text:
That's it for Markets Live.
You can read a wrap-up of all the day's action here.
Thanks for reading and for your comments.
See you all again tomorrow morning from 9.
Shares rose for the fifth consecutive day on some strong local earnings reports, stronger than expected Chinese trade data and after global markets cheered new United States Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen pledge to take a 'measured' approach to cutting stimulus.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 55.6 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 5310.1, while the broader All Ordinaries Index added 1 per cent to 5319.8, buoyed by a slew of half-year earnings results that met or beat expectations while a number of company's said the outlook for the second half of the year is improving.
Local shares had a strong lead after all major equity markets in the United States added more than 1 per cent. Global investors were cheered after Dr Yellen pledged in a highly anticipated speech to continue taking "a measured approach" to the process of reducing the central bank's monthly stimulus - currently $US65 billion per month down from $US85 billion per month in December.
Major markets in Britain and Europe also moved higher on Tuesday night, while Asian shares provided further support in afternoon trading on Wednesday.
But Angus Tulloch, a senior portfolio manager for Edinburgh based funds manager First State Stewart warned the withdrawal of US central bank stimulus is likely to remain a source of concern for investors for the duration of the year.
"Stockmarkets will continue to be difficult while the US Federal Reserve continues to taper its asset purchases. Most investors have probably underestimated just how much volatility and selling that will cause in 2104," Mr Tulloch said.
It's that time of the day when we celebrate the winners and commiserate with the losers.
OZ Minerals was the best performing stock among the top 200. The MD of the troubled miner, Terry Burgess, would be feeling aggrieved after the shares popped 12.7 per cent on news he would leave within a year. The company posted an annual loss of $294 million, too.
People can't get enough of Domino's Pizza, not its products or its shares, which were up 12.4 per cent on great interim earnings and a very upbeat store roll-out plan.
Boral, Slater & Gordon, Carsales.com and Computershare all reported interim earnings and all jumped.
Goodman Fielder leads the sorry list of losers, after it revealed it had made a loss over the first half. Investors sold the stock down 7.4 per cent.
Gold miners Newcrest and Evolution Mining suffered a reversal, while McMillan Shakespeare continued to fall.
Best and worst performers in the ASX 200 today.
There have been a couple of sneaky earnings updates drop after market close - from Nick Scali and Boom Logistics - always a bit suspicious for the more cynical investors among us.
That said, the furniture retailer's numbers look pretty good at first glance: revenue up 14 per cent to $71.7 million and net profit 22 per cent higher to $7.9 million against last financial year's first half. The dividend is steady at 6 cents per share.
Earnings per share is up 21 per cent to 9.7 cents.
Bit of a different story for Boom, and judging by the fact the company feels the need to put a "brief explanation of any of the figures above necessary [sic] to enable the figures to be understood", one suspects the crane company's earnings may not be what shareholders had been hoping for.
Revenue is down 23 per cent to $142.3 million, while profit has dwindled 35 per cent to $4.9 million.
There looks to have been some extraordinary items in there. We'll see what the market thinks of it come 10am tomorrow.
You can blame Labor for the fall in the Westpac/Melbourne Institute consumer confidence index, Michael Pascoe says:
Well, Labor voters anyway – their consumer sentiment dropped 13 per cent this month and is down by more than 26 per cent on this time last year.
As the accompanying graph shows, pretty much all of the fall in consumer sentiment can be attributed to those who have the intention of voting for the ALP.
Coalition voters' view of their world remains high with an index score of 114.7, up fractionally from January. Labor voters are down to 90.9 – back where they were in 2009 amidst all the fear and uncertainty of the GFC hitting.
Maybe that should be the headline: "Abbott as bad as GFC, say Labor voters".
Shares completed a fifth consecutive day of gains, with the ASX 200 index gaining 1.1 per cent, or 56 points, to close at 5310.1.
The All Ords was up 1 per cent to 5319.8.
Gains were recorded across the sectors, aside from health care, which dropped 2 per cent, and gold stocks, which snapped their recent winning streak with a 2.1 per cent fall.
Investors shaved 3 per cent off CSL's share price, to $67.75, following an earnings update this morning. Ramsay Health Care was also down 2.9 per cent, as was Sonic Healthcare (-1.1 per cent) and Primary Health Care, which fell 2.4 per cent on a poorly received earnings update.
CBA finished broadly flat for the day at $76.20 despite a blockbuster profit report, with ANZ the best among the banks, gaining 1.4 per cent to $30.98.
Strong Chinese trade data this afternoon put a rocket under BHP and Rio's share prices, which were up 1.8 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively. Fortescue was up strongly as well.
The biggest gains were in information technology, with the sub-index up 5 per cent thanks to a 6.4 per cent pop in Computershare. The company revealed interim results this morning and announced its CEO would step down.
Stockland (up 4.8 per cent), which reported earnings, and Westfield drove the listed property sector 2.2 per cent higher.
In May last year financial markets got their first whiff that the US Fed planned to begin winding back the third phase of the extraordinary monetary experiment known as quantitative easing, or QE.
Investors have had around eight and a half months to think about it.
So which asset classes have thrived amid the "taper terror"?
The chart below shows how a variety of assets have traveled. It's been a bumpy ride, but US and European shares have been the place to be. Emerging market shares, not so much, while the Aussie dollar is down close to 8 per cent, as is the price of gold (in US dollar terms).
The question is: will this pattern continue into 2014?
US shares have been the place to be since the US Fed first announced it planned to taper in May last year.
Here's a round-up of how regional sharemarkets are doing:
- Japan (Nikkei): +0.7%
- Hong Kong: +1.1%
- Shanghai: +0.1%
- Taiwan: +0.9%
- Korea: +0.35%
- Singapore: +0.4%
- New Zealand: +0.4%
Strong trade data from China and overnight comments by Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen have boosted optimism about the world's two biggest economies, and that's spilling over to the sharemarkets.
An uptick in residential housing construction, favourable weather and cost cutting helped Boral to a 73 per cent jump in half-year underlying profit to $90.4 million.
Boral, which is Australia's largest construction materials and building products group, reported higher earnings for all four of its divisions and a 4 per cent rise in revenue to $2.87 billion for the six months ended 31 December, 2013.
The result delighted investors, who pushed the company's shares 9.2 per cent higher to $5.46.
Boral chief executive Mike Kane, who is been in the job for a little over a year, said the improved performance reflects the benefits of costs realignment and restructuring, together with higher volumes from major projects.
Mr Kane has cut 1000 jobs, moved Boral's head office from the Sydney CBD to North Sydney and overhauled his senior executive team in a bid to shake costs out of the business.
Favourable weather has seen Boral's work on the mammoth Curtis Island LNG projects in Queensland pulled forward and earnings in the second-half are expected to be weaker as a result.
Boral's building products divisions delivered a $23 million turnaround as residential housing construction rebounds in New South Wales and Western Australia.
Including significant items, Boral reported a net loss after tax of $26.3 million due to non-trading items associated with the $US1.6 billion joint venture the company has formed with Chicago-based plasterboard technology company USG Corp.
CBA shares are trading flat at $76.03 now, after bouncing 1.3 per cent on the back of its bumper result - and then falling 0.7 per cent into the red.
IG's Chris Weston says the intraday reversal didn't come surprisingly, given signs the stock was overbought. But on balance he reckons CBA has upside to it:
- The failure to close above the 61.8 per cent retracement of the January to February sell-off at $76.07 has been noted, but shorting bank stocks has been a painful trade for many over the last couple of years.
- With fair levels of earnings growth, improving bad debts, a strong yield and good short-term trend, this is a name that will be bought on dips, especially with traders likely to buy before it goes ex-dividend on February 17.
CSL chief executive Paul Perreault says strong sales growth of the biotechnology giant's specialty products could see the division grow to be larger than the legacy haemophilia group, which has been hampered by increasing competition.
The specialty division, which sells diagnostic products and drugs to control bleeding during surgical operations, was the standout performer in CSL's interim financial results.
The company reported a 3 per cent rise in net profit to $US646 million ($715 million) in the first half of 2013-14. Underlying profit of $US685 million, which removes the effect of a $US39 million legal settlement, beat analyst expectations.
Mr Perreault said although the specialty division had lower sales than CSL's Immunoglobulin ($US1.1 billion) and haemophilia ($US550 million) divisions in the half, it had grown at double-digit rates "for the last number of years".
"We expect those [specialty] products to continue to grow," he said.
Mr Perreault said the division's "exceptional" performance was underpinned by the drug Kcentra, which was approved for use in the United States in 2013. Kcentra can reverse the effect of blood thinning agents such as warfarin within two hours, Mr Perreault said.
CSL shares are 3.3 per cent lower to $67.58.
China's export growth surprised the market on the upside, gaining 10.6 per cent year-on-year in January despite of a high base last year.
But ANZ's China chief economist Liu Li-Gang has his doubts:
- While this could reflect an improving external demand, we suspect that export over-invoicing activities have re-emerged. It is important to note that China's regional trading partners such as Taiwan and South Korea registered very weak January exports.
- We also found that the round-tripping trade between Hong Kong and China have picked up again since Q4 2013, reflecting the incentives to take advantage of the onshore high interest rates and RMB appreciation opportunities.
- Import growth also came in higher than expected, indicating a front-loading effect before the Chinese New Year.
- Consistent with previous seasonal patterns, the iron ore inventories in Chinese ports picked up strongly in the past few weeks.
- On one hand, the iron ore imports rose 33% y/y to the record high of 86.8m tonnes. On the other hand, the weakness of economic activity could have played a role as well. It is reported that Chinese steel mills held 36-day use of imported iron ore stock by the end of last week, compared with an average level of 30-day supply. As a result, the iron ore prices retreated during the same period.
Here are eight reasons why iiNet is due for a "major" re-rating, write Credit Suisse analysts, as they upgrade the stock to "buy" and lift their 12-month price target by a fifth to $8.10.
- Organic broadband growth is back – 1H14 result was the catalyst
- A focus on costs will deliver improved margins over the next 2-3 years
- NBN is an opportunity and will drive a material increase in broadband market penetration
- Bundling of IPTV (Fetch) will reduce churn and add margin
- Small & medium business segment due for competitive shake up. IIN has only a 2% market share
- NBN margin risks are overblown by the IIN bears
- Industry consolidation will continue and iiNet will play a role
- We expect free cash flow generation to improve by 42% FY14-FY16 off an already strong base
Shares in iiNet last traded at $7.10.
