plus 3, A Slow Reaction to Toyota Illustrates Gaps in Europe - New York Times

A Slow Reaction to Toyota Illustrates Gaps in Europe - New York Times
Autobytel Back in Compliance with Nasdaq - Orange County Business Journal
Garmin-Asus nuvifone(TM) A50: An Android(TM) Smartphone with More ... - Stockhouse
Automobiles : MOTORCYCLES,ATVs,MOPEDS - Frederick News-Post

A Slow Reaction to Toyota Illustrates Gaps in Europe - New York Times

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:03 PM PST

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BRUSSELS — The first problems with sticking accelerators in some Toyotas surfaced more than a year ago in Britain and Ireland. But it was only Friday, long after a global recall began, that the European Commission issued its first consumer alert.

As Toyota has issued its piecemeal recalls — including the most recent plan to recall at least 311,000 of its 2010 Prius models after a flurry of complaints about the brakes — the system for monitoring car safety across Europe has appeared similarly opaque.

The commission's warning was posted Friday to the relatively obscure Web site of the commission's Rapid Alert System for Non-Food Products. It said some Toyota "products pose a risk of injuries because there is a possibility that the accelerator pedal mechanism may, in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position."

The warning said up to 1.8 million vehicles could be recalled, including Aygo, iQ, Yaris, Corolla, Avensis and RAV4 models. Auris and Verso models manufactured as recently as Jan. 5, 2010, were also involved. The warning said that Toyota had taken "voluntary corrective actions."

A group of government experts met Monday behind closed doors at the European Commission headquarters here to discuss exchanging information on the Toyota problems.

The commission outlined an information-sharing plan, but there was no decision to change the system in place, which lets carmakers decide when to notify national agencies, said Ton van Lierop, a commission spokesman.

In addition, the safety alerts are issued only once companies take corrective action, other commission officials emphasized.

Some industry analysts, however, said the delay between Toyota's discovery of the deficiencies and the commission's posting of the warning illustrated a gap, even in rule-bound Europe.

Automakers are among the most important employers in countries like Germany, Italy and France, and they exercise enormous influence in Brussels. The companies reshaped legislation on climate change measures and have helped shape the rules on relationships between automobile manufacturers and dealers.

Stephen Russell, the secretary general of ANEC, a European consumer standards association, said the problems at Toyota were a test for European regulators.

He said oversight of car safety was among "gray areas when it comes to the consumer interest and where we would welcome greater efforts in the areas of notification and enforcement between the European Commission and member states."

The fact that Toyota knew about accelerator deficiencies as early as December 2008 "raises serious questions about whether car manufacturers should be more forthcoming when they identify a problem, even before a recall," said Robert Gifford, the executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, a nonprofit group that seeks to advise British legislators on safety issues.

The apparent lack of knowledge about the deficiencies among governments "also raises questions about whether agencies are as interventionist as they should be, so that they find out about such problems in the first place," Mr. Gifford said.

The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, a specialized agency in Britain dealing with aspects of auto regulation, said Toyota informed it "of the issue with U.K.-affected vehicles at the same time as the concern was released" in the United States.

A similar agency in Ireland, the Road Safety Authority, said it was "not aware of any incidents in Ireland concerning the acceleration issue in Toyota vehicles."

Toyota executives in Brussels said the company began detecting deficiencies in European models in December 2008. They said those episodes mostly concerned the Yaris and the Aygo sold in right-hand-drive countries like Britain and Ireland.

Some of these problems were probably detected during routine checkups of cars by dealers while others were by customers, said Etienne Plas, a spokesman for Toyota in Europe.

Honda Extends Airbag Recall

Honda said Tuesday that it would recall 438,000 more cars globally to replace an airbag deflator that could rupture and send shards toward the driver in a crash. The expanded recall is concentrated in the United States, where nearly 379,000 cars are subject to the recall.

Honda had twice before filed recalls for the airbag problem, in November 2008 and June 2009, covering 510,000 autos.

James Kanter reported from Brussels, and Luke Browne from Paris. Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting from Tokyo.

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Autobytel Back in Compliance with Nasdaq - Orange County Business Journal

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 11:44 PM PST

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Irvine-based automotive marketing company Autobytel Inc. no longer faces the prospect of delisting from the Nasdaq because of its low stock price.

The company said Wednesday that it has regained compliance with Nasdaq by trading for $1 or greater for at least 10 consecutive days.

Nasdaq rules require shares of listed companies to trade for more than $1 and not to slip below the threshold for more than 30 straight days.

Autobytel's shares closed at $1.12 Wednesday with a market value of about $50 million.

The company received a letter from Nasdaq officials in September citing its stock price, which has below $1 per share for most of last year.

The company had until March 15 to get its shares at $1 or more for 10 straight days to avoid delisting.

Delisting threats have become common since the Wall Street meltdown of fall 2008.

With so many stocks trading at lower prices, and many in violation of exchange rules, Nasdaq officials have shown flexibility in working with companies.

The company steers online auto shoppers to dealers and the automotive industry's downturn has hit the company hard.

Autobytel has faced an investor rebellion and a buyout bid in addition to the delisting threat last year.

The company has been looking to generate more business from leads to auto dealers as it downplays revenue from advertising on its Web sites.

Last April, Autobytel's board rejected an unsolicited $15.8 million buyout offer from a major shareholder, Infield Acquisitions Inc., part of Austin, Texas-based Trilogy Enterprise Inc.

