New 'Save Big' consumer book recommends ASA
Automotive Service Association
Automotive Service Association members are highly recommended in the recently released book, "Save Big," by Elisabeth Leamy, consumer correspondent for ABC News' "Good Morning America" television program. Leamy also contributes consumer stories to other ABC programs, such as "World News" and "Nightline."More

Taking The Hill Fly-In, AMI Leadership Conference information now online

Details of the 2010 ASA Taking The Hill Fly-In and AMI Leadership Conference, to be held May 11-12, are now available online at www.TakingtheHill.com. The page contains registration prices for the Fly-In and Leadership Conference, hotel registration information and details of the AMI Leadership Conference classes.More

Predicting failures through mode $06
autocarepro:news
The PCM has several diagnostic modes. Depending on your scan tool and your use of it, you may get to see some or all of these modes. Also, depending on your scan tool, you may be accessing the various modes in the PCM without referring to them as "modes."More

Federal probe expanded into Ford F-150 air bags
USA Today
Government safety regulators have upgraded an investigation into complaints that airbags on some Ford F-150 pickups can deploy without warning, injuring the driver or passengers, Reuters is reporting. More than 60 injuries have been reported from the unexpected airbag deployments, but only in older models.More

Toyota: Software to blame for Prius brake problems
CNN International

Without issuing a recall of its iconic Prius hybrid vehicles, Toyota said a software glitch is to blame for braking problems in the 2010 model. "We would want to be given a little time," Hiro Yuki Yokoyama, Toyota's managing officer, said when reporters asked whether a recall was in the works. The company changed its braking system software in January as part of what it called "constant quality improvements" but did not say what it would do about vehicles manufactured before then.More

Jaguar building a turbine hybrid
Wired
How cool is this: Jaguar is developing a range-extended luxury hybrid that may use a tiny gas turbine to power the electric motor. As crazy as the idea might sound, the British government is bankrolling the idea to the tune of $24 million. Jaguar Land Rover is working on the car with British gas turbine manufacturer Bladon Jets and electric motor manufacturer SR Drives.More

January sales surge for Ford, GM
The Detroit Free Press
Ford and General Motors started the year on a high note, posting double-digit sales gains in January that outpaced the industrywide increase of 6.3 percent. While Chrysler continued to struggle, with a sales decline of 8.1 percent, Detroit’s other two automakers captured nearly 38 percent of the U.S. new vehicle market — a gain of nearly four points from the same month a year ago. The reason? Toyota's highly publicized recall problems and a surge in commercial fleet sales that hints at a slowly recovering U.S. economy. More

Washington Auto Show: Green technology officially mainstream
U.S. News & World Report
While the auto show in Washington, D.C. is not known to be the first place automakers unveil their new designs in the United States (that honor is usually reserved for the Detroit and L.A. Auto shows), there was nonetheless a very strong showing in alternative fuel and hybrid-electric models. Among the American car makers, Ford carries the distinction of having its midsized Fusion Hybrid as the North American Car of the Year, offering a sedan with a very respectable 41 MPG city/36 hwy., powered by a nickel-metal hydride battery and a 2.5L Atkinson Cycle I-4 engine.More

Sherwin-Williams kicking off EcoLean workshop in March
ABRN
Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes will begin its 2010 A-Plus Network University EcoLean workshops in Las Vegas this spring. The EcoLean program has been developed for collision shop owners and managers who are interested in leveraging the power of lean production as well as business solutions that reduce environmental waste. The program was a huge success for the company and its customers in 2009 as all four regionally held workshops were sold-out.More