Here's more on Stockland Group's interim results:
The under-supply of well-located traditional family houses in Sydney and Melbourne has combined with the "wealth effect" of increasing home values to help drive a $445 million turnaround in the fortunes of diversified property group Stockland.
Celebrating his first year in the job, Stockland chief executive Mark Steinert said the group was focusing on providing affordable homes by offering a range of price points that also appealed to first home buyers.
Mr Steinert said Sydney and Melbourne were under-supplied for traditional housing, with buyers keen to get into a home and community that provided access to transport with a 'lifestyle'' balance.
The ''wealth effect'' of the strong residential property market had boosted Stockland's shopping centre and retirement businesses, Mr Steinert said, saying he was confident the conditions would continue to prevail for the rest of this year.
Stockland's office and industrial division held ground, he said, but more joint venture sales and partnerships of the assets in that portfolio were on the cards.
Sales of those assets would unlock cash to be used for the residential and retail development projects.
There may not be much to cheer Macquarie shareholders in the immediate future, but longer-term investors should be looking towards strong earnings growth in the next financial year, say Deutsche Bank analysts.
The broker maintains its "hold" rating after Macquarie's quarterly earnings failed to include the more upbeat earnings guidance many investors had hoped for.
"Hence we believe the market is unlikely to pay for these ahead of evidence of this upside," write the analysts, and as such "there is a risk that the stock treads water in the short term".
But if the strong earnings growth does come through in FY15, then the stock is trading at "an undemanding valuation".
On their estimates, Macquarie is on a P/E of 11 times estimated earnings per share.
The Australian dollar has risen about three-tenths of a cent to the day's high of 90.56 US cents on the back of the trade data.
The currency is edging closer to the 2014 high of 90.86 US cents (from mid-January) - but is still miles away from where it was this time last year (around $US1.03).
Chinese trade data is coming in and it's looking strong.
Exports in January jumped 10.6 per cent from a year earlier, well outpacing December's 4.3 per cent growth, and massively beating expectations of a 0.1 per cent rise.
Imports also grew faster than expected, lifting 10 per cent, from 8.6 per cent in December, and well above expectations of 4 per cent growth.
The trade surplus came in at $US31.86 billion, above last month's $US25.64 billion and much better than economists' predictions of $US23.45 billion.
Where will our children's jobs come from? Malcolm Maiden asks in this comment:
It's something to ponder after the implosion of one of the manufacturing sector's linchpins. The first, broad answer is the retreats of Ford, Holden and Toyota don't mean that Australia cannot create enough jobs.
There were just over 9 million people employed in Australia in November 2000. Employment in the manufacturing sector fell by 140,000 or 13 per cent between then and November last year, but total employment rose by 29 per cent or 2.62 million, to more than 11.6 million.
If your children want jobs in industries that are growing there are standouts. One is healthcare, a deep employment pool underpinned by baby-boomer demographics that has lifted job numbers by 37 per cent since 2005, and by more than 9 per cent since 2010.
Another is the finance sector, which also has depth with 420,000 jobs, and has grown job numbers by 11.8 per cent since 2005 and by 6.7 per cent since 2010 despite financial crisis aftershocks. The 212,000 job recreation and arts sector is smaller and more vulnerable to shocks, but has grown by 52 per cent since 2000, 20 per cent since 2005 and by 9 per cent since 2010.
Just like jobs in the manufacturing sector, jobs in the service sector run the gamut of pay and quality. Australia's education system is, however, delivering results that push employees away from the unskilled bottom of the scale.
That needs to continue. In America where education outcomes are more polarised, there are signs that the job market is hollowing out. Middle-wage US workers bore the brunt of layoffs during the global crisis, and median wages have been declining since the turn of the century.
And a good opportunity to add this nice chart from yesterday:
Following on from that iron ore post at 11.52am, here's an interesting graphic, courtesy of Arab Bank's David Scutt, showing how iron ore stockpiles in China have grown over the past months, while the price of the bulk commodity shrivels. Doesn't seem to bode too well for our iron ore miners.
Mayne Pharmaceutical is continuing to garner attention, with today's acquisition of new drugs in the US for $US12 milion, coupled with a planned $18 million placement of shares, winning quick kudos.
Moelis has a "buy" on the shares, with a $1 target price.
Mayne's bullish December half forecast last week prompted a series of target price upgrades for the shares to around 90 cents, with Moelis now standing another notch higher.
It told clients this morning the low acquisition multiple of around 3.5 times pretax profits for the two new product buys outlined this morning "highlights the opportunities available to Mayne" for additional bolt-on purchases.
"We regard a FY14 P/E of 21x as still not especially demanding given long-term growth prospects from the roll-out of new generic formulations as well as EPS upside from similar acquisitions."
The shares were last traded at 79c, with trading set to resume tomorrow, once the latest placement is finalised.
Online automotive classified business Carsales.com has recorded a 17 per cent jump in net profit to $43.9 million for the half ending December 31, compared with the previous corresponding period.
Revenue grew by 10 per cent to $112.3 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was up by 18 per cent to $63.5 million over the same period.
The company's revenue from car dealers grew by 11 per cent to $50 million and private sales grew by 7 per cent to $17.1 million.
"It's always a pleasure delivering record results to shareholders and the first six months of the current financial year, while not without challenges, has been very rewarding," Carsales chief executive Greg Roebuck said.
"Innovation is in the DNA of our business. Over the past six months, we have continued to demonstrate this core competency with deployments of many key new developments across our network of sites and platforms."
Carsales shares surged by 3.5 per cent to $9.71 on Wednesday morning and were up by nearly 10 per cent for this week.
Fed to EM: yes, we sparked the sell-off in your sharemarkets, but it's really your fault. That's the guts of what the US central bank is telling emerging markets in a new report.
In the report to Congress, the Fed said that the "stresses that arose in the middle of last year appeared to be triggered to a significant degree by Federal Reserve communications", but added policies in countries such as Turkey, Brazil and India made them especially vulnerable to external shocks.
In mid-2013, the Fed said it could soon start winding down a bond-buying stimulus program, sending stocks, bonds and currencies plunging across many emerging markets. The announcement stoked global tensions over potentially destabilising shifts in international money flow, as when India's central bank chief fretted that the United States should be more aware of how its policies affect the world.
In its report, however, the Fed pointed a finger back at some developing countries, saying they need to look in the mirror when assessing why their markets took a big hit.
Fed analysts built an index measuring economic vulnerability across 15 major emerging markets. They found Turkey was the most vulnerable, followed by Brazil and then India.
Indonesia and South Africa followed in the ranks of the most vulnerable. The index was based on six factors, including current account balances and foreign currency reserves relative to economic output.
The Fed analysis found that the most vulnerable countries tended to experience the biggest currency depreciations as well as larger increases in interest rates for government borrowing.
"This evidence is consistent with the view that reducing the extent of economic vulnerabilities is important if (emerging market economies) are to become more resilient to shocks," the Fed said.
The analysis highlighted how some developing economies have made strides to reduce their vulnerabilities. China, for example, was listed as one of the least vulnerable countries.
Aggressive dual-listed Kiwi accounting software outfit Xero is ratcheting up its push into the US with the appointment of a new chairman, ex-Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell.
Former HP heavyweight Bill Veghte (a one time vice president and GM) has also been appointed to the board, while former Paypal executive Peter Karpas has been appointed to head up the group's US expansion push.
The move comes as traditional rival MYOB announced earlier this week a new product aimed at Xero's turf, the small end of the market.
In late morning trading, Xero shares were up 2.7 per cent at $37.69.
The iron ore price is at its lowest in seven months, after slumping close to $US20/tonne since early December has the bulk commodity trading at $US120/tonne.
"Tight credit and the pessimism in the steel market weighed on iron ore prices, and many market participants are awaiting a clearer market direction after the Lantern Festival on February 14 when more end-users return," write RBC Capital analysts.
The trend is lower, but how far will it fall? As ever, much depends on the trajectory of China's economy and demand.
The iron ore price: the trend is down, but how low will it go?
A successful cost-cutting program and improved revenue from the oil and gas business were not enough to stop labour hire contractor Skilled Group reporting an almost 25 per cent decline in interim net profit.
The company said an improving operating environment and investment in the business meant the outlook for the second half is improving.
Skilled Group also confirmed that its $33.5 million acquisition of competitor Thomas Coffey, announced in November, was completed late Tuesday evening. The acquisition is part of a strategy to focus the company's earnings away from one of capital expenditure projects to the more stable maintenance sector and will operate as T&C Services.
Reduced revenue and margin pressure from key clients in the mining sector combined with the one-off costs from acquisitions and investment in the business weighed on profit and cashflow.
Moelis & Co analyst Todd Guyot said that overall the company had delivered largely in line with what were moderate expectations due to tough conditions for the resource services sector.
"It was always going top be a tough result. The company has been flagging the effect on its business of a slowdown in demand for labour from the mining sector since February," Mr Guyot said.
The shares are up 3.2 per cent to $2.91.
The cricket has got Money columnist David Potts thinking about what a First XI of stocks would look like:
They'd have to always make the grade and hang in there even when the market gets bowled over.
A bank and a health stock would be must-haves, according to my selection committee of some of the best professional investors, but then what? You might be surprised.
One of the most blue chip stocks Telstra, for instance, misses the squad. Though to be fair, that's more because it was always mentioned as an afterthought rather than with any enthusiasm. And remember fund managers aren't all that impressed with dividends - Telstra's only delivery - preferring growth instead.
So here are the stocks most nominated for a First XI. Oh, and they're in alphabetical, not batting order (you can read more on each here):
- BHP Billiton
- Breville Group
- Invocare
- Magellan
- Sirtex Medical
- Sydney Airport
- Wesfarmers
Domino's Pizza Enterprises has upgraded earnings growth forecasts for 2014 and plans to lift total store numbers by more than 50 per cent within five years to satisfy apparently insatiable demand for pizza.
The franchisor opened a record 60 new stores in the first half of 2014 – boosting network sales by 40 per cent to $576.2 million and underlying net profit by 39 per cent to $20.2 million.
The company plans to open a further 70 stores in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in the June half, taking total store numbers this year to about 1360.
After reviewing market opportunities in Australia and Japan, Domino's has upgraded long-term store targets and now expects to have 2000 stores by 2019 and 2750 by 2025.
