Turbocharged Vehicle Sales Expected to Reach 3.2 Million Units in North America this Year

After conquering Europe, turbocharged engines are now picking up steam in North America, mainly thanks to the efforts of Ford Motor Corp. and General Motors that embraced the technology on their mainstream products.

Honeywell, which develops and provides turbochargers for many vehicles including the gasoline-powered Dodge Dart and Fiat 500 Abarth, and the diesel versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and Volkswagen Touareg, estimates that North American sales of turbocharged commercial and passenger vehicles is projected to reach 3.2 million units in 2012, up from 2.2 million in 2011.

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GM's Spark-o-Graphic Compares America's 1970's Sedans with Today's Small Cars

Back in the 1960s and even more so in the first half of the 1970s, American automakers produced some of the largest mainstream cars ever, before the oil crisis put an end to these dinosaurs of the automobile industry.

General Motors, of course, was no exception. One example is the fifth generation of the Chevrolet Impala that measured a whopping 222.0 inches (5,639 mm) long.

On the occasion of the U.S. launch of its new 2013 Chevrolet Spark, the Detroit carmaker released an info graphic comparing the city car with the average American sedan in the early 1970s.

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Porsche 911 Preferred by Men, Volvo S40 and Nissan Rogue by Women, Says Gender-Based Study

We all know that male and female buying decisions differ greatly so it will not come to as a surprise to learn that the two genders have diverse preferences when it comes to choosing a car.

Automotive research firm Truecar.com released its third annual demographic study that examines car-buying behavior between the two genders in 2011. Instead of looking into absolute sales, the survey set out to find the car brands and individual models with the greatest percentage of male and female buyers.

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Report Says U.S. Automobile Sector Contributed $135 Billion in Taxes in 2010

It’s no secret that the motor vehicle sector is the largest manufacturing industry in the United States, but how big is it in terms of state and federal tax revenues?

This is a question the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), a nonprofit research organization based in Michigan, set to find out on behalf of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which funded the study.

The report concluded that in 2010, the production, sales and service, and use of the automobile in the United States was responsible for generating at least $91.5 billion in state government tax revenue (13 percent of the total) and at least $43 billion to federal government tax revenues.

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Study Finds that Average Fuel Economy for New Cars Rises to 23.4MPG

A report from TrueCar found that average fuel economy for new cars sold in the States continues to rise. Before we look into the details, we should note that the automotive analyst employs EPA's average fuel economy rating using 45 percent highway and 55 percent city driving behavior, which it names "TrueMPG".

For the month of March, the TrueMPG of all new vehicles sold in March 2012 increased to 23.4mpg US (10.5lt/100km or 28.1mpg UK), compared to 23.2 mpg in February of 2012, 22.0 mpg in March 2011 and. 20.3 mpg (11.6lt/100km or 24.4mpg UK) in March of 2008.

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New Study Finds that Only a Third of Hybrid Owners Buy Hybrids Again

As it seems, the majority of hybrid car owners in the States don't go for seconds, or at least that's what a new study released today by auto research firm Polk reveals.

According to the report, while the number of hybrid models in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2007, only 35 percent or a little over a third of hybrid vehicle owners choose to purchase a hybrid again when returning to market in 2011.

To make matters worse, Polk says that if you exclude the high volume audience of Toyota Prius owners from the equation, hybrid loyalty drops to under 25 percent!

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Car Prices Hit Record Highs in the U.S., Average Transaction up 7% from Last Year

The U.S. auto market is gaining momentum after the recession which led to the bankruptcy of the General Motors and Chrysler groups, but so are median car prices.

According to TrueCar.com, the average transaction price for new light vehicles in the States reached $30,748 in March 2012, an increase of $1,977 or 6.9 percent from March 2011 and $143 or 0.5 percent from February 2012.

Most analysts seem to agree that one of the reasons why average prices are on a rise is that automakers are constantly reducing big cash-back offers and other incentives.

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iCar: New Study Finds that Gen Y Consumers want Hybrids with Tablets and Smartphone-Like Functions

Echo boomers, Generation Y, Generation Next: whatever you call them, people who were born in the beginning of the 1980’s are now an important demographic group for any company. And their preferences may change the type of cars we will drive in the future.

According to the annual survey conducted by the Deloitte consulting company, Generation Y consumers, who the company describes as those aged from 19 to 31, want their new cars to be hybrids laden with high-tech features.

"This could be the generation that leads us away from traditional gasoline-powered vehicles", comments Deloitte automotive consultant Craig Giffi who oversaw the study.

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