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Second Knockout Stage Set for Progressive X Prize Car Contest

January 17th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in News

Recently the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize announced the 22 teams that will be representing 28 different vehicles that survived the first 3 on track testing stages known as Shakedown. These vehicles will now move on to the Knockout Qualifying Stage which will be held in June 2010 at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. The contest is designed to encourage a fresh new generation of commercially viable high efficiency cars that can maintain 100 miles per gallon or the equivalent in other forms of fuel energy. The 28 teams will be showing off a grand total of 3 dozen different cars coming from around the world and were invited to the MIS to get an official start with the on track performance testing that was part of the Shakedown stage. Only 4 of those invited did not participate in the Shakedown Stage.

The X Prize competitor cars were run through a gauntlet of challenges to test how they handle a range of different factors that are considered when the prize is awarded. These include safety, performance and efficiency evaluations to me made by the contest’s judges who come from a range of background, including automotive engineers who work for the Consumer Reports magazine. The intense technical inspections and battery of tests for everything from braking to emergency double lane changes to avoid an accident, have narrow those cars competing down to the most likely to make it towards the prize itself. According to press present at the event, it is these types of events that are helping push forward new thinking in auto design as the world comes to grips with the energy crisis building at this time.

US Car Buyers Prove Willing to Hold Off for Sales Events

January 14th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in News

Due to the fact that data is now able to be not only monitored, but compiled for stat tracking purposes at never before seen levels these days by companies that keep tabs on car buyers, consumers are now far more informed than in recent years. This has made the majority of car buyers much more picky and in the end, consumers are now opting to wait for bargain deals rather than leap at the first chance to pick up a car they seen in the dealer’s lot. Google recently held its annual automotive summit in its Birmingham offices and invited 150 marketers from car companies, marketing agencies and similar companies to attend. Despite the auto industry’s strong attempts to get consumers to not focus on the discounts they use to incentivize their vehicles to sell at higher rates, customers continue to wait for exactly those savings such as found in cash back rebates and financing deals offering the famed no interest policy. This has cut sharply into auto maker profits.

Research firms Compete and RL Polk compiled a great deal of data with Google that does not show car shoppers in a very positive light. Most consumers are now waiting much longer to make their buying decisions with 20 percent taking 3 or more months before they decide. Less than a third were willing to make up their mind within a week as of data from 2008. Most of this is due to the fact that they want a sale and will not spring until the opportunity seems best.