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ON-THE-MOVE

CANTON, Miss. — Nissanwill start making the Sen-tra sedan in December atits plant in Canton, Miss.,company officials saidThursday.

The Japanese auto-maker will hire another

1,000 workers at the plantnorth of Jackson, bring-ing its worker total tonearly 5,000.

The Sentra will be theseventh model producedat the plant, along with theAltima sedan, the Fron-tier and Titan pickups, theXterra and Armada SUVsand the NV van. The Can-

ton plant opened in 2003.“Canton remains very

important to Nissan in theAmericas and Nissanglobally,” said Bill Krueg-er, vice chairman of Nis-san Americas.

He said that after theexpansion, the Cantonplant will have the capac-ity to make 450,000 vehi-

cles a year.Nissan will invest $20

million in addition to hir-ing the workers. Missis-sippi Gov. Phil Bryantsaid the state will provide$7.5 million in cash to payfor worker training andinfrastructure.

“Nissan’s trust in Mis-sissippi’s workforce is ev-

ident, and I am proud thatthis company is creating1,000 additional jobs forhard-working Mississip-pians,” Republican Bry-ant said in a statement.

Nissan also makes theSentra in Aguascalientes,Mexico, and Krueger saidproduction would con-tinue there. He said the

company’s goal is tochange its productionbased on market demand.

“We’ve really got a lux-ury of having competitiveplants across the region,”Krueger said.

Nissan is theNo.6auto-maker in the U.S., with an8.1 percent share of themarket so far in 2012.

Employees applaud the news that 1,000 more workers will be hired at Nissan's plant in Canton, Miss., Thursday. Nissan Motor Co. will start making the Sentra sedan there in December.The Sentra would be the seventh model produced at the plant, along with the Altima sedan, the Frontier and Titan pickups, the Xterra and Armada SUVs and the NV van. AP

Miss. plant to make SentrasBy Jeff AmyAssociated Press

JULY 2, 2012

2 » MONDAY, JULY 2, 2012 » TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT » ONTHEMOVE

Volkswagen’s Up mini-compact is supposed to bethe World Car of the Year,according to a panel ofscribes who vote on suchthings.

But the world doesn’tinclude the U.S.

VW says it has no plansto bring this nifty little carhere. Maybe later, afterit’s redone for its nextgeneration, and plannerscan bake-in considera-tions for U.S. emissionsand safety regulationsand tastes. The currentcar can’t reasonably bemodified thus.

Still, VW wants noticefor the Up (VW prefers“up!” but that seems tooaffected), so it is lending itto U.S. auto writers.

“We love to tease,” VWspokesman Corey Proffittjokes, adding more seri-ously, “We want to con-tinue to show the depthand breadth of Volks-wagen product offeringsworldwide. We’re not justtesting reaction to theUp’s size, powertrain anddesign.”

The test car was a top-level version, called HighUp (too cute, folks; back itoff a notch). It was a ball,and yielded about 37 mpgdespite lots of wide-openthrottle.

It would be fun to seeUp stalking the streetslooking to pick off poten-tial buyers of the similar-size Fiat 500 who favor abit crisper execution thanthe Fiat delivers.

Wheel time in the Updid, though, highlightsome botheration thatcomes with Euro-speccars.

First the good stuff:» Styling. Terrific.

Straightforward in line,shape and proportion, likea scaled-down, sharper-

edge VW Golf.» Comfort. In such a

mini-mobile? Yep. Backseat’s especially roomyfor the size. Two adultscan sit in comfort. Front’saccommodating, too.

» Premium interior.Trim, upholstery, design— all high-level. The testcar was the top model, buteven so, it was surprising-ly nice for an economycar.

» Simple instruments,controls. Classic roundanalog gauges; no jazzing-up (and making confus-ing) what should be sim-ple: operating and moni-toring the car.