"That new store pipeline is not only assisting this year's earnings, it flows into next year, setting us up for a good year," said chief executive Don Meij.
Almost 60 per cent of total sales are now coming from online in Australia and more than half of those orders are from mobile devices.
A solid uplift in residential sales has helped Stockland Property Group grow underlying profit by 5 per cent in the first half of fiscal 2014 to $267 million, and lift guidance on earnings per share growth.
The listed developer posted statutory profit of $298.1 million, up $45.2 million on the same period a year earlier.
The group has profited from a lift in earnings in both its residential and retirement divisions.
The positive result comes in the wake of efforts to reposition the business, with a focus on the housing sector, growing its retirement business and upgrading the group's portfolio of supermarket anchored retail assets.
Chief executive Mark Steinert indicated a gloomier outlook could be the on the cards for the year's second half.
"It is however important to note that economic indicators have been mixed, creating some uncertainty about what we should expect from the market in the second half," he said.
Stockland's shares are up 2 per cent to $3.80.
Shares in heavy engineer Bradken has come under renewed selling pressure this morning, as investors continued to react to its earnings downgrade Tuesday.
Bradken has cut its year to June profit forecast by around 15 per cent.
Even so, broker Bell Potter reckons the shares are a "buy", although at the same time it has slashed its price target for the shares to $5.48 from $6.63.
In early trading Bradken shares were down another 3.2 per cent to $4.57, following on from Tuesday's 9.4 per cent plunge.
"Bradken is paying the price for an inability to deliver a revenue turnaround quickly enough despite clear evidence that the order book has been improving for the last six months," Bell Potter analysts told clients this morning.
"We would expect a gradual recovery in revenue commencing in 2H14 (particularly industrial products)."
Austin Engineering was off another 5 cents to $3.40. Bradken has a proposal on the table to merge with Austin, with due diligence due to commence soon.
Plenty to talk about in this morning's best and worst, as earnings and corporate announcements drive share prices.
OZ Minerals is the best performer in the top 200, up 10.9 per cent after reporting annual results and telling the market that MD Terry Burgess is set to leave the company within a year.
Domino's Pizza's earnings were well received with the stock jumping 6.3 per cent, while Boral, Computershare and Carsales all pleased investors with profit updates.
At the other end of the scale was Goodman Fielder, which shocked the market with an half-yearly loss. The company's shares are trading 8.1 per cent lower. CSL, Skilled Group, and Primary Health Care's results also failed to impress investors.
Best and worst performers in the ASX 200 this morning.
Consumers are increasingly less confident about the future, despite a continued rise in house prices amid record-low interest rates, with a private monthly gauge falling to its lowest levels since July.
Westpac-Melbourne Institute's consumer sentiment slipped for the third-straight month in February as Australians' expectations about the economy over the next year fell to the lowest level since March 2012.
Consumers' expectations for the next five years along weakened to levels not seen since February 2009, the survey found.
"Households seem to be sending a fairly clear message in this survey," Westpac's chief economist Bill Evans said.
"It is around questioning why fiscal policy is about to be tightened and interest rates lifted when the labour market is so weak and housing affordability is being squeezed."
The Aussie dollar has slipped two-tenths of a cent to 90.19 US cents.
A good start to the day's trading after a flurry of earnings results and investors took comfort from Janet Yellen's first official comments as the new chair of the US Fed (yes, she wants to be referred to as "chair").
The ASX 200 has opened 0.5 per cent higher, or 28 points, to 5282.2, with the All Ords up a similar amount to 5294.1.
Looking across the sectors, as mentioned in the previous post the banks are charging ahead off the back of CBA blockbuster results - financials as a group are 0.8 per cent higher.
IT has surged thanks to an early 5.3 per cent jump in Computershare, which reported this morning and announced a change of CEO.
Gold stocks are up once again - by 2.8 per cent - while the metals and mining segment has added 1.4 per cent with BHP and Rio Tinto both up strongly.
Boral has jumped on its earnings results, up 5.6 per cent.
Health care has been worst hit after its biggest constituent, CSL, dropped 4.3 per cent after reporting earnings.
And there has been heavy selling in Goodman Fielder, which is down 7.4 per cent, pulling the consumer staples sector 0.4 per cent lower.
CBA is off to a good start on the back of its bumper result; taking the other banks with it.
Morningstar's head of Australian research, David Ellis, describes it as a ''cracker'' result with no negative surprises for the bank's shareholders.
''There are no ominous signs of impending danger in the result, just another strong and consistent performance building on a long and enviable track record of steadily increasing profits and dividends,'' he says.
The other bank stocks are doing very well too, thank you:
- Westpac: +0.4%
The Abbott government has begun laying the groundwork for a $4 billion privatisation of Medibank Private without having received expert advice on whether the health insurer should be sold off.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has repeatedly said that no decision has been made on the timing or structure of a sale - the biggest privatisation since the float of rail company QR National.
But Fairfax Media has learnt that a fortnight ago a team of corporate spin doctors began drawing up plans to sell the idea for a full or partial-privatisation to the public.
The company, Newgate Communications, whose 10 senior executives include four former Liberal government staffers, is being paid $2000 a day to devise a communications strategy. The contract, worth $211,000 over five months, runs until June 30.
In November, Mr Cormann appointed investment bank Lazard to do the scoping study. It has until the end of February to advise on the readiness of Medibank for privatisation, as well as recommend a method of sale, timing and estimated proceeds.
The Australian dollar pushed higher overnight despite new Fed chair Janet Yellen confirming that the US central bank would continue to taper its monthly bond purchases as the US economy recovers.
The strengthening of the local currency, as the US dollar fell to multi-week lows against a range of currencies, was a sign that risk sentiment was back on the table even as the US winds back its unprecedented stimulus program, Westpac senior currency strategist Sean Callow says:
- It looks as though (Yellen's) the main theme was positive risk sentiment.
- AUD/JPY is getting increasingly popular. That's a very risk sensitive cross, so for AUD/JPY to be rallying, it means that the world is a lot more optimistic.
Callow says emerging markets would have been encouraged by Dr Yellen's statement that the Fed was continuing its tapering momentum as the economic outlook was still positive, rather than because tapering is not working anyone. The latter reasoning had been raised by the president of the Philadelphia Fed Charles Plosser earlier overnight.
"If that's the case and the Fed is reducing its stimulus for the right reasons, then the emerging markets should be pleased about the prospect of a US economy that is producing more, and that is going to consume more of their products that they export, rather than being worried about less hot money coming into their markets," Callow says.
The dollar over the past three days.
In a busy period for markets, traders will be alert to the impact of China's trade data, says CMC's Ric Spooner.
This looks like one of those data sets that could influence markets in either direction.
A significantly better than expected result could increase the momentum of commodity and resource sector buying. However, given latent concerns about China and the emerging markets sector, a negative miss could easily introduce a note of caution to current market optimism.
A wrap-up of earnings updates this morning
Quite an eventful morning and the market hasn't even opened!
Here's a table of the net profit results from companies reporting thus far (these are the raw, pre-extraordinary items figures from the releases).
In other corporate news:
- Computershare CEO to step down by June 30
- OZ Minerals CEO to step down with no named successor
- Mayne Pharma will raise $18 million in a share buy-back to fund a $12 million acquisition of some pain-relief tablet brands.
- NSW government will sell Macquarie Generation to AGL for $1.5 billion.
Can we expect to see the bulls out in full force today? Here's our poll:
Poll: Fed chief Janet Yellen was cheered on Wall Street, CBA numbers are likely to lift the local mood. Where will the ASX200 end the day?
- Party time! The ASX200 will close more than 1% higher.
- It's not all good - some poor earnings results sour the mood - small gains.
- We've seen it all before - flat end to the day.
- There are still some bears out there and they will strike: ASX200 will end lower.
Total votes: 324.
You will need Cookies enabled to use our Voting Feature.
Poll closed 13 Feb, 2014
These polls are not scientific and reflect the opinion only of visitors who have chosen to participate.
The US House of Representatives has just passed a bill to lift the country's debt ceiling for one year, giving a win to President Barack Obama and Democrats who insisted that the ceiling be lifted without conditions.
The bill got the required majority in a 221 to 201 final vote, with just 28 Republicans voting for it (and 199 against). The Senate is set to vote on the bill overnight.
OZ Minerals will become the latest mining company to undergo a leadership transition, with managing director Terry Burgess set to leave the company within the next year.
The succession plan was announced in OZ's full year results this morning, which included further dividend flows despite the company slumping to a full year loss of $294 million.
OZ chairman Neil Hamilton said Mr Burgess would play a key role in the transition, and would remain with the company at least until a new leader is found.
Mr Burgess has led OZ since August 2009, and pledged to help see the company through the change.
''I think it is the appropriate time to embark on a well considered leadership change,'' said Mr Burgess.
Mr Burgess' departure is not a major surprise, with OZ shares more than halving over the past year and the company disappointing the market on numerous occasions.
Earlier we mentioned Mayne Pharma was in a trading halt (before trading even opened, it must be said), and here's why.
The company has announced it has bought "selected" brands from Forest Laboratories, for a total of $12 million, funded via a fully underwritten share placement of $18 million.
The brands are ESGIC, ESGIC PLUS (tension headache capsules and tablets) and LORCET and LORCET PLUS, which are also pain-relief tablets.
The company said the acquisition is "expected to be mid-single digit EPS accretive in its first full financial year".
Despite reservations by the competition watchdog, the ACCC, the NSW Government is to sell Macquarie Generation to AGL for $1.5 billion.
The government will receive $1.7 billion from the sale, which includes a $220 million cash balance from the government-owned generator.
The sale is conditional on receiving agreement from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which last week called for further information on the proposed transaction.
Most recently, AGL acquired the Loy Yang power station in Victoria following the forced sale by Tokyo Electric Power Co of its holding.
The deal to sell to AGL follows a failed offer from smaller generator ERM Power.
Gold rallied to a fresh three-month high overnight, gaining nearly 1.5 per cent after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen made it clear she would not make any abrupt changes to the central bank's commitment to a measured tapering of bond purchases.
Technical buying also accelerated gains after the metal crossed above tough resistance at $US1280 an ounce. Spot gold was up 1.4 per cent at $US1291.51 an ounce in late New York trade, its biggest one-day gain in three weeks, after earlier hitting a hight of $US1293.44.