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Garmin-Asus nuvifone(TM) A50: An Android(TM) Smartphone with More ... - Stockhouse

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 11:08 PM PST

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BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 11, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

Garmin-Asus, a co-branded alliance between Garmin(R) Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), and ASUSTeK(R) Computer Inc. (TAIEX: 2357), today announced the Garmin-Asus nuvifone A50, a touchscreen Android-powered smartphone with multiple location technologies and apps. The A50 benefits from the personalization and enhanced features offered by the Android platform, and also includes Garmin navigation with turn-by-turn, voice prompted directions for use in a car or while walking. Location features are designed into virtually every function including email, text messaging, and photos. The A50 will be on display at the Garmin-Asus booth (Hall 8, #8B127) at Mobile World Congress, February 15-18, 2010.

"The A50 brings premium navigation features to the Android operating system, offering users a seamless location based experience along with access to the wealth of applications that the platform affords," said Benson Lin, vice president and general manager of ASUS' personal mobile devices business unit, handheld business group.

"Location is relevant to everything you do," said Cliff Pemble, Garmin's president and COO. "The A50 integrates navigation and GPS functionality throughout the device, which gives customers the versatility and reliability they need as they navigate their day."

The elegant and thin A50 has a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen display that incorporates a finger-friendly user interface. The QWERTY touchscreen keyboard makes it easy to send and receive messages, and predictive text helps customers type faster. It also comes with hardware features like 4GB internal storage, an expandable microSD card slot, and accelerometer so every screen can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode.

Access to thousands of applications

The A50 integrates Google(TM) mobile services with one-click access to Google Search(TM) by voice, Google Maps(TM), Gmail(TM), YouTube(TM), calendar, contacts and Android Market(TM), where users can find more than 20,000 applications to expand and personalize their phone to fit their lifestyle.

Powerful enterprise email capability

The A50 includes on-device sync with Microsoft Exchange server, with the ability to wirelessly synchronize contacts, calendar and enterprise email. Account setup is quick and easy, and in a few simple steps users will have their contacts, calendar and email ready to go.

High-sensitivity GPS receivers with Garmin navigation

The A50 receives its location (latitude and longitude) information from multiple sources including satellite, network-based and terrestrial sources. These overlapping technologies ensure that A50 customers have the best location and navigation experience a smartphone can offer.

Garmin navigation is included and preloaded on the A50. Because maps are installed on the device, customers will not have to wait for third party maps to download from a server, nor will they lose their turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation if they are out of cell phone coverage. The A50 also has many of the same features as a high-end Garmin nuvi(R) navigation device such as lane assist with junction view that guides drivers to the correct lane for an approaching turn or exit and realistically displays road signs. Ready for pedestrian or automotive navigation out-of-the-box, the A50 includes a custom Garmin car mount and vehicle power cable.

The A50 also supports cityXplorer(TM) maps so that customers can plan and use routes that include public transit options such as bus, tramway, metro and suburban rail systems. cityXplorer content is available as an optional download for select cities. Thanks to the A50's e-compass, customers will know their heading even when standing still.

In addition to Android Market, the A50 has preloaded, apps through Garmin-Asus' connected services, which includes real-time, location-relevant information like weather, traffic, fuel prices, safety cameras, flight status. Connected services information varies by country.

Customers also have access to Street View in Google Maps and 3D landmark images.

Surf the web

With a powerful, multi-touch capable WebKit browser, the A50 allows users to browse the web at quick speeds and view streaming content. In addition, it automatically identifies location information embedded within web pages allowing the user to quickly navigate to the locations published on the world-wide web.

Take quality photos

The A50 includes a three mega-pixel camera with auto-focus that automatically geotags images with an exact latitude and longitude reference of where the photo was taken. Customers may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the geo-tagged image to friends.

Availability

The Garmin-Asus nuvifone A50 is expected to be available in Europe in the first half of 2010. Specific availability and pricing details will be given in the future. Additional information about Garmin-Asus products is available at www.GarminAsus.com.

About Garmin-Asus

Garmin-Asus is a co-branded strategic alliance that enables Garmin Ltd. and ASUSTeK Computer Inc. to combine their complementary resources to develop world class LBS-centric mobile phones.

About Garmin Ltd.

The global leader in satellite navigation, Garmin Ltd. and its subsidiaries have designed, manufactured, marketed and sold navigation, communication and information devices and applications since 1989 -- most of which are enabled by GPS technology. Garmin's products serve automotive, mobile, wireless, outdoor recreation, marine, aviation, and OEM applications. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit Garmin's virtual pressroom at www.garmin.com/pressroom or contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200.

About ASUS

ASUS is a leading company in the new digital era. With a global staff of more than ten thousand and a world-class R&D design team, the company's revenue for 2008 was 8.1 billion U.S. dollars. ASUS ranks among the top 10 IT companies in BusinessWeek's "InfoTech 100", and has been on the listing for 11 consecutive years. ASUS was also selected by the Wall Street Journal Asia as No.1 in quality and service.

ASUS is a registered trademark of ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Garmin and nuvi are registered trademarks, and nuvifone and cityXplorer are trademarks, of Garmin Ltd.

About Google

Android, Google, Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube and Android Market are trademarks of Google, Inc.

Notice on forward-looking statements:

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business. All statements regarding the company's future product introductions are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management's current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Garmin, including, but not limited to, the risk factors listed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 27, 2008, filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 0-31983). A copy of Garmin's Form 10-K can be downloaded at www.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/invRelations/finReports.html. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Garmin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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SOURCE: Garmin-Asus

Garmin-Asus, North America and Europe Jessica Myers or Ted Gartner 913/397-8200 media.relations@garmin.com or Garmin-Asus, Asia Jessie Lee or Tina Chan 886-2-28943447 Jessie1_Lee@asus.com / Tina_Chan@asus.com

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Automobiles : MOTORCYCLES,ATVs,MOPEDS - Frederick News-Post

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 11:22 PM PST

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