» A favorite: aftermar-ket-style navigation sys-tem. The screen pops ontoor off of a dashboard-mounted stalk, just like aGarmin or TomTom.Why’s that better thanbuilt-in? Because it freesspace to leave main con-trols where they belong,in the middle of the dash-board.

And because you canremove the navi screenand, if made to U.S. specs,convert it to a walking na-vi via a set of pedestrianmaps.

And it’s easier and saf-er toreadwhenpositionedatop the dashboard; youavert your eyes from theroad less often and forless time. And, it is rea-sonable to assume youcould replace it with theinevitable “new, im-proved” model in two sec-onds.

» Inviting dynamics.Engine loves to rev, a goodthing as you must thrashthe little three-cylinder,75-horsepower, gas en-gine to keep up with quicktraffic.

Up is a fine example ofthe auto-enthusiast’s max-im: “It’s more fun to drivean underpowered car

hard than an overpow-ered car easy.”

The gearing is lowenough that you can easealong in stop-spurt trafficwith little fear of killingthe engine or jerkingdown the road like a stick-shift rookie.

Steering feels well-tuned, nicely weighted,properly centered.

Brakes feel firmenough to engender confi-dence.

Cornering is accom-plished without much dra-ma,which ishowyouwantit. The drawbacks:

» Vulnerable weather-stripping. The rubberseals that keep out therain and wind aren’t flushwith the sheet metal ortucked out of the way. Thetest car’s was torn wheretwo pieces met. That’llquickly lead to troublingnoise.

» Bothersome enginetuning. The test car’s en-gine didn’t slow much be-tween shifts, so it felt as ifyou forgot to take yourfoot off the gas.

And it was slow to revwhen you wanted, such aswhen trying to downshiftsmoothly from highspeed.

» Rigmarole controls.Driver’s-side arm restlacks switches for bothsides’ power windows.You have to lean over toclose the passenger’s win-dow.

The Front passenger’sseat takes a little moremonkey motion than ex-pected to unlatch andslide forward for backseat access.

Gripes aside, Up is funto drive, fun to look at,roomy and agreeablyclassy inside.

With more power itcould be a very nice addi-tion to the U.S. street-scape.

What’s Up? Itwon’t be in USUSA TODAY

VW’s Up mini-compact is a sweet car that won’t be released in the U.S. just yet. USA TODAY

Simple instruments and controls make it easy to keep your eyes on the road. USA TODAY

The Up is roomy and surprisingly nice for an economy car. USA TODAY

ONTHEMOVE » TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT » MONDAY, JULY 2, 2012 » 3

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Ford is working to keeppace with the competitionand has developed tech-nology prototypes to navi-gate traffic and park per-fectly.

The automaker is re-searching intelligentdriving features similarto those that will be of-fered by other carmakersin an industry makingrapid progress in the de-velopment of a self-driv-ing car.

Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles thatdetect their surroundings

and respond by steering,braking or issuing warn-ings are being touted asthe way to achieve saferand more efficient trafficflow on increasingly con-gested roads.

Executive ChairmanBill Ford is pushing theautomaker’s efforts to im-prove vehicles and mobil-ity through technology.

The automaker talkedrecently about its TrafficJam assist technologythat uses radar and cam-eras to keep a vehicle inits lane and respond to thetraffic around it, slowing,stopping and acceleratingas needed.

“Drivers spend morethan 30 percent of theirtime in heavy traffic,”said Ford engineer Jo-seph Urhahne. “TrafficJam Assist could helpmake traveling throughcongestion a more relax-ing experience and, bykeeping pace with theflow of traffic, potentiallyhelp relieve road conges-tion.”

Ford said this is tech-nology being developedfor the “mid term” butmany of the sensing tech-nologies already areavailable on Ford modelsincluding the Focus, Es-cape and Fusion.

Mercedes, Audi andBMW are working on ver-sions of Traffic Jam As-sist and could be on theroad before Ford’s tech-nology.

