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Filed under: Etc. , Government/Legal As a political statement against Maryland politician E. J. Pikpkin 's run for national office, Charles Richter painted a swastika on his car next to the words "Vote Pipken" and parked it legally on a public street. The same day it was parked, a sheriff's deputy ticketed the car as abandoned. Two days later, the car was towed from the same spot. When Richter refused to pay the impound lot to get his car back, it was crushed. Richter has brought suit against the deputy, and a federal judge has just ruled that the lawsuit can go forward. Richter, explaining another swastika-adorned vehicle that was also a protest against Pipken, wrote in one forum, "Painted on my Van was... The American Indian Peace sign which happens to be the Swastika printed back wards." The decorative swastika, also used by Native Americans, is literally thousands of years old, has positive meanings, and is still used in certain Eastern cultures. It is often...
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Filed under: SUVs , China , Euro , Government/Legal , Crossovers/CUVs , BMW , Mercedes-Benz , SMART Take a close look at the image. A court in Italy has just ruled that the crossover pictured above, the five-seat CEO built by Shuanghuan Automobile of Shijiazhuang, China, is not a clone of the BMW X5. Um... yeah. The legal battles began when Shuanghuan introduced their "Noble" last year, a near-clone of the Smart fortwo . Mercedes-Benz wasn't impressed, and threatened a lawsuit . Shortly thereafter, BMW started losing sleep over the Chinese CEO, an obvious facsimile of their previous-generation X5 (E53). The Bavarian automaker took Shuanghuan to court in Munich this past summer and won their case, and when Martin Motors (the distributor of Shuanghuan Automobiles in Italy and central Europe) started selling the CEO in early 2007, BMW again took legal action, this time in the Italian judicial system. Last week, the Germans met their defeat when the Italian courts rejected their...
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Filed under: Etc. , Government/Legal , Chrysler, LLC. , Ford Click to enlarge Engineer Bob Kearns had been granted a patent for a design of intermittent windshield wipers in 1967, two years before Ford introduced them in production. Unfortunately for Kearns, Ford had "developed" its own system rather than licensing Kearns' design. Needless to say, litigation ensued and it took until 1995 for the U.S. Supreme Court to finally rule against Ford and Chrysler and award Kearns $30 million. That story has now been turned into a major motion picture being released this week called Flash of Genius , and Ford wants you to know that the facts of the matter are much less dramatic than what the movie portrays. While reminding people that the facts have been dramatized, Ford also mentions that a jury ruled it did not "willfully" infringe on Kearns' patent. That's not to say Ford and Chrysler didn't infringe - juries ruled that they did. It just wasn't "willful...
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative , Government/Legal , Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Their plate may be filled with churning out Tesla Roadsters and developing the Model S sedan, but Tesla Motors can't seem to get a break from the lawsuits. First there was the tiff with transmission supplier Magna , followed by potential development partner Fisker , and now Tesla is facing a class action lawsuit from former Director of Public Relations, David Vespremi. Vespremi ended up on the cutting room floor during the tornado that swept through the company ranks at the end of 2007. According to Tesla VP, Darryl Siry , the firings were centered on slacking employees and mismanagement. However, Vespremi obviously did not agree. Even departed founder, Martin Eberhard, did not see rationalization in the reorganization that occurred. With that kind of reaction, it was not too surprising to see the suit get filed. The details of the lawsuit allege that Tesla Motors did not practice good faith or fair dealing...