Bullion's rally reversed its recent strong inverse link with equities, which have been pressured by economic uncertainties and emerging-market jitters. The S&P 500 index climbed 1.3 per cent.
''Acknowledgment by Yellen that more needs to be done to restore the labour market is helping gold,'' said Frances Hudson, a strategist at Standard Life in Edinburgh. ''While she said that tapering will continue, she made it clear that it's not on any pre-set course.''
Gold over the past five sessions: the precious metal first fell on Yellen's prepared remarks before spiking on the ensuing Q&A.
The CEO of Computershare, Stuart Crosby, has announced he will step down, effective June 30.
He will be replaced by the current chief information officer, Stuart Irving.
Mr Crosby said in the ASX statement: "It has been a privilege to lead Computershare for nearly eight years. It is a very rewarding if demanding role, and the time is right for me to hand over. Stuart Irving, along with CFO Mark Davis, will head a formidable team to take the company forward and I am very confident that I will leave Computershare in the best possible hands."
Perhaps more interesting than Janet Yellen's testimony, which really contained few surprises (see earlier post), was the reaction of markets: US stocks gained, bond yields rose, gold rallied, the Aussie dollar remained strong.
Seems like there was a bit of cherry-picking going on, with different asset classes choosing to interpret, or at least weigh her words differently. IG's Evan Lucas notes:
- Bond markets saw the testimony as hawkish, with bond yields heading higher as QE is unwinding, which follows theory.
- Gold market saw it as dovish, with the precious metal heading higher, while currency markets took it with indifference, as risk pairs rose against the USD; theory would suggest however, that in the medium term the USD is on a hawkish bias with taper confirmed.
- The final conclusion to be drawn is that US economic strength remains and US investment will continue to see the sustained momentum of the past year, and this is what will settle in the equity markets as seen by another 1% rise in the US markets.
Goodman Fielder has forecast significant earnings improvement in the second half after record milk and rising wheat prices pushed the food group to a $64.8 million loss.
However, the company warned that rising agricultural commodity prices and tough trading conditions remain challenging.
The loss in the first half of the current financial year is down 287.9 per cent from the period corresponding period, where Goodman Fielder reported a $34.5 million profit.
Revenue in the first half of the 2014 financial year increased 5 per cent to $1.1 billion, boosted by the pricing in baking and dairy products, and currency benefits from the strong New Zealand dollar.
Goodman will issue an interim dividend of 1 cent with the franked amount per security 30 per cent.
The company also announced Ian Cornell, formerly director of human resources at Westfield Group, has joined the board as a non-executive chairman.
Forge Group has confirmed the appointment of administrators and the ASX has announced the company's suspension from the ASX.
The shares last traded on Monday at 91.5 cents.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has delivered a record-breaking half year cash profit of $4.27 billion and rewarded shareholders with a higher interim dividend of $1.83.
The nation's biggest bank said it remained ''cautiously optimistic'' about the outlook for the global economy, as it unveiled a profit result that showed banks were resilient to the fragile national economy.
In the six months to December, CBA's cash profit surged 14 per cent to $4.27 billion, beating market expectations for earnings of about $4.1 billion.
Shareholders will also pocket a higher interim dividend, which has been increased by 12 per cent to $1.83.
Despite the result breaking the record for the highest interim profit for an Australian bank, chief executive Ian Narev said he was ''cautiously optimistic'' about the economic outlook.
''We have seen, in recent weeks, that there is still volatility in global markets,'' Mr Narev said in a statement.
''The risks presented by that volatility continue to supress business confidence. As a result, there is little real evidence, so far, of a meaningful increase in investment in the rest of the non-resource sector of the Australian economy, other than in housing."
New Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen's testimony to the House of Representatives provided few surprises.
Yellen emphasised continuity in the Fed's policy strategy, and praised the work of her predecessor, Ben Bernanke. She said she expected tapering to continue "in further measured steps at future meetings" - it was not on a pre-set course, and very contingent on labour market and inflation outcomes.
The sharemarket liked what they heard, focusing on the 'steady-as-she-goes' bits of her testimony. Here are some reactions:
- ''The market likes consistency and what we've heard this morning has been consistent with what we've heard for months,'' said Steven Rees, head of US equities at JPMorgan Private Bank. ''Tapering continues, but it continues to be the result of an economic situation that's slowly improving. The economy is still on track to have a good year.''
- "The overall tone of Yellen's comment is a carbon copy of the Fed's existing policy under Bernanke, so the market is relieved that there will be no tightening any time soon," said Bill O'Neill, partner of New Jersey commodities investment firm LOGIC Advisors.
- "The last thing she wants to do at this point is complicate things or muddy a well-established message. 'Do no harm' is her motto unless the data changes more than we have seen so far," said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial.
- ''Yellen is just sticking to the script and she's going to give it to next FOMC meeting to taper,'' John Canally, an economic strategist at LPL Financial said. ''We're fairly certain that tapering is happening and she has made it clear that it'll take a high hurdle for it to stop.''
- ''Yellen will be very careful to create a degree of stability,'' Stephen Wood, New York-based chief market strategist at Russell Investments, said. ''No genius ideas out of left field, just very methodical. The market is not only going to like the message but they're going to like the messenger. The Fed will be accommodative and the Fed will maintain credibility the bond market and equity market will appreciate.''
Committed to continuity ... Janet Yellen. Photo: Bloomberg
Local stocks are poised to open higher as the new US central bank chief assured investors of a smooth policy transition.
What you need2know:
- SPI futures up 36 points at 5239 at 8.10am AEST
- AUD at 90.41 US cents at 8.10am AEST
- On Wall St, S&P500 +1.03%, Dow Jones +1.22%, Nasdaq +1.03%
- In Europe, Euro Stoxx 50 +1.47%, FTSE100 +1.23%, CAC +1.09%, DAX +2.03%
- Spot gold up 1.22% to $US1.290.30 an ounce
- Brent oil up 0.27% to $US1.08.92 per barrel
Good morning and welcome to the Markets Live blog for Wednesday.
Your editors today are Jens Meyer and Patrick Commins.
This blog is not intended as investment advice.
BusinessDay with wires.


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Fresh pastas, a true boon to getting dinner on the table fast, can be found in the refrigerated section of most supermarkets. Keep quality store-bought ingredients like pesto on hand to enhance the flavor of your recipes. In place of spinach in this soup, you can substitute any leafy green, such as Swiss chard, escarole, or arugula. Prep: 10 minutes; Cook: 20 minutes.
MyRecipes OCTOBER 2007
1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and sauté 5 minutes or until softened. Add tomato, and cook 1 minute. Stir in broth and rosemary, and bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Add pasta, stirring to blend, and simmer 5 to 6 minutes more.
2. Add spinach, salt, and pepper. Simmer, stirring often, 3 minutes or until spinach is wilted and pasta is just tender. Ladle soup into bowls, and sprinkle with cheese or stir in a spoonful of pesto.
Go to Full Version of
Tortellini and Tomato Soup with Rosemary Recipe

subset: commoncrawl


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Or "birthday" past, to be precise. I gave my camera to a friend last night so he could continue to terrorize everyone with threats of pictures. (His camera had run out of battery.) When I was flipping through the photos he took this morning–most of them extremely awkward–I found these:
Yes. This is indeed as it appears to be. Evidence that my troublesome roommate is still up to her old tricks.
For my birthday (way back in September–see how old these photos are?), she made me almond cupcakes with salted buttercream icing garnished with heart-shaped strawberry slices. That's right. She cut strawberries into hearts. I was powerless to resist.
- Choose your roommates wisely. Hooray skilled bakers!
- Having a kitchen rocks. Hooray Apartment Village!


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Just made this recipe and did a mini mash instead of steeping. Looks really good and a lot lighter. I bumped the vienna to 2.5 lbs and the crystal 10L to .75 lbs tho. Did a 6 gallon batch. Cascades I used were the organic NZ at 9.1 AA. 1 oz of those at 60 min 1 oz of amarillo for all the other additions. I'm pretty stoked about how this will turn out. I think it will be great, nice and drinkable with decent hop flavor.
I've read that those NZ Cascades aren't anything like our Cascades. What do you think?
Might take a 2 months or so for the answer, but I would like to hear how it works out also.
--- In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones. In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white. Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat. On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider. Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.


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Thoreen expected to be Pope County's new coordinator
Former Stevens County Coordinator Jim Thoreen is expected to fill a similar role on an interim basis in Pope County.
The Pope County Board of Commissioners will vote on hiring Thoreen at its regular meeting March 15 and the board is expected to approve the resolution, said commissioner Larry Kittelson.
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Corraling Linux Hard Disk Names - page 2
Name That Hard Disk!
So why did this happen? Is it because kernel developers have cruel senses of humor, and delight in tormenting us? While that is a possibility, the real reason, as always, is to improve the kernel. The Linux kernel has evolved considerably since the bad old days of ide-scsi, the old ide subsystem, and the ATAPI subsystem. All of these had their problems. This has all been replaced by libata, which is easier to maintain, supports more devices, and works better.In addition to cleaning up a pile of old kernel messes, libata supports power management, SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System), and SATA port multiplier (PMP). PMP means you can use a single controller with multiple SATA devices. The one downside is you don't get as many partitions on PATA disks- under the old IDE subsystem you could have 64 partitions, but you only get 15 under libata. So if you like to carve your PATA disks into vast numbers of partitions, you'll either need to use the old subsystems and drivers, or join the 21st century and use LVM. (Or try the experimental kernel patch by Carl-Daniel Hailfinger that lets you have 127 partitions on a single hard disk; see Resources.)
- Skip Ahead
- 1. Name That Hard Disk!
- 2. Name That Hard Disk!
- 3. Name That Hard Disk!
- 1Linux Top 3: GNOME 3.12 and New Betas for Ubuntu 14.04 and OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0
- 2Linux Top 3: Linus Lashes out, Linux 3.14 Gets PIE and Ubuntu One is Done.