General Motors has a“lane center” system thatsteers within the lanewhile adaptive cruise con-trol matches speed to carsin front. A semi-autono-mous prototype CadillacSRX with “super cruise”technology can drive it-self but needs manualoverride to change lanesor pass. The technology isstill a few years from go-ing into production butGM has a raft of new driv-

er-assist technologies de-buting on the 2013 Cadil-lac XTS.

Ford’s other prototypeunveiled Tuesday is an ad-vanced version of activepark assist -- which doesparallel parking -- andadds hands-free perpen-dicular parking.

Sensors identify suit-able parking spaces bywidth and then the carwould back into the spotwithpower-assistedsteer-ing.

“Developing thesetechnologies is part of thefirst step in a journeyto-ward a more connectedfuture,” said Paul Masca-

renas, Ford chief techni-cal officer. “It’s an under-taking we believe willsave time, conserve re-sources, lower emissions,improve safety and helpreduce driver stress.”

Simulations show ifone in four vehicles on theroad have the technologyto automatically followthe traffic flow, trip timescan be reduced by 37.5percent and there are 20percent fewer delays.

The National HighwayTraffic Safety Admini-stration is encouragingthis new field of researchas a means for safety totake a big leap forward.

Ford fine-tuning its technologyBy Alisa PriddleDetroit Free Press

CHELSEA, Mich. —Chrysler’s top sales exec-utive says U.S. auto saleswill slowabit inJunefromthe pace earlier this year,but he expects a reboundin the second half of 2012.

Reid Bigland, head ofsales for Chrysler andCEO of the Dodge brand,said Thursday he expect-ed a strong June for hiscompany,withan increaseof around 18 percent aslong as Chrysler does wellin the final days of themonth. All automakers re-port June U.S. sales onTuesday.

Auto sales have been abright spot in the econo-my. They were running atan annual pace of around14.5 million from Januarythrough April. But in May,the rate slowed to13.8 mil-lion, which companies andanalysts blamed on aslight rise in unemploy-ment, stock market gyra-tionsandfallingconsumerconfidence. Many ana-lysts predict that Junesales will come in at an an-nual pace below 14 million

for the second-straightmonth.

Bigland said the warmweatherearlier intheyearmight have pulled aheadbuyers who would haveshopped in May or June.Even though the pace maybeslowingabitfromearli-er in theyear,overall salesshould post a strong gainover June of 2011.

He based his second-half prediction on severaltrends. Auto loan interestrates are historically low.There’s wider loan avail-ability, even for peoplewith poor credit. Lowergas prices mean peoplefeel a bit wealthier. Andthere’s pent-up demandbecause the average vehi-cle on U.S. roads is almost11 years old and manyneed to be replaced.

Low interest rates arehelping keep car pay-ments down, and that’sspurring sales, Biglandsaid. Some banks andcredit unions are offeringrates below 3 percent on48- and 60-month loans.

“I expect pretty consis-tent growth for the nextcouple of years,” he toldreporters at a Chrysler

media event Thursday.Bigland also predicted

pickup truck sales willgrow stronger in the sec-ond half of the year be-cause the housing indus-try finally seems to be re-

covering. And when thathappens, contractors buymore trucks to carry toolsto build homes. Homesales are up from last yearand signed contracts tobuy homes matched a two-

year high in May.Through May, pickup

truck sales were up13 per-cent from the same perioda year earlier, accordingto Autodata Corp.

Pickups sell better in

the second half of the yearasbuyersreplacevehiclesin preparation for winter.Automakersalsoofferdis-counts at the end of themodel year and introducenew models.

Chrysler sales boss predicts big reboundBy Tom KrisherAssociated Press

Chrysler announced June 11, that it’s adding more than 137,000 Jeep Liberty SUVs to a safety recall announced in March,extending the recall to 2006 and 2007 model years and bringing the totals to nearly 347,000 vehicles. AP


At first, people didn’tget it.

The funky trucksparked throughout Port-land, Ore., neighborhoodswere all selling food.When Vanessa Lurie setup her boutique onwheels, people came inexpecting cupcakes, notplaid bow ties and vintagedresses.

