain vehicles to take extra care when storing the popular four-wheelers, saying more than a half-dozen have been stolen since the beginning of summer.Thieves pried a lock from a Hampstead homeowner's shed in the 900 block of Houcksville Road about 1 a.m. Sunday and stole two all-terrain vehicles, state police said.The loss was estimated at $6,850.Troopers at the Westminster barracks say owners should place the four-wheelers out of sight in locked buildings when not using them, and chain the vehicles, if possible, to a stable post within the building.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Automakers built a record 17.62 million vehicles in the United States, Canada and Mexico this year, a 9.9 percent increase from 1998 fueled by the expanding U.S. economy, according to Ward's Automotive Reports.U.S. production rose 8.6 percent to a projected 13,030,938 cars and trucks, beating the previous high of 12.9 million built in 1978, Ward's said. Canadian output rose 19 percent to beat its 1997 record and Mexican production rose 5.6 percent from last year's record.

BOSTON -- Memo to the driver in the bright blue 4Runner who cut me off at the New Hampshire pass, blocked my view of the exit sign and didn't deign to look down from his perch in the high cabin of his SUV: "Buddy, there's a range war on Interstate 95 and you're mobilizing the troops."Trust me. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote a brief, personal screed against the beefed-up "archenemy of the commuter." Since then, the sheer volume of the response -- in both quantity and noise level -- convinced me that the SUVs are in the middle of a head-on cultural car clash.

Maryland new-car dealers launched the year on a positive note as sales rose 3.8 percent in January, according to figures released yesterday by the Motor Vehicle Administration."

DETROIT -- DaimlerChrysler AG and Ford Motor Co. beat analysts' sales forecasts last month, benefiting from strong truck demand and heavy discounts as the auto industry's second-best U.S. sales year drew to a close.Ford, the world's No. 2 automaker, said sales of domestic cars and light-trucks rose 6.1 percent, ahead of the 0.6 percent predicted. DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler sales rose 6.9 percent, surpassing the 5 percent forecast. General Motors Corp. said it will beat estimates when it posts sales today.

Car dealers and manufacturers said the federal "Cash for Clunkers" program did its job in giving a much-needed boost to the struggling industry, but now they're bracing to see how long-lasting the effects will be. The program, which gave consumers as much as $4,500 to junk their inefficient vehicles for new models, ended at 8 p.m Monday with the Department of Transportation estimating that 700,000 to 800,000 vehicles sold under the program in just a...

3, one a juvenile, charged in killing Three males, one a juvenile, have been arrested and charged in the fatal shooting Monday near a West Baltimore school of a Carroll County man during a robbery, police said. The victim, Russell Day, 31, of Westminster, was in an alley in the 2100 block of Christian St. near Samuel F.B. Morse Elementary School about 9 a.m. when he was shot in the upper body. Day died a short time later at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said. At the scene, police found a semiautomatic handgun believed used in the shooting.

After more than a year of declining sales, February provided a glimpse of even worse times to come yesterday as General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Chrysler reported declines of at least 40 percent in the U.S. market. Despite record incentives from carmakers, worsening economic conditions kept dealerships quiet and consumers in their older cars, making the past month the worst February since 1967, according to GM. GM said U.S. sales were down 53 percent for the month, with 127,296 cars and light trucks sold, while Ford's declined 48 percent, with 99,060 sales.

Thousands of new and unsold automobiles are parked at ports across the country - another sign of just how badly car sales are faring. At the port of Baltimore, more than 57,000 unsold domestic and imported cars sit on land near the docks. And state officials recently bought about 15 acres off Broening Highway as they seek more space to store the backlog of cargo. In normal times, cars that Mercedes, Kia, Subaru, Hyundai, Volvo and others ship to Baltimore might sit in terminals for a week or so before being sent by truck or rail to dealers who would sell them to waiting customers.

More officers in the city's Northern District are walking the beat or patrolling on bikes this month as part of a pilot program to get officers more engaged in their communities. The new deployment began Monday, affecting only the day shift, and will last about two weeks, according to Deputy Major Dennis L. Smith. It reduces the number of patrol vehicles from 19 to 11 in a district that contains some of Baltimore's most affluent neighborhoods but some troubled communities as well. The balance of the officers are being dispatched to foot patrols and bicycle details.

Expensive gasoline isn't the only downside of oil at almost $120 a barrel, claims the Insurance Research Council. Rising energy expense could also boost car-accident injuries as drivers switch to smaller vehicles, the group says. The institute took 9,000 accident claims from 2007 and broke them down according to vehicle weight. It found that the people driving compacts, sports cars and other smaller cars submitted injury claims that were 14 percent larger, on average, than those of people driving SUVs and other larger vehicles.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, whose administration has become increasingly focused on energy policy, announced plans yesterday to build ethanol pump stations around Maryland so the state's 1,200 flex-fuel vehicles can more easily fill up with the renewable fuel. The state has never been able to meet a goal set more than seven years ago under Gov. Parris N. Glendening's administration that flex-fuel vehicles in the state's fleet use alternative fuels half the time on average. State auditors have criticized the Maryland Energy Administration several times for falling short of that goal and making no formal timetable to meet it. The crux of the problem has been a lack of infrastructure.

DETROIT - General Motors Corp. sold a record number of vehicles in Europe in this year's first half, led by a 60 percent increase in Russia, helping offset its U.S. decline. European sales rose 2.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.16 million cars and sport utility vehicles, the automaker said in a statement yesterday. GM earlier this month reported record first-half sales in China and a 16 percent drop in the United States. GM, the largest U.S. automaker, is trying to fend off Toyota Motor Corp.

Two children and three adults were injured yesterday after two vehicles collided at a Northwest Baltimore intersection while one of them was being followed by police for a traffic violation. One of the vehicles caught fire after it struck a utility pole, police said. Names of the injured were not available. About 5 p.m., at Gwynn Oak and Ferndale avenues in Howard Park, a van and an Audi, which was being followed by police, crashed, and one of them struck a parked vehicle. One vehicle caught fire after hitting a utility pole, and firefighters quickly extinguished the flames.

The Maryland Transit Administration plans to buy 30 gas-saving diesel-electric buses at a cost of more than $26 million, which would quadruple the number of hybrid vehicles in its fleet. The MTA disclosed its plan in the agenda for the Feb. 27 meeting of the state Board of Public Works, which would have to approve the contract before it goes into effect. The buses would be heavy-duty, extra-large buses that run on a combination of diesel fuel and an electric battery. The vehicles are made by New Flyer of America Inc. of Winnipeg, Manitoba.