Ally Financial, what used to be known as the General Motors Acceptance Corporation, GMAC, before GM’s bankruptcy and bailout, itself received over $17 billion from the U.S. Treasury during the bailouts of 2009. On Tuesday the company said that it was looking into options on how to repay that money and comply with the Federal Reserves’ latest stress tests for financial institutions. Ally is 74% owned by Treasury and it is trying to buy back some taxpayer-owned stock and reach an agreement with the Fed on its capital structure (known as the “Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review”) so it can offer stock in an IPO. Ally had originally planned on a 2011 IPO but having to resolve claims against its bankrupt Residential Capital mortgage unit delayed that. ResCap hopes to be out of bankruptcy by 2014. (Read More…)

The EU Commission has provisionally sided with France in that country’s decision to stop the sale of new Mercedes-Benz cars because of Daimler’s decision to continue to use R134a refrigerant in it’s HVAC systems. The EU has banned R134a out of concerns for global warming. The only available replacement that meets the new regulations is R1234yf, made by Honeywell, and Mercedes-Benz has insisted that their tests show that the new refrigerant is dangerously flammable and could start an underhood fire under certain conditions. The provisional ruling could be a problem for Daimler in other EU countries.

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New York is one of 40 states that have banned texting while driving. In the four or so years since the ban went into effect in New York state, a bit more than 11,000 tickets have been issued for all hand held phone violations, including texting.

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Ever since someone at Ford decided that it would be a good way to promote their new 1 liter three cylinder EcoBoost engine by dropping a tuned version into a Formula Ford open wheel racecar set up to be street legal they’ve been making sure that the enthusiast world knows about it.

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Though handicapped by continued sliding sales in the overall European market, GM announced today that global sales for the first 6 months of 2013 were up 4% over the comparable period last year.

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In India for the relaunched Datsun brand’s first car, the Go, CEO of the Renault-Nissan alliance, Carlos Ghosn, announced that Renault and Nissan will jointly develop a platform for low cost and ultra low cost cars aimed at India and other emerging markets, which Ghosn believes will make up 60% of the global automotive market by 2016. To do that, the alliance will spend another $5 billion on investments in their Indian operations over the next five years. Renault-Nissan is committed to using India as its global hub for emerging markets, developing the cars there as well as assembling and exporting them. (Read More…)

Though Ford, VAG’s Seat brand, and Renault’s low-cost Dacia posted gains, overall car and light truck sales in June in Europe were down 6.3% compared to June of 2012, weighed down by declining sales at VW, Opel, Fiat and PSA. According to Automotive News, only 1.18 million new vehicles were registered in the EU and EFTA, the lowest they’ve been in two decades.

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A proposed consumer protection class action lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District court in California over the MyFordTouch (and similar systems in Lincoln and Mercury vehicles) system.

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Some buyers of Ford’s gas/electric hybrids have expressed disappointment the their 2013 Ford C-Max, Fusion and Lincoln MKZ hybrids have not returned those cars’ EPA rated fuel economy. Some have even sued.

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Welcome to Reader Response/Remix, where we give individual readers a chance to submit long-form counterpoints to existing TTAC articles. If you’d like to comment at length on something we’re published in the past, send your contribution to editors@ttac.com and head it “Reader Response”. Let us know how you’d like to be credited. Submissions may be edited for length, content, and to make it look like you agree with us when you really don’t. — JB

Reader D. Alexander is a Maxima owner and he’s got some comments regarding Jack’s Maxima review:

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Though development versions of the Porsche 918 hybrid supercar have been spotted testing in Colorado, California and other locations, and though we’ve seen concept and track versions, until now Porsche  has not given the production car its official public debut. Last weekend, with the eyes of the car enthusiast world aimed at the event, Porsche couldn’t have picked a better location or event for that debut, racing the 918 up the hillclimb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Fortunately, a British car blogger named Tim aka Shmee, who does great video work with cars, had cameras stationed along Lord March’s famous driveway to record the new debutante’s coming out party.

Tesla Roadster battery pack – Tesla Photo

One drawback to cars that run on batteries is that over time and multiple charge/discharge cycles, batteries will lose capacity. Individual cells start to fail to meet specifications and when enough cells go bad, it’s time for another battery pack. Since capacity is directly related to range and since battery packs are expensive to replace, how quickly batteries deteriorate is an important factor in the overall cost and practicality of EVs.

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Live shots of the Datsun Go, courtesy of our man Faisal Ali Khan of India’s Motorbeam.com

Though there were some critics who mocked their first go round with marketing cars through social media, Ford is apparently happy enough with the results of the 2009 Fiesta Movement that they’re bringing back the Fiesta Movement to help launch the newly refreshed 2014 Fiesta. This time they’re making the campaign even more focused (no pun intended) on using online communities, calling it the Fiesta Movement: A Social Remix.

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In an exclusive story, Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper has announced that Australian rear wheel drive Ford enthusiasts will be getting something to help them get over the hurt of Ford’s recent announcement that it will be discontinuing local production of the Falcon along with the rest of Ford production facilities down under.

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