“People thought I was abakery,” the 29 year-oldsays of her teal 1969 Car-dinal Deluxe travel trail-er. “People didn’t knowwhat to think about it.”

That was in the fall of2010. Now Lurie’s fashiontruck, called Wanderlust,gets about 100 customersa day in the form of regu-lars, tourists and otherswho peek in while waitingout brunch lines at neigh-boring restaurants.

“It’s an eye-catcher,”she says.

It’s also an inexpensiveand easy way to start a

business that entrepre-neurs such as Lurie are in-creasingly turning to.

Across the country,fashionistas, hair stylistsand even florists are gut-ting old delivery-typetrucks and turning theminto decked-out mobilestores, avoiding the over-head costs associatedwith brick-and-mortar re-tail and bringing consum-ers in cities includingAustin, Los Angeles, Port-land, Ore., New York Cityand Boston a more per-sonal way to shop.

An accessiblebusiness model

Stacey Steffe was sell-ing vintage clothing atcraft fairs and farmersmarkets in Los Angeleswhen she met Jeanine Ro-mo, who was selling herjewelry line. After wit-nessing the success ofgourmet food trucks thatalso frequented the mar-kets, the two collaboratedto launch Le Fashion

Truck in January 2011.“We were both so tired

of packing and unpackingour cars for every eventand thought, how funwould it be to put ourproduct in a truck?”Steffe says.

The pair invested$2,000 in a 1974 Interna-tional Box Truck theyfound on Craigslist and acouple of thousand morerenovating it.

“We didn’t have thecapital needed to go into abrick-and-mortar in LosAngeles,” Steffe says.

Lurie says the same ofstarting from a truckrather than a fixed loca-tion.

“It seemed more with-in my grasp,” she says,adding that the retailspaces she looked at be-fore buying her $400truck off Craigslist were“prohibitively expen-sive.”

A truck is a cheaperand faster way of doingbusiness, one backed bythe power of social media

and the freedom to go toyour customers, ratherthan waiting for them tocome to you, says DaveLavinsky, founder ofGrowthink, a firm thathelps entrepreneurs startand grow businesses.

“The mobile retail op-tion literally saves hun-dreds of thousands of dol-lars,” he says.

Truck owners say theystart profiting quicklydue to a low initial invest-ment. Lurie says she wasmaking a profit her firstyear in business. Herproducts range fromabout $5 to $80, and dur-ing nice weather she saysshe sells “a couple hun-dreddollarsaday”inmer-chandise.

Joey Wolffer of TheStyleliner, based in theHamptons and New YorkCity, saysshemadeaprof-it her first summer inbusiness. Although shedeclined to give specificfigures, Stylelinerspokeswoman Sara Drozsays sales from the truck

and from its e-commercesite have doubled in thepast year. The clothingand accessories Wolffersells by international de-signers as well as hand-bags from her own linerange from $18 to $1,800.

It’s those types of vin-tage and handmadepieces most fashiontrucks sell that help keepshoppers engaged, own-ers say.

“When the economy isthe way it is, you have togive people a unique wayto buy,” Wolffer says offilling her mobile bou-tique with one-of-a-kindpieces.

“I loved that they hadso many different design-ers that you just don’t findother places,” 32 year-oldKate Chan says about TheStyleliner.

‘The way of thefuture’

Trucks could becomemore mainstream as thego-to business model for

all sorts of entrepreneurs,several owners say.

Michael Gomez is wait-ing for approval of hisHairmobile franchise,hair salon trucks he hopesto launch nationwide in2013. Owners would pay afranchise fee of less than$200,000 for a fully outfit-ted truck that includestwo salon chairs, twosinks and the option for anail salon area, designat-ed territory to do businessin their respective cities,and customer service andmarketing support.

“Mobile sites are pret-ty much the way of the fu-ture to decrease overheadand increase profit for asmall-business owner,”Gomez says.