- 3Linux Top 3: Ubuntu 14.04, Debian Gives Squeeze More Life and Red Hat Goes Atomic
- 4Linux Top 3: CoreOS, Oracle Enterprise Linux 7 and Ubuntu 14.10
- 5Linux Top 3: Linux from Scratch, Ubuntu 14.01 Beta and Arch Updates


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Posts Tagged 'Lexus'
9 Vehicles with Zero Driver Fatalities
More than 30,000 people a year still die on American roads, and while that toll has been steadily declining for a decade, it still represents a massive, unending tragedy. Around the world, those figures are climbing, as more people spend more time behind the wheel. Nothing drives advocates of tech such as driverless cars like the potential for sharply reducing the cost in human lives of driving.
Last week came a piece of good news in that fight: We are closer than we thought to cars that could prevent all their drivers from dying in a wreck. The bad news? There's still decades of work ahead.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the research arm of the nation's auto insurance companies, studied driver deaths between 2009 and 2012 for mass-market vehicles. (It did not examine passenger deaths due to unreliable data.) Overall, it found that new models with newer technology, especially stability control, had cut the overall death rate in vehicles by a third in the three years since it had last run the numbers. Had vehicle tech been frozen at 1985 levels, the IIHS estimates by 2012 an additional 7,700 people would have died in crashes.
Vehicle | Deaths per million registered vehicle years | Multi-vehicle crashes | Single-vehicle crashes | Rollovers |
Audi A4 4WD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Honda Odyssey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Kia Sorento 2WD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Lexus RX 350 4WD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Mercedes-Benz GL-Class 4WD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Subaru Legacy 4WD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Toyota Highlander hybrid 4WD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Toyota Sequoia 4WD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Volvo XC90 4WD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Honda Pilot 4WD | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Mercedes-Benz M-Class 4WD | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Ford Crown Victoria | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
GMC Yukon 4WD | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
Acura TL 2WD | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Chevrolet Equinox 2WD | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
Chevrolet Equinox 4WD | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Ford Expedition 4WD | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Ford Flex 2WD | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
Mazda CX-9 4WD | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
The IIHS calculates its death rate per years registered of a particular model; the industry average is 28 deaths per one million registered years for 2011 models in 2012; in 2008, the rate was 48. When it dug deeper, the IIHS found nine 2011 models that had no recorded deaths of drivers — the first time the group had found any such vehicles. Six of them were SUVs; overall, SUVs had the lowest death rates of any vehicle type, mostly due to the mandate of electronic stability controls and the physics of larger vehicles offering more protection from the forces of a crash than smaller ones. (Compared to 2004 models, SUVs from the 2011 model-year on have a rollover rate that's 75 percent less.)
But the IIHS also gave out a warning that the gap betwen the best and the worst cars at preventing fatal crashes had widened. The rates in the IIHS study are corrected for demographics (young drivers who typically buy smaller vehicles tend to crash more frequently) but even after that adjustment, small cars dominate the most lethal list:
Vehicle | Deaths per million registered vehicle years | Multi-vehicle crashes | Single-vehicle crashes | Rollovers |
Kia Rio | 149 | 96 | 54 | 15 |
Nissan Versa sedan | 130 | 44 | 87 | 51 |
Hyundai Accent | 120 | 65 | 53 | 16 |
Chevrolet Aveo | 99 | 65 | 31 | 10 |
Hyundai Accent | 86 | 43 | 48 | 20 |
Chevrolet Camaro coupe | 80 | 19 | 60 | 25 |
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew 4WD | 79 | 40 | 36 | 17 |
Honda Civic | 76 | 46 | 29 | 10 |
Nissan Versa hatchback | 71 | 37 | 33 | 20 |
Ford Focus | 70 | 55 | 13 | 5 |
Nissan Cube | 66 | 38 | 29 | 6 |
Chevrolet HHR | 61 | 34 | 25 | 9 |
Chevrolet Suburban 1500 2WD | 60 | 31 | 28 | 9 |
Chevrolet Aveo | 58 | 58 | 0 | 0 |
Mercury Grand Marquis | 57 | 33 | 25 | 0 |
Jeep Patriot 2WD | 57 | 44 | 9 | 3 |
Mazda 6 | 54 | 34 | 17 | 3 |
Dodge Nitro 2WD | 51 | 7 | 50 | 40 |
Honda Civic | 49 | 28 | 21 | 8 |
"The complete elimination of traffic deaths is still many decades away, and, along with vehicle improvements, getting there will require changes in road design and public policy that can help protect all road users," said David Zuby, IIHS executive vice president and chief research officer."Still, the rise in the number of vehicles with zero driver deaths shows what's possible."
The newest vehicles have gone well beyond stability control to include tricks like automatic emergency braking and radar-based cruise control to slow down the vehicle automatically in traffic. The safety benefits of those technologies have not yet been fully measured, but their real benefit may not become visible until they're available outside luxury models — especially the small cars that still pose the greatest risk.
(847) 452-4818 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Massive Lexus Recall due to Fuel Leaks
DETROIT - Toyota is recalling nearly 423,000 Lexus luxury brand cars in the U.S. to fix fuel leaks that can potentially cause fires.
The recalls affect the 2006 to 2011 GS, 2007 to 2010 LS and the 2006 to 2011 IS models.
Toyota says that the cars' fuel lines have nickel phosphate plating to protect against corrosion. Some lines could have been built with particles coming in contact with a gasket. That can cause the sealing property to deteriorate and trigger fuel leaks.
Toyota says it's not aware of any fires or injuries caused by the problem.
The company first began looking into the matter in June of 2010 after getting a report of gasoline odor coming from a customer's engine compartment, according to documents posted Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Toyota investigated, but didn't find the cause until this year, the documents said. It decided to do the recall in October.
The company and dealers received six reports from the field and 238 warranty claims about the problem.
Dealers will repair the gasket seating surface at no cost to owners.
Some of the Lexuses were recalled in 2009 to fix leaks in aluminum fuel pipes.
* * * * *
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Check Here to See if your Car Affected by the Air Bag Recall
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has expanded the number of vehicles and manufacturers covered by a warning about air bags. Ten automakers and almost 8 million vehicles are covered.
The agency is urging owners to get air bags repaired due to the potential danger to drivers and passengers. NHTSA says inflator mechanisms in the air bags made by Takata Corp. can rupture, causing metal fragments to fly out when the bags are deployed.
On Monday the agency included 4.7 million vehicles on a list. But Wednesday it added multiple models and removed about 133,000 older General Motors cars that were put on the list by mistake. NHTSA says the number of vehicles could still change because some may have been double-counted.
The agency is urging people in high-humidity areas such as Florida, Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii and "limited areas near the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana" to get their cars repaired quickly.
The safety agency urges owners to use their vehicle identification number on manufacturer sites to see if vehicles are have been recalled by the manufacturer.
Here's the latest list of models:
Total affected: 627,615
Models: 2000 to 2005 3 Series Sedan, 2000 to 2006 3 Series Coupe, 2000 to 2005 3 Series Sports Wagon, 2000 to 2006 3 Series Convertible, 2001 to 2006 M3 Coupe and M3 Convertible.
Total affected: 371,309.
Models: 2003 to 2008 Ram 1500, 2005 to 2008 Ram 2500, 2006 to 2008 Ram 3500 and 4500, 2008 Ram 5500, 2005 to 2008 Dodge Durango, Dodge Dakota, and Chrysler 300; 2007 to 2008 Chrysler Aspen.
Total affected: 58,669 (Field service campaign)
Models: 2004 Ranger, 2005 and 2006 GT, 2005 to 2007 Mustang.
General Motors:
Total affected: About 10,000
Models: 2003 to 2005 Pontiac Vibe made by Toyota, 2005 Saab 9-2X made by Subaru.
Total affected: 5,051,364
Models: 2001 to 2007 Accord, 2001 to 2005 Civic, 2002 to 2006 CR-V, 2003 to 2011 Element, 2002 to 2004 Odyssey, 2003 to 2007 Pilot, 2006 Ridgeline, 2003 to 2006 Acura MDX, 2002 to 2003 Acura TL/CL, 2005 Acura RL.
Total affected: 64,872
Models: 2003 to 2007 Mazda6, 2006 to 2007 MazdaSpeed6, 2004 to 2008 RX-8, 2004 to 2005 MPV, 2004 B-Series Truck.
Total affected: 11,985
Models: 2004 to 2005 Lancer, 2006 to 2007 Raider.
Total affected: 694,626
Models: 2001 to 2003 Maxima, 2001 to 2004 Pathfinder, 2002 to 2004 Sentra, 2001 to 2004 Infiniti I30/I35, 2002 to 2003 Infiniti QX4, 2003 to 2005 Infiniti FX35/FX45.
Total affected: 17,516
Models: 2003 to 2005 Baja, 2003 to 2005 Legacy, 2003 to 2005 Outback, 2004 to 2005 Impreza.
Total affected: 877,000
Models: 2002 to 2005 Toyota Corolla, 2003 to 2005 Matrix, 2002 to 2005 Sequoia, 2003 to 2005 Tundra, 2002 to 2005 Lexus SC.
Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, automakers.
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Tesla's Cheapest New Car – The Model 3
Tesla's much-anticipated somewhat affordable electric car will be called the Model 3.
The electric carmaker hopes to start selling the smaller, cheaper offering by early 2017, CEO Elon Musk said in an interview published late Tuesday night by British car magazine Auto Express.
The car will cost around $35,000, about half as much as its top-rated Model S, making the car about as expensive as lower-end Lexus sedans, mid-range Hondas and the Chevrolet Volt.
"I can confirm that the next vehicle Tesla will produce after Model X will be a mass-market electric car known as Model 3," Liz Jarvis-Shean, a Tesla spokesman, told The Huffington Post Wednesday. "We don't have any more details to share at this point."
Auto Express provided HuffPost with mock-up renderings of the car, which Musk said would be unveiled in 2016:
Known for months as the Model E, it became fodder for salacious headlines as the car would have finished off an erotic acronym alongside models S and X. In June, Ford sued Tesla to prevent it from using the name.
"I thought this is crazy, Ford's trying to kill sex," Musk said. "So we'll have to think of another name."
But the company wiggled "SEX" back into the picture.
"The new model is going to be called the Model 3," he added, "We'll have three bars to represent it and it'll be S III X!"
The Model 3 will be Tesla's third generation battery-powered electric car. During a meeting last March with the California Public Utilities Commission, Musk revealed that the car and its battery would be 20 percent smaller and could go 200 miles on a single charge. He said it would be half the price of the $71,000 Model S.
"In order to achieve that, you better reduce the cost of the battery," Musk is seen saying in a video that surfaced on YouTube of the meeting. "Since the car is 20 percent smaller, you've got to get a 50 percent reduction."