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative , Sedans/Saloons , Government/Legal , Green As we recently reported , rumors have been swirling regarding Henrik Fisker's involvement with Tesla Motors and its upcoming electric sedan prototype known as the WhiteStar. As is often the case, there's apparently some truth to the scuttlebutt, as Tesla has filed a lawsuit claiming that Fisker Automotive is using stolen design ideas from Tesla sourced when Fisker Coachbuild was employed by the young EV automaker for the styling of its sedan. According to Tesla chairman Elon Musk, "We could not use the Fisker styling. The styling was substandard compared to what he unveiled for his product. He gave us an inferior work product, and it's obvious why." In the process of working for Tesla, the lawsuit contends that Henrik Fisker and a few of his associates stole design ideas and confidential information related to the design of hybrid and electric cars. Fisker has since announced his upcoming...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Government/Legal , BMW , Mercedes Benz Due to a slumping greenback, the Canadian Loonie and the U.S. dollar are worth roughly the same amount , but the price of most new cars in Canada haven't made the adjustment . Two leasing companies are suing the Canadian government, BMW Canada Inc., Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. and Mercedes-Benz USA LLC for a cool billion dollars, but not because of the uncompetitive pricing in the United Province. The leasing companies have filed suit because strict import rules are preventing the companies from buying cars in the U.S. and selling them in Canada. The many fees, procedures and restrictions allegedly resulted in a 20-30% increase in the sale of more expensive Canuk cars. One example is a $350 admissibility charge to import a Bimmer, and a far more ridiculous $500 fee will be levied for bringing over a BMW that has received a recall repair in the States. The leasing companies allege the all those fees and fines enable BMW and...
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Filed under: Trucks/Pickups , Government/Legal , Ford Ford and Navistar are once again going to court over the automaker's plans to develop a 4.4L diesel engine inhouse for the F-150. The original lawsuit was thrown out last June, with the judge ordering the two corporations to iron out their differences in mediation. Since no progress has been made outside the legal system, Navistar has refiled its claim. In the suit, Navistar is claiming the light-duty diesel engine violates the agreement once made between the two companies, which states that Navistar be Ford's primary supplier of oil burners. Navistar is also alleging that the 4.4L diesel that Ford's currently developing is in fact International's 4.4L Lion V8 project that cost Navistar $11 million to develop. It's hard to pinpoint how or why Navistar is so sure Ford is using the Lion project 4.4L, considering that the supplier has received no official specs of the engine from Ford. We're not exactly Dr. Phil...
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Filed under: Etc. , Government/Legal , Lexus , Toyota Back in June, we brought you news that Toyota was in the process of suing a pornography firm for copyright infringement. Apparently the Japanese automaker didn't appreciate that adult film star Lexus Cash was using its luxury division's handle as her stage name and for her website. Evidently unwilling to stop its litigation campaign, Toyota is now turning its lawyers loose on a gay porn actor who also uses the name Lexus. According to latest reports, the Japanese automaker's lawyers in DC sent a cease-and-desist letter to EBoys Studios in Switzerland. The EBoys honcho insists that his performer chose the name because of its association with Greek mythology, and not with the automotive brand, and that the company will not cave to the carmaker's demands to recall the two flicks it has produced with the actor using that name. This has to be the funniest bit of news surrounding Lexus since that peacock had its way with one...
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Filed under: Government/Legal , Plants/Manufacturing , Toyota A faulty seatbelt that traps an occupant in a vehicle and leads to his death is a horrible tragedy. If the defect were given a pass at the manufacturing plant, it goes beyond tragic to criminal. Toyota is now facing two lawsuits in California, both centered around manufacturing defects that may have been ignored at its joint-venture New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant. We reported earlier on the first lawsuit filed by Katy Cameron , a NUMMI worker who alleges that vehicles with serious problems were passed out the door, even though the NUMMI plant purportedly subscribes to the "Toyota way" of manufacturing. Instead of empowering workers to spot and correct defects, even stop the assembly line to make things right, management at the NUMMI plant allegedly discouraged Cameron by demoting her. A second lawsuit has also been filed by the Singh family, who are blaming the seatbelt latch in their 2002 Corolla for the...
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Filed under: Government/Legal , Videos , Volkswagen One mysterious home movie maker created a video that Volkswagen didn't like, and the German automaker isn't stopping at having the video pulled from YouTube. The home movie in question puts a Nazi spin...
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Filed under: Government/Legal You might recall about this time last year, California State Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a lawsuit in Northern California's U.S. District Court asserting that automakers selling vehicles in the Golden State were liable...
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