While Steffe and Romohope to have a permanentretail location at somepoint, they say their truckoffers shoppers some-thing out of the ordinary.

“When’s the last timeyou went shopping in theback of a truck?” Steffeasks.

Joey Wolffer assists customer Alisa La of Silver Spring, MD in her fashion truck, the Styleliner, in Washington, D.C.Wolffer, who hails from New York, started the business after being inspired by the food truck craze. USA TODAY

"I love the product," Wolffer says of the fashions shecurates. " Fashion trucks could become more mainstreamas the go-to business model for all sorts of entrepreneurs,several owners say. USA TODAY

Entrepreneurs keep on truckin’By Hadley MalcolmUSA TODAY


Efforts to reduce thenumber of deaths incrashes between cars andlight trucks have beensuccessful with SUVs butnot with pickups, a newfederal report shows.

The National HighwayTraffic Safety Admini-stration report says it isn’tclear whether a voluntaryagreement by automak-

ers to correct the heightmismatch between carsand trucks in crashes hasled to an overall reductionin fatalities.

The report, which wasquietly released lastmonth, says fatalities incar-truck crashes weredown 8 percent from 2002to 2010, thanks to a 17 per-cent decrease in fatalitiesin cars hit by SUVs. Butcrashes with pickups ac-tually led to 5 percent

more car deaths, andthere wasn’t any reduc-tion in fatalities for abouthalf of vehicles studied,NHTSA said.

In 2010, 2,740 peopledied in cars that collidedwith SUVs or pickups,while 749 people in thelight trucks died.

Joe Nolan, the Insur-ance Institute for High-way Safety’s vice presi-dent of research, says thatwhile the results for SUVswereheartening,“There’sa problem with pickuptrucks.”

Automakers no longer

have to prove they meetthe voluntary agreementand have flexibility inhow they do so.

NHTSA has new tech-nology that will help it de-termine during routinecrash testing whether theforces from trucks strikehigher than prescribed inthe voluntary agreement.Transportation Depart-ment spokeswoman Lyn-da Tran says if NHTSAfound issues during thistesting, “It would raiseconcerns with the auto-maker,” she says.

The Alliance of Auto-

mobile Manufacturerscommittee that adoptedthe car-truck crash stan-dard gave up on efforts todraft a possible federalrule and test that wouldmeasure vehicles’ com-pliance in 2008.

Mukul Verma, who waschairman of the industrycommittee, says a uni-form test would ensureautomakers are all com-plying in the same way.Verma, now an engineer-ing professor and safetyconsultant, says the in-consistent results in theNHTSA study could be

caused by different inter-pretations of the stan-dard.

Safety advocate SeanKane of Safety Research& Strategies agrees.Tran says NHTSA willconsider action or rules ifnecessary.

NHTSA and the alli-ance cite the results of anagency report out lastweekthatshowedthe like-lihood of crashing in100,000 miles of drivingwas reduced from 30 per-cent in a model year 2000car to 25 percent in a mod-el year 2008 vehicle.

Deaths in crashes with SUVs reducedBut more fatalities in accidents withpickups from 2002-10, report saysBy Jayne O’DonnellUSA TODAY

DETROIT — GeneralMotors’ struggling Euro-pean operation approveda business plan Thursdaythat it said would “be in-strumental in returning topositive results for Opel,”but failed to say when GMwould make a profit inEurope.

GM, which releasedfew details about theAdam Opel AG superviso-ry board’s deliberations,has lost money for 12 con-secutive years in Europe.The red ink continued inthe first quarter of 2012with a loss of $256 million.

GM spokeswoman Kel-ly Cusinato said in anemail that the superviso-ry board had confirmed abusiness plan the compa-ny first revealed June 13.That roadmap included aplan to close an Opel man-ufacturing plant in Ger-many after 2016; delaypay increases for Euro-pean workers; and investin product development.

GM had tentativelyagreed to avoid compul-sory layoffs, althoughanalysts say the companycould offer voluntarybuyouts to reduce its Eu-ropean workforce.

