Author Archive for Tim Esterdahl
Associate Editor Tim Esterdahl is a married father of three who enjoys all things automotive including wrenching on his collection of old pickups. He also plays an absurd amount of golf. Like really absurd.
GM’s Ignition Switch Recall Blunder – Fines, Lawsuits and More
UPDATE from Autonews.com: Federal safety regulators today sent a 27-page letter to General Motors requesting detailed information and documents related to its investigation of whether the automaker waited too long before recalling 1.6 million vehicles last month.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave GM until April 3 to answer 107 questions about the recall, many of which could require hundreds of pages in response. The recall covers 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalts, 2003-07 Saturn Ions and five other nameplates.
A federal investigation has been launched to review GM’s handling of a 9 year gap between discovering a problem and issuing a recall. With 1.6 million vehicles involved and 13 people believe to have died, GM is “real sorry.” That’s not quite going to cut it.
The ignition switch on this 2007 Pontiac G5 could fail. This failure would turn off the vehicle and could stop the air bags from deploying in an accident. While that’s bad, what’s worse is how long GM waited to recall the vehicles affected.
Toyota Tundra Sales Up Again – February 2014
The February 2014 Sales figures are out and the Tundra improved once again over last year. While the rest of the industry pointed to the cold weather as the reason for poor sales, the Tundra continues to gain.
The Toyota Tundra continued to show a sales increase for 2014.
2014 Lexus IS 350 F-SPORT Review – Impressive Performance
Last week, I got my hands on a 2014 Lexus IS 350 F-Sport to review. While I had recently driven the IS 250, the performance differences between the 250 and the 350 F-SPORT are remarkable. Here is my “truck guy” review.
This sedan is ready to be driven fast, really FAST!
Electric MiniTrucks Send F-250s to Garage – The Future
For years, automakers have been trying to build an “electric truck” that actually makes sense. Most times, these electric trucks fall well short on towing and power needs of most consumers. Yet, is there a future for small electric trucks? Most likely and this is it.
These electric minitrucks sent the F-250s to the garage for most of the year.
Do Parts Suppliers Matter More than Manufacturers?
An interesting trend has been happening of late – automotive suppliers are getting quite a bit of attention.These days, more and more manufactures are blaming parts suppliers for recalls. Cummins diesel engines are all the rage (not just a diesel engine, but a Cummins). And now, news of Tesla and Apple working together to build an iCar. This begs the question – are manufactures becoming less relevant? Does Toyota even matter or do their supplier choices matter more?
With all the part suppliers news lately, are they becoming more important than manufactures?
