Thanks to a flood of about 200 comments, NHTSA has delayed final rulemaking for its requirement that all vehicles sold in the US must have back-up cameras. Automotive News [sub] reports the vehicle safety agency released a statement saying

The public comment period on this safety proposal only recently closed, and NHTSA will be asking Congress for additional time to analyze public comments, complete the rulemaking process and issue a final rule

But don’t expect NHTSA to drop the proposed rule. An analyst watching the regulatory process tells AN that

he expects the rule to be tweaked to include testing for illumination at night and the time it takes the picture to appear on the display. Overall, though, he said there shouldn’t be any major changes that would cause the ruling to be enacted later than September.

The agency says the cheapest option is to connect the camera to a vehicle’s existing video screen at a cost of $58 to $88. Equipping a vehicle that doesn’t already have a screen would cost $159 to $203

At an industry-wide cost of $1.9b-$2.7b, that comes to some $20m per life saved (assuming cameras will actually prevent back-up “accidents”). Want to guess what most of those 200 comments have to say about the proposal? Seriously, though, we can only find one…

Hyundai and Kia are on a tear in the European market, having recently passed Toyota to become the best-selling Asian automaker in the EU (at 605,386 units, some 50k away from Daimler’s 2010 sales). And with its first Europe-centric product coming online, aimed at the heart of Europe’s 896k unit midsize segment, it hopes to keep the growth coming. In service of that goal, Hyundai is moving European production of its iX35 (Tucson) CUV from Kia’s plant in Zilina, Slovakia, to its own factory in Nosovice, Czech Republic, and adding an extra shift according to the WSJ. And unlike many of its European competitors, Hyundai is keeping its Euro-zone production capacity on the slim side, importing the forthcoming i40 from South Korea and the i10 from India, helping to keep the Korean automaker out of the overcapacity trap that plagues its competitors. Though Hyundai has good prospects for growth in Europe, production capacity expansions are being targeted at the developing markets that show more promise for growth.

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A GM NVH engineer brags:

[GMC] Terrain measured quieter than the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 in our on-road interior noise tests. At 70 miles per hour, Terrain’s interior is quiet enough to allow conversation in normal tones of voice.

How did they manage that? Hours of engine tuning, right? Wrong.

When GM engineers set out to deliver segment-leading fuel economy on Terrain they chose to lower the 6-speed transmission’s gear shift points to enable the Ecotec 2.4L four-cylinder engine to run at lower rpm torque. In this “Eco” mode, which the driver can activate with a click of a button on the console, the torque converter clutch engages at lower engine speeds to help save gas. While the engineering action improved fuel efficiency by up to one mpg, it also created an objectionable low-end frequency boom. To counteract that boom the engineers turned to active noise cancellation technology.

Terrain’s noise cancellation system relies on two microphones embedded in the headliner to detect the hum and prompt an onboard frequency generator to create counteracting sound waves through the audio system’s speakers and sub-woofer. The system also reduces higher rpm engine noise at highway cruising speeds to help keep the vehicle interior quiet.

OK, that solution may not satisfy our desire to imagine engineers slaving over the details of