“The plan we approvedtoday paves the way forOpel’s strong future,” saidStephen Girsky, GM vicechairman and chairmanof the supervisory board,in a statement. “GMstands behind Opel, andencourages both its man-agement and employeerepresentatives to con-tinue working together tobetter satisfy customersand return quickly toprofitability.”

In a statement, GM onThursday said the plan in-cludes a “market expan-sion strategy,” which offi-cials previously saidwould include the devel-opment of 23 new Opelmodels and13 new power-trains from 2012 to 2016.

GM’s current Germanlabor deals prevent thecompany from closingplants until at least 2014.

Opel has 20,800 employ-ees in Germany and morethan 40,000 on the conti-nent.

The company has ac-knowledged that it doesn’thave a quick fix for its Eu-ropean operation — andanalysts have said Europeis dragging down GM’sstock, which on Thursdaygained 16 cents to $19.82.That’s near its all-timelow of $19 after an initialpublic offering price of$33 in November 2010.

Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug, chairman of the Eu-ropean Employee Forumand vice chairman ofOpel’s supervisory board,said the plan forms the“basis for the future ofOpel.”

“The support by GMshows how important Eu-ropean engineering andthe European Opel/Vaux-hall sites are to the com-pany,” Schaefer-Klugsaid. “Opel must focus onits strengths in order togrow and secure jobseven in a difficult marketenvironment.”

GM’s Opel approvesits turnaround planBy Nathan BomeyDetroit Free Press

QUESTION: I have a1998 Cadillac Devillewith Northstar engine at130,000 miles. Last sum-mer, I noticed the A/Cwas blowing warm air, soI took it to the dealer.They charged the systemand it worked great alllast summer. This sum-mer, the same thing hap-pened, but they told me Ineeded a new compres-sor or condenser at a costof $675. But I noticed thatat highway speeds of 55to 60 mph, it blows rela-tively cool air. But at lowspeeds and at idle such asat stop signs or red lights,it blows very warm air. Ifthe compressor or con-denser is bad, how does itblow cool air at highwayspeeds?

What are yourthoughts on how to pro-ceed?

—Tom JonesANSWER: Tom, It

sounds like the Devillehas a small refrigerantleakthatmayhavegottenworse, or the technicianthat recently serviced

the car is a bit fussierthan the previous one re-garding what’s consid-ered tolerable leakage.

An air conditioningcompressor may requirereplacement due to inter-nal mechanical problemsor refrigerant leakagefrom its shaft seal orhousing. Since your A/Cworks OK at road speed,I’m guessing the com-pressor is OK mechani-callybutmayhavealeak-ingsealorhousingo-ring.

The condenser is alarge, flat aluminum heatexchanger that’s mount-ed in front of the radiator.These can develop re-frigerant leakage due tomechanical injury or vi-bration-induced crack-ing of tubes, fittings ormounting tab attach-ments.

It’s a shame the deal-er’s service adviserdidn’t communicate a lit-tle more clearly as to ex-actly which part or partsneeded replacement andwhy. The price you werequoted sounds aboutright for one of theseparts to be renewed, buttoo low for both. If the

Devillewill runforayearbetween refrigerant re-charging — and the leak-age hasn’t suddenlyworsened — doing soagain sounds reasonable.

The reason the Devillecools somewhat at roadspeed but not at idle islikely due to higher com-pressor RPM and in-creased airflow acrossthe condenser. This indi-cates that the system hasleaked perhaps abouthalf of its refrigerant.

It’s best to evacuateand recharge an A/C sys-tem with the specifiedquantity of refrigerant,rather than simply top itoff with a can or two pur-chased from the autoparts store. It’s impossi-ble to determine howmuch refrigerant is re-maining, and how muchto add. Most systems arevery fussy about beingcharged to the preciserecommended capacity.