Tesla's "gigafactory" should help to cut costs. By 2020, the company expects the battery assembly plant to produce more lithium-ion packs in a year than were created in the entire world last year.
But the car could still get stuck in the Silicon Valley company's pipeline traffic jam.
It's behind the already-delayed Model X, an SUV-crossover, which will go into production next year, a Tesla executive told HuffPost last month. Buyers have already paid about up to $5,000 to reserve the cars.
"We don't like to carry inventory," Diarmuid O'Connell, Tesla's vice president of business development, told HuffPost at the time. "We'll be delivering as soon as we produce."
Until then, the Model 3 — which was supposed to debut in 2015 — is a back-burner priority.
"Our focus continues to be on Model S and preparing for the introduction of Model X," Jarvis-Shean said.
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Who's the Bargain King – Testing America's 3 Cheapest New Cars
My life is cheap cars, and cheap cars are my life, especially those with character. So when I was asked to figure out what new car in today's market is truly the best of the three cheapest new cars available, I decided to focus less on market segments, and more on the long-term qualities of the vehicle.
This presented a unique problem; availability. It took weeks to organize this comparison primarily because nearly every inexpensive vehicle available to the media is an automatic, and typically loaded with every option. I contacted the manufacturers, visited enthusiast forums for the specific models, and talked up dealers in order to find that good, cheap car that is truly worth your pennies.
I also held firm to one important belief: Manual transmissions always sell for less than automatics these days in everything short of all-out sports cars and off-road vehicles. Fewer folks can drive a stick these days, so, if you want to find the best cheap car in today's market, you're gonna have to hit 'em where they ain't.
To figure out which car would be the best deal for a true tightwad, I also made an extreme assumption. I surmised that a typical cheapskate owner will try to keep his or her car for 15 years and 225,000 miles. This sounds a little crazy, but the average car on the road is now nearly 12 years old. The long-term keepers among us who see cars as a rolling spreadsheet will value the gas-sippers mightily, especially if these high-milers have to endure the miseries of a daily commute.
This is what I found:
The Pretender: 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage
The Mitsubishi Mirage is not a bad car. Let me rephrase that. The Mitsubishi Mirage is not thatbad of a car.
The exterior is, as you would expect, a love-it or hate-it affair. Some women thought the Mirage was cheerful and cute. Most men thought the Kiwi Green subcompact looked like something between a frog and an insectozoid. I liked the smallness of the package and, after bestowing the name Kermit to my driving companion, I started driving it throughout the small towns of North Georgia.
The Mirage does have a few strong pluses, the most surprising of which is space. One of my mechanics who is 6-foot-8 was able to sit comfortably in the back seat. I quickly found that the Mirage's tall roofline offered the opportunity to fit a lot of items that larger-sized competition would never be able to swallow.
The Mirage is also a class leader when it comes to fuel economy. The stick-shift has a slightly notchy feel to it, but this could be an advantage – if you are interested in learning to drive a stick, it would be the easiest of the three. Although the Mirage's 1.2-liter, three-cylinder engine, at 72 hp, trails every new model on the road save the Smart, the Mirage is a good fit for customers who never test a vehicle's full capability. Just expect to rev the Mirage's engine a lot more than others.
Unfortunately, the Mirage is also not so much of a car as a generic form of wheeled transportation, like those isles of white boxes that every supermarket once offered in favor of fancy goods with brand names.
The accommodations are scant to the point of weirdness. The higher-end ES model that I sampled offered all sorts of once-exciting "options" such as alloy wheels, traction control and power mirrors. But it didn't have features that were in economy cars 20 years ago, such as a center dome light on the headliner or a center armrest. Everywhere you looked, there was evidence of cost containment, from the one tiny cupholder for the entire rear seat, to roll-down windows that you just had to keep applying varying levels of force to get down.
The engine was also downright terrible on an upward incline. Forget mountains: the Mirage could get beaten up a hill by kudzu. The fourth gear in most other economy cars was replaced by the aural screaming of a third gear trying to help a little engine that barely could.
All that said, city dwellers will have different needs from country folk. If all you truly need is to get from Boring Point A to Boring Point B in the most economical new vehicle possible, the Mirage may truly be your 21st-century Geo Metro. It averaged an impressive 44 miles per gallon during my time with it, and even squeezed out a near-hybrid 50+ miles per gallon while driving through the winding, mostly-flattish roads of small-town America.
Was the Mirage the cheapest? No, and this is why: Its miserly fuel consumption comes at a hidden cost, and that cost is maintenance.
Buried deep within the maintenance schedule is an unfortunate reality that all three-cylinder car owners must endure: valve adjustments. In the Mirage's case, this procedure is recommended roughly every 30,000 miles. The owner's manual asks you to listen for a ticking noise and adjust when needed, "if valve noise increases adjust valve clearance," which is legal shorthand for, "if you don't do it and it breaks, too bad." The cost of this service at the dealership is $299 which, over the course of seven visits, would come to well over $2,000. As a guy who deals with dealers every single day, I don't see any of them not recommending this service. Sorry.
Is the Mirage the cheapest car to own then? It depends on whether you are willing to do your own valve adjustments. At a TrueCar price of $13,345, this entry level Mitsubishi rang up as the second cheapest when it came to purchase price, but it's just not quite there when it comes to real-world, long-term ownership.
The Contender: Nissan Versa S
Loss leaders are both a blessing and a curse in the car business.
The good news is that they help make the lower-end of a market segment more competitive. Whether it is Lexus selling the first LS for only $35,000 back when it first came out in 1989, or Nissan shocking the industry with a Versa that sold for only $9,995 five years ago, these cars often times redefine the expectations of car buyers who are looking for an outstanding deal.
The problem comes with age. Eventually, the prices for these vehicles move up quickly, to the point when they no longer represent the best deal in the marketplace. That's what happened with the Nissan Versa. First off, this car has become so rare where I live that I had to drive a near-new, 5,000-mile unit at Carmax before finally getting my hands on a new one that had just arrived at a new car dealership. Apparently, base Versas are an endangered species these days.
Second, once I was given the keys, it became apparent that the spunky base Versa I drove five years ago has evolved into a very different car. There is a thinness to nearly every physical aspect of the Versa. The hood, the doors, the cheap black interior panels…the cost-cutting and de-contenting of the base model Versa model is stark, to the point where I wondered whether the car would hold up over time. Consumer Reports recently stated that the customer satisfaction rating for the Versa was the lowest in its price class, and after driving the absolute base model, I understood why.
The 1.6-liter, 109-hp engine has an almost guttural sound. And surprisingly, in terms of real-world performance, it offers none of the underpowered, penurious thrust of the 72-horsepower Mirage. You can take on any highway or mountain road with confidence.
The Versa is also in dire need of more sound-deadening material at highway speeds, and the five-speed stick shift that's coupled with the anemic 1.6 shaves about 10 percent of the fuel efficiency boasted by the more upscale versions (27 city / 36 mpg highway vs. 30 city and 39 highway). A light foot and the Versa's low-rolling resistance tires, which are new for 2014, help negate this difference. The Versa closely matched the Mirage's 44 mpg with a laudable 42 mpg. But the bottom line is that a Versa S makes the trade of pinching pennies up front in exchange for losing more of them as time goes on.
Driving around in the base Versa is almost like riding around in an exoskeleton. All of the outlines of a bigger car are there, and the Versa will definitely help you get there in a far more comfortable manner than the Mirage when it comes to highway driving. However, it just doesn't have any of the upscale touches that would make you want to keep it for the long haul. The audio quality was far worse than the Mirage, the interior carpeting seemed to be painfully thin, and although the amount of interior room is the best in this price class, the inability to fold down the rear seats infringes on the practicality of that design.
In person, the Versa S struck me as the engineering for a marketing idea of "the lowest-priced car in America." It is, but it's not. The Versa starts with an $11,990 MSRP and an $810 destination charge. However, the Nissan dealers in metro Atlanta have some of the highest documentation processing fees in the marketplace and, overall, the cheapest Versa S that I found ended up being $13,018 according to TrueCar.com at Town Center Nissan in Kennesaw, Ga. The Versa is an overall better deal than the Mirage, and is cheaper to own in the long run. But it's not the best deal in the entry level market.
The Cheap Car Winner: 2014 Chevy Sonic
If we were solely to compare apples to apples with comparable sticker prices and features, theChevy Spark would have likely been our final entrant. The sticker price on the base model is only within a few hundred dollars of the Versa, and also within shouting distance of the similarly-equipped Mirage.
However, in the real world of car buying, fashions and marketing budgets often trump value. The new, popular car that is heavily advertised is often sold at little-to-no discount, while vehicles that are in the twilight of their model run become the better, quieter alternative.
This is what we discovered with the Chevy Sonic. The MSRP of just over $16,018 for the sedan version was whittled down to a TrueCar real-world price of $13,648 at Day's Chevrolet in Acworth, Ga., while the hatchback version was available for $14,068 at the same dealership.
At that price point, the Sonic obliterates the competition by nearly every single measure: interior accommodations, features, safety, fun, and material quality. The 1.8-liter, 138-hp engine powering this sub-$15,000 car is the same exact one that's in a loaded $25,000 Chevy Cruze, as is the five-speed gearbox which offers a sporting feel that neither the Versa nor the Mirage can approach.
The interior is adorned in a tasteful two-tone design with surfaces that are eons better than the hard, thin plastics of the competition. You get six speakers instead of four or two, along with a touch-screen radio system surrounded by dual cubbyholes which can hold everything from an iPhone to wallets large and small. Nearly all the features that were missing in the Versa and Mirage, from the small touch of a comfortable armrest to the big difference of a five-star overall safety rating, were pleasingly standard in the Sonic.
There were three areas where the Sonic fell just short of the competition. For one, I recorded a real-world fuel economy number of only 37 mpg for the Sonic. Keep in mind, though, that I have a light foot and live in the ex-urbs. Those with heavier feet and flatter terrain will likely find the Mirage the most forgiving with regard to fuel economy.
Secondly, the GM warranty falls short of Mitsubishi in terms of time (five years vs. ten years for the Mirage) while matching it in terms of mileage at 100,000 miles. The Nissan warranty is for five years / 60,000 miles on the powertrain.
