Word: autos
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...high to increase their profits. Furthermore, even if the plan succeeds at lowering oil prices, it will lower prices on all oil products, not just heating oil. This means that prices at the pump--which are justifiably high given the negative effects of smog and other environmental effects of auto pollution--will fall along with heating oil. This means that SUV and luxury car drivers--people who burn a lot of fuel for no good reason--will benefit as much as poor and middle-class families trying to heat their houses this winter...
...IRONY From the people who wish they had brought you the iMac comes a line of translucent, fruit-colored irons. Yes, irons. Proctor-Silex's $45 appliances, available in strawberry, lime, tangerine or blueberry, may not have microchips, but they are equipped with essentials like auto shut-off, adjustable steam and nonstick soleplates...
Just down the autobahn in Wolfsburg, however, Volkswagen has built a theme park that is drawing twice as many visitors as expected, along with rave reviews. Autostadt, or Auto City, is the brainchild of VW chairman Ferdinand Piech. Conceived as a place for VW customers to pick up their new cars, the center quickly grew into the EuroDisney of the automobile. Unlike other theme-park planners, Piech never intended Autostadt to become profitable. The $400 million cost was written off as a marketing expense. Piech hopes Autostadt's revenues will cover its operating expenses next year...
...company is not without options. Firestone could launch an all-out price war, which analysts fear would hurt an industry saddled with rising commodity costs and little pricing power. Points out Wendy Beale Needham, auto analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette: "[Firestone] does have a parent with resources and a different brand name...
NHTSA's attempts to improve safety have also faced congressional roadblocks. Tire-safety standards have not budged for 32 years, despite repeated calls for revision. But standing in the way of efforts to expand NHTSA's regulatory powers are such pro-auto legislators as John Dingell, the House Commerce Committee's senior Democrat, who is from Dearborn, Mich. (an auto center), and Michael Oxley, a Republican from Finley, Ohio (a tire center). Billy Tauzin, the committee's chairman, from Louisiana, tried several years ago to cut back on NHTSA's enforcement authority...