—Brad Bergholdt is an automotivetechnology instructor at EvergreenValley College in San Jose, Calif.Readers may send him email [email protected]; hecannot make personal replies.

| UNDER THE HOOD |

Refrigerant leaks tough to findBy Brad BergholdtMcClatchy-Tribune News Service


TOKYO — Honda MotorCo. said Wednesday it willstart recycling rare earthelements and other keymaterials in hybrid autobatteries this year — akey innovation in the Jap-anese automaker’s effortto be green.

Japan is dependent onimports, mostly from Chi-na, for rare earths, whichare essential for makinghigh-tech products, but asteady supply has beenperiodically threatenedover political disputeswith China.

Beijing has defendedits export curbs on rareearths as an environmen-tal measure and rejecteda World Trade Organiza-tion challenge by the Unit-ed States, Europe and Ja-pan. China has about 30percent of rare earths de-posits but accounts formore than 90 percent ofproduction.

Honda officials saidthe company was target-ing September or October

to begin recycling of rareearths. They said it wouldbe a first for the auto in-dustry.

Honda President Taka-nobu Ito acknowledgeduncertainty about the fu-ture of Japan’s energypolicy, which has beenthrown into doubt by thenuclear crisis set off bythe earthquake and tsuna-mi last year.

“In the long term, wehope to move to renew-able energy sources thatwon’t harm the environ-ment,” he said at head-quarters in Tokyo.

Last year’s disaster atthe Fukushima Dai-ichinuclear plant led to a na-tionwide shutdown of Ja-pan’s 50 working reactors.Public worries are grow-ing about the safety of nu-clear technology as wellas contamination from ra-diation from Fukushima.

Ito outlined Honda’s ef-forts to reduce pollutionand global warming, in-cluding experimentalprojects to combine solarwith its fuel-cell cars —what he called the Honda

“dream” to derive energysolely from nature andemit just water.

Fuel cells are poweredby the energy createdwhen hydrogen combineswith oxygen to producewater. They are still tooexpensive for commer-cial use and remain ex-perimental.

Ito said Honda’s rootslie in its determination todevelop a fuel-efficientgasoline engine to clear1970s U.S. pollution-con-trol regulations. Honda’sCVCC engine was the firstin the world to clear thestandard. Japan lateradopted similar pollutionregulations. Ito stressedthe environment was a pettheme for founder Soichi-ro Honda, who repeatedlyreminded workers the au-to sector must share theresponsibility for reduc-ing emissions.

Honda’s January-March profit rose 61 per-cent from the previousyear, and it’s projectingrecord global sales of 4.3million vehicles for thisfiscal year.

Honda strivingto recycle moreBy Yuri KageyamaAssociated Press WICHITA, Kan. — Etha-

nol makers are cuttingproduction, and some aretemporarily idling plantsin the Midwest, as cornprices skyrocket and de-mand for gasoline fallsbecause people are driv-ing less.

More than 95 percentof the nation's ethanolplants use corn starch astheir basis for the bio-fuel. That makes thesefacilities especially vul-nerable to high cornprices in a commoditymarket nervous abouttriple-digit temper-atures and drought inmajor corn-growing re-gions. Most of the morethan 200 ethanol plants inthe United States are inthe Midwest, where mostcorn is grown.

A glut of the biofuel issqueezing ethanol mak-ers further. The pooreconomy and high gasprices have people driv-ing less, and ethanol isprimarily used in gaso-line blends.

"It is no different thanthe oil industry whenmarkets are tight," saidMatt Hartwig, spokes-man for the Washington-based Renewable FuelsAssociation. "When themarket is tight, oil refin-eries idle plants or re-duceproduction,andeth-anol producers are sim-ply doing the samething."

The U.S. Departmentof Agriculture reportedFriday that farmersplanted 96.4 millionacres of corn this spring.It's the largest number ofplanted acres since 1937,when 97 million wereplanted. The revised esti-mate, based on earlyJune farm surveys, is upfrom May's estimate ofnearly 92 million acres.