Finally, the Sonic is simply not the cheapest over the course of 15 years and 225,000 miles, either. Which car was? As it turns out, the Versa was the best with a light foot and for those who live in mountainous or hilly area, while the Mirage would be the likely winner for those who do a lot of in-town driving over terrain that is mostly flat. In either scenario, both have a financial advantage over the Sonic which translates into approximately $1 a day.
Is the Sonic worth it? To me, the answer is an emphatic yes, but keep in mind that there are other vehicles out there, such as the Ford Fiesta and the Mazda 2, that offer similar value thanks to those models being in the final year of their model run. The last year for a model tends to offer the highest level of quality, and the most competitive price in today's marketplace.
So if you are looking to get a long-term keeper instead of a car that only looks good on a financial spreadsheet, broaden your horizons a bit, and shop for a car with the right combination of a slightly higher price and a lower level of popularity. Just because you're thrifty with your money doesn't mean you have to drive a bad car.
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Luxury Cars With The Best Gas Mileage
At 430 horsepower and with a huge V8 engine, the 2014 Audi R8 will go from 0-60mph in just over four seconds and hit nearly 200 miles per hour. It also gets 11 miles to the gallon in the city–not exactly the ideal model for maximizing range (and beach time!) during a spring weekend away.
But there are a few luxury cars that get exemplary gas mileage. The $39,500 Lexus ES 300h, for instance, gets 40 miles to the gallon in city/highway averaged driving and provides luxurious amenities like leather interiors, bamboo trim and an extended rear seat. It pairs a plush ride with Lexus's most fuel-friendly version to date of the newly revamped midsize sedan.
The same goes for the $32,050 Lexus CT 200h, which gets a whopping 42mph in combined city/highway driving and is the least expensive—and most fuel-efficient—vehicle Lexus offers.
And Cadillac, Detroit's luxury darling, offers a $75,000 ELR plug-in hybrid car that gets 82mpg for its first 37 miles of driving and 33mpg after that. That's not bad considering the brand's big, bad, gas-guzzling image of years past.
"People who buy luxury cars are typically not cash-strapped to begin with, so they may not be particularly concerned with saving money on fuel, but there are other areas of appeal beyond the EPA number–especially with range," says Jack Nerad, the executive market analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
In fact, you might think that well-apportioned, powerful luxury sedans always get worse gas mileage than their more mainstream cousins, but premium automakers like Acura and Lincoln are focusing more than ever on making everything super efficient, super clean, and super lightweight (Exhibit A: carbon fiber everything). They've realized that more often than not, buyers these days who can afford to pick from plenty of options are routinely choosing the most efficient of the lot.
Read on to see other brands on our list of this year's luxury cars with the best gas mileage. You'll be surprised what makes the cut.
Behind the Numbers
The experts at Kelley Blue Book compiled this year's data, which evaluated all 2014 model-year vehicles that promise a combined city/highway rate of 35 mpg or more. Hybrids and plug-ins, diesels, pure electric vehicles and even some gas-only entries made the cut.
The diversity is a good thing, Nerad says, as long as it's managed well.
"More choices sometimes make the choice difficult–but that's a good problem to have," he says.
Still, there is much room for growth when it comes to efficiency, since most of the vehicles in the luxury segment fall woefully behind the ones enumerated here in terms of efficiency. Engine size, vehicle weight and aerodynamics all affect how many miles a car or truck will suck from its tank, and those factors are largely driven by market demands rather than environmental altruism. (One interesting note pertaining to expensive cars: Drag is the dominant player in efficiency on long straight roads like Interstates, and vehicle length has a huge effect on drag, and shorter cars have more drag than longer ones, so in some cases a big luxury car – which can better approximate the aerodynamically superior teardrop shape than a tiny econo-box – might get superior highway efficiency to a smaller one.)
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors TSLA +2.65%, has led the charge in improving efficiency by creating a 100-percent electric luxury sedan, the Model S, for a competitive price, and his similarly-fueled Model X SUV is due out later this year.
The South African billionaire said when he founded the company that it's up to automakers to push for sustainably fueled and efficient cars.
"The overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution," Musk says. "Critical to making that happen is an electric car without compromises."
With the cars on this list, at least, so far so good.
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Consumer Reports Names each Brand's Best and Worst Cars
While car brand reputation can be a strong influence on purchase decisions, such perceptions can be misleading. The reality is, every brand offers models that perform across a spectrum, with some clearly better than others.
As we see in our annual Car Brand Perception survey, how consumers view brands can often be a trailing indicator and not reflect the current reality. To further illustrate this point, we have compiled a list chronicling the best and worst models by brand based on our overall test scores.
The test performance variation differs from brand to brand, with some brands' worst model being still doing rather well, while others span a wide range, making any generalities quite misleading. Take Audi, for example. Even its worst model, the A5, scores a 74 (out of 100) and meets our performance standards, safety, and reliability criteria to be Recommended. Meanwhile, the best Jeep is the Grand Cherokee Limited. It earns 77 points in our tests, only three points more than the worst Audi. But the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited marks the low point in our current ratings, scoring only a 20. The gap between best and worst can be even broader. Chevrolet, for instance, spans from the Impala (95) to the Spark (36).
The list below includes all brands for which Consumer Reports has tested at least three different models recently, thereby excluding Land Rover, Mini, Ram, Smart, and Tesla.
Make | Best | Worst |
Acura | Acura TSX (4-cyl.) | Acura RLX Tech |
Audi | Audi A7 3.0 TDI | Audi A5 Premium Plus (2.0T)* |
BMW | BMW 328i | BMW 750Li* |
Buick | Buick Regal Premium I* | Buick Encore Leather |
Cadillac | Cadillac XTS Premium | Cadillac SRX Luxury |
Chevrolet | Chevrolet Impala 2LTZ (3.6) | Chevrolet Spark 1LT |
Chrysler | Chrysler 300 (base, V6) | Chrysler Town & Country Touring-L |
Dodge | Dodge Durango Limited (V6) | Dodge Journey Limited (V6) |
Fiat | Fiat 500 Abarth | Fiat 500L Easy |
Ford | Ford Fusion SE Hybrid | Ford Fiesta SE sedan |
GMC | GMC Sierra 1500 SLT (5.3L V8) | GMC Terrain SLE1 (4-cyl.) |
Honda | Honda Accord LX (4-cyl.) | Honda Insight EX |
Hyundai | Hyundai Sonata Limited (2.0T) | Hyundai Accent GLS sedan |
Infiniti | Infiniti Q70 (M37, V6) | Infiniti QX80 (QX56) |
Jaguar | Jaguar XJL Portfolio* | Jaguar XK Convertible* |
Jeep | Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited (V6) | Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara |
Kia | Kia Cadenza | Kia Rio EX hatchback |
Lexus | Lexus LS 460L | Lexus IS250 (AWD) |
Lincoln | Lincoln MKZ Hybrid | Lincoln MKS (base, 3.7) |
Mazda | Mazda MX-5 Miata Grand Touring | Mazda2 Touring |
Mercedes-Benz | Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTec (AWD) | Mercedes-Benz CLA250 |
Mitsubishi | Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR | Mitsubishi iMiEV SE |
Nissan | Nissan 370Z Touring coupe | Nissan Versa SV sedan |
Porsche | Porsche Boxster 2.7 | Porsche Cayenne (base, V6) |
Scion | Scion FR-S | Scion iQ |
Subaru | Subaru Forester 2.5i Premium | Subaru Tribeca Limited |
Toyota | Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE | Toyota FJ Cruiser |
Volkswagen | Volkswagen Passat SEL Premium (V6) | Volkswagen Beetle 2.5L (MT)* |
Volvo | Volvo S60 T5* | Volvo XC90 3.2 |
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America's Most Dependable Automotive Brand
The U.S. auto industry announced in 2013 that it was back in full force with unit sales increasing to 15.6 million, up better than 7% from 2012, and crossing the 15 million mark for the first time since 2007.
A combination of an improving economy, lower unemployment rates, and historically low lending rates have encouraged consumers to jump into what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase their dream car at a very attractive lending rate.
Needless to say, a lot of thought and effort goes into which car a consumer will purchase. Consumers often look at fuel economy, read reviews online, test drive the vehicle (perhaps a number of times), ask for advice from family and friends, and also plot out how much they're willing to spend on their vehicle over the life of a loan if they choose to finance it.
One thing that consumers often overlook, though, is the dependability of the vehicle they're considering buying. For a new car buyer, the expectation is that they'll encounter few maintenance problems for the first couple of years, and if they do, that their warranty will cover those snafus. For a used car purchaser, dependability is everything since there's rarely any warranty attached to a used car purchase.
Not only is dependability important for your pocketbook in that more dependable vehicles will cost less to maintain, but it's also the silent advertiser for a brand. As J.D. Power & Associates has demonstrated through its research, 56% of car owners who report having no problems return to the same brand, while 42% who reported three or more problems kept their same brand of vehicle with their next purchase. Therefore, vehicle dependability can, at least partially, help us predict which brands' sales may move higher and which brands may struggle based on this vehicle dependability-brand loyalty correlation.
America's five most dependable automotive brands
To that end I turn to J.D. Power & Associates annual vehicle dependability study for 2014. The study itself looks at three-year-old models from a number of brands (i.e., all 2011 models) and asks consumers if they experienced one or more of 202 noted problems. J.D. Power then ranks those car brands from top to bottom based on how many problems were reported per 100 vehicles, commonly known as its PP100 metric. Dependability is especially important this year when you consider that J.D. Power's study uncovered the first rise in reported problems, especially engine and transmission problems, since 1998!
Let's have a look at the five top automotive brands according to J.D. Power's study and then note what brands really stood out, as well as which brands faltered.
As a warning, you may be shocked to discover which brand decisively took the No. 1 spot in vehicle dependability!
No. 5: Buick (112 problems per 100 vehicles)
Rising from the sixth spot into the top five this year is Buick, owned by General Motors(NYSE: GM ) which had consumers report just 112 problems per 100 vehicles as opposed to 118 PP100 in last year's study from J.D. Power. The real standout for Buick was the Lucerne which took top honors in the large car category, besting Toyota's (NYSE: TM ) Avalon and Ford's (NYSE: F ) Taurus. As Foolish auto analyst John Rosevear notes, Buick is doing a really nice job transitioning into a global brand.