The report, however,didn't do much to easefears about damage fromheat or drought.

"A lot of planted acresare going to be irrelevantbased on weather condi-tions," saidRickKment,aNebraska-based ethanolanalyst for the agricul-tural data companyDTN.

Unlike in the earlyyears of the ethanol in-dustry, when a downturncould mean widespreadplant closings and bank-ruptcies, the recent cut-backs are adjustmentsbeing made to managerisk when profit marginsare narrow, Kment said.About five ethanol plantshave been idled off andon since the start of theyear, while others havesignificantly reducedproduction, he said.

Among them is ValeroEnergy Corp., a majorpetroleum company thatalso operates 10 ethanolplants.

Valero temporarilyidled plants in Albion,Neb., and Linden, Ind.,because it was costingthe company more tomake ethanol than itcould sell it for, spokes-man Bill Day said. Eachethanol plant buys cornfrom farms within a 50-mile radius, and whenthe local price of cornrose too high, productionwas halted. The movecame amid drought inboth states.

"We expect this to betemporary. We don'tthink this is a long-termthing," Day said. "We arean energy company. Weare well accustomed tothe ups and down in theenergy business, and weare a large enough,strong enough companythat we can get throughthe downturns and bene-fit from the upturns."

The company has kept

the 60 employees at eachplant working, doingmaintenance projectsand keeping the facilitiesin a state where they canbe restarted quicklyonce market conditionsimprove, Day said.

He said Valero hopedthe upbeat acreage re-port thatcameoutFridaywillquellsomeofthener-vousnessinthecornmar-ket and allow prices todrop, and that's one rea-son it expects to have theidled plants back in pro-duction before harvest.

But as triple-digittemperatures continueto bake the Midwest,smaller ethanol facilitieshave become increasing-ly nervous.

Steve Gardner, man-ager of the East KansasAgriEnergyplant inGar-nett, Kan., said it hasbeen running at 80 per-cent of its capacity sincethe first quarter of thisyear. Corn costs are toohigh given how much thecompany is getting forits ethanol, and it hasbeen reviewing the situa-tion each month to deter-mine whether to shutdown.

"We have been fortu-nate we haven't had to dothat" so far, he said.

U.S. stocks of ethanolreached a record 23 mil-lion barrels in March andhave been generally hov-ering above 20 millionthis year, said Sean Hill,biofuels analyst for theEnergy Department'sEnergy Information Ad-ministration. The nationended 2011 with 18 mil-lion barrels.

Most ethanol fuel soldfor passenger cars andpickups today is 10 per-cent ethanol and 90 per-cent gas. A new blendthat boosts ethanol to 15percent would be sold foruse only in 2001 and new-er vehicles.

Ethanol productiondown, corn costs upBy Roxana HegemanAssociated Press

DETROIT — New vehi-cle prices have dropped$500 on average in thepast year, mainly becauseJapanese automakershave restocked dealersafter car shortages in2011, according to the Kel-ley Blue Book auto pric-ing service.

Models from Japaneseautomakers such as theToyota Prius and HondaAccord have seen the big-gest declines, while De-troit’s models haven’t

dropped quite as much.Toyota, Honda and

smaller Japanese auto-makers ran short of carsafter an earthquake andtsunami hit Japan inMarch of 2011, knockingout power and hamperingauto assembly and partsproduction. The short-ages weren’t fully re-solved until a few monthsago. With few cars to selllast summer, Toyota andHonda dealers had littlereason to offer discounts.

But now that they’refully restocked, the dis-

counts are back. KBBsaid that the averageprice paid for a Hondamodel is almost $1,200less than it was at thistime last year, while Suba-ru, Mazda and Toyotamodels are down $700 to$800. Ford, Chrysler andGeneral Motors haveseen much smaller drops,less than $500.

The average price aToyota Prius gas-electrichybrid is down $2,500from June of 2011, whilethe Accord price is down$1,450, according to KBB.

Full lots lower car pricesAssociated Press


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