No. 4: Acura (109 problems per 100 vehicles)
Honda Motors' (NYSE: HMC ) Acura was another big mover in 2014, vaulting higher by four spots to fourth place from eighth with 109 PP100 reported compared to 120 PP100 last year. Like GM's Buick, Acura only took top honors in one category (compact premium CUV) with its RDX, but it also claimed a tie for the third-highest rating in the midsize premium CUV category with the Mercedes-Benz M-class. Honda and Acura are relatively synonymous with economical but dependable vehicles in the U.S., making this ranking not too surprising.
No. 3: Cadillac (107 problems per 100 vehicles)
Chalk up another victory for General Motors which can claim its second top-five brand for dependability in Cadillac. Year over year, Cadillac surged 11 spots to No. 3, with vehicle owners reporting only 107 PP100 compared to 128 PP100 last year. This huge jump came in only second to Jaguar which vaulted 13 spots higher in J.D. Power's rankings. Cadillac took home the top honors for its large premium CUV, the Escalade, as well as large premium car, the DTS, which tied for the top spot with the Lexus LS. Cadillac has certainly done its best to focus its efforts on a slightly younger crowd, and these improved dependability ratings should help.
No. 2: Mercedes-Benz (104 problems per 100 vehicles)
Jumping three spots in 2014 to No. 2 with only 104 PP100 compared to 115 PP100 reported in the prior year is Daimler's (NASDAQOTH: DDAIF ) Mercedes-Benz. What's particularly interesting here is that Mercedes-Benz didn't win any of the 22 vehicle categories as outlined by J.D. Power, but it did place or show in quite a few which speaks to its overall consistency. Mercedes-Benz ranked second in midsize premium car with its E-Class sedan/wagon, second in large premium CUV with its GL-class, second in compact premium CUV with its GLK-class, and tied for third with the Acura MDX in the midsize premium CUV category with its M-class. Simply put, if consumers are going to pay a premium price, they expect premium results, and Mercedes-Benz appears to be delivering on that promise.
And the real shock (at least to me)…
No. 1: Lexus (68 problems per 100 vehicles)
I guess it shouldn't be that much of a shock since Toyota-owned Lexus was first in last year's ratings as well, but I recall shortly after I got my license, nearly two decades ago, how I was admonished from buying a Lexus because of their dependability issues. This rating simply confirms how far the brand has come in less than two decades as its PP100 of just 68 is light years ahead of second-place Mercedes-Benz, and even lower than the 71 PP100 that J.D. Power reported last year. Lexus tied its LS for top large premium car with the Cadillac DTS, was the top midsize premium car with the GS, and nabbed both the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in compact premium car with the ES and IS, and midsize premium CUV with the RX and GX.
Here are J.D. Power's full rankings based on PP100:
Source: J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study.
Obviously brands in the top five can be construed as winners, but General Motors, Toyota, and Honda deserve special recognition since they brought home eight, seven, and six, of the top category awards, respectively – that's 21 of 22 categories won by just three companies!
As I stated above, Toyota and Honda generally build no-frill vehicles, choosing instead to focus on improving fuel economy and storage space. The end result for years has been a reliable vehicle that will get the consumer from point A to B with ease, and without too many automotive issues.
The real shock here is the dominance by General Motors' vehicles and the total absence of Ford, save for a runner-up effort in the midsize pickup category with its Ranger. GM is hoping to translate these key wins into strong sales for its recently redesigned trucks, the Silverado and Sierra, which it hopes will give Ford's dominant F-Series a run for its money. Early sales of GM's Silverado have been mixed with winter weather and parts shortages eating into total unit sales, but as Foolish auto guru John Rosevear recently pointed out, it's actually spending fewer days on dealership lots than either of its foes, signaling that GM may indeed be on the up-and-up.
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New MyFordTouch System Might Delight Baby Boomers
Ford Motor Company might just win me back as a customer in 2015 with its revised MyFordTouch infotainment system that includes traditional buttons and knobs.
There's a chance I could kick my Lexus to the curb because of its convoluted controls and mouse on the console. Operating the devices makes me take my eyes off the road far too often.
New MyFordTouch System Might Delight 50+Don't get me wrong, I love mobile technology, probably a little more than the average Baby Boomer, because I train my contemporaries on how to use it. But I don't like being a distracted driver while trying to change the radio stations or make a voice activated phone call in my car. In fact, it kind of scares me.
A little history:
- In 2008 I leased my first Ford crossover– a Lincoln MKX. In the 37 years I'd been driving, it was my first Ford product. I was a GM girl for most of my life, even though I was driving a Lexus at the time. But my Boomer girlfriends were all driving MKXs and they seemed pretty happy.
- As a Detroiter, watching the car companies in a free fall, I decided to support my hometown, turn in my Lexus 330 crossover, and try the Lincoln.
- It was my first car with voice activated controls and a touch screen.
My experience with the Lincoln during the next three years and the dealership were not great, but the biggest problem was the voice activated touch screen. The system didn't always pair with my phone, it didn't recognize my voice, and it often acted on commands I wasn't giving. In short, it was a real hassle to drive. Not to mention that it was dangerous– as I was spending so much time trying to talk to it.
However, the poor experience was compounded by the dealer's inability to train me how to use this vehicle.
"Read the manual, it's all there," I recall the salesman saying. "Here's a card, go to your computer and check all out all the features."
The trouble was, I couldn't use my computer in the car when I was trying to operate it, and there was no trainer at the dealership to answer questions.
To be fair—Lexus has a person who helps train new buyers on using the car's information system and he was extremely helpful. But the car's system's design is just too long and drawn out for my taste. It takes three or four mouse clicks just to change the radio station.
Real Training Needed
So I'm looking forward to testing the new MyFordTouch system. I hope it comes with some real training support. As someone in the training industry, I know that training pays for itself.
When a company is selling a product that costs $30,000-$70,000 per unit, as is the case with Ford, it would make sense to train people carefully on how to use the computer systems. As more "connected car" options become available, I'm guessing auto companies would like to sell them to customers. But without training, I doubt the Boomers will want even more gadgets they can't operate. Also, in addition to educating drivers, training is a great way to earn customer loyalty.
So I welcome exploring the new MyFordTouch system and I hope it comes with some real training support. If it does, Ford might get me back from the Lexus I love that has an infotainment system I find difficult to use.
And remember car techie designers– nothing about mobile apps or technology are intuitive to the 50+ market. We didn't grow up with mobile—so app developers please stop saying that. You can make apps easier for us to use but they will never be intuitive.
Toyota – World's No. 1 Car Company in 2013
Now that the count is in for 2013, the numbers are official. Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) was the No. 1 car company in the world. It is quite a comeback from the factory destruction caused by the great 2011 Japanese earthquake and millions of recalls that eventually had CEO Akio Toyoda hauled before Congress and questioned about the safety of his company's vehicles.
Reuters tabulated data that show the Japanese car manufacturer's sales rose 2% to 9.98 million vehicles. General Motors Co. (GM) followed with a 4% improvement to 9.71 million vehicles. Volkswagen was third with an increase of 5% to 9.70 million. At those rates, GM could fall into the third spot in 2014.
While a weak yen gave Toyota an advantage over its non-Japanese rivals, that is only part of the cause. Toyota has regained its reputation for quality. In the United States, this was shown with high scores in carefully watched research data from Consumer Reports and J.D. Power. Toyota's sales rank it third in the U.S. behind GM and Ford Motor Co. Notably, Volkswagen's sales in America have languished.
The AECA reports that in 2013, in the crippled market of Europe, Toyota's sales dropped a mere 0.2% while overall sales in the region were off by 1.7%. VW, the largest car maker in the region, lost 0.6% of its sales. GM was staggered by a drop of 4.3%. The U.S. company has been unable to turnaround its buckling Europe operations.
GM and VW hold a substantial lead in China, the world's largest car market. Each, along with joint venture partners, sold more than 3 million cars last year in the People's Republic. Toyota lags with less than one million. Because the Chinese car market is so huge, Toyota likely will have to do better there to keep its global position.
Among Toyota's advantages is its broad range of vehicles, which run from it Lexus luxury brand to the Prius, the best-selling hybrid in the world. The Japanese car company offers 23 models in the United States, excluding Lexus models — a number that second-tier manufactures like Chrysler find they cannot match.
Toyota, overcoming tremendous hurdles, has moved back on top.


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Learning that you have a herniated disc can mean a lifetime of pain and strife. The condition occurs when the fibrous cartilage (annulus fibrosis) that makes up the outer wall of the disc is weakened. This allows the gel like material from the inside (nucleus pulposus) to leak out, deform the actual shape of the disc itself, and disturb the nerves and muscle tissue surrounding it.
Any intervertebral disc on the spine can become damaged. However, it is usually the lumbar region that gets affected which can cause chronic pain, swelling, and numbness in the back, neck, and limbs. If the usual treatments such as prescription drugs, epidurals, or surgery have either not worked or have not been attempted, you might find a viable alternative by trying some of the best exercises for herniated disc problems instead.
Improve Your Flexibility:
Gaining flexibility in the spine is key if you want to move around easier. The best way to work toward this point is with basic stretches. Even basic stretching movements will condition your back to tilt and maneuver easier while preparing your muscles for other exercises.
If you feel comfortable enough, you could also try yoga and pilates which are two of the best exercises for herniated disc issues. This is because while more challenging, they will help you stretch, improve balance, and strengthen muscles simultaneously. You might also try standing on a stability ball or a miniature trampoline while gently bouncing in place. Even doing this for five minutes day will improve balance while pumping greater amounts of oxygen to your spine to promote greater healing.
Strengthen Your Core:
Aside from yoga and pilates, there are some other simple exercises that you can do to strengthen your core muscles. These exercises can provide immediate relief and help you to put less strain on your back long term. Here are four simple examples to try:
If you've tried all other treatments and none have worked for you in the past, then you have nothing to lose by trying exercise. When you use all of these exercises along with Functional Disc Rehydration you're sure to be living pain free in no time. We will help you gain a quality of life back that has been absent for years. Contact us for a free back consultation and get advice on what exercises work best for your back!
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Minn. state park reservation system will be unavailable from Dec. 27-Feb. 29: Key dates to note
NEW LONDON -- There's still time to reserve camping sites and lodging in Minnesota State Parks before the reservation system is taken down for an upgrade.
The system will be temporarily unavailable from Dec. 27 to Feb. 29, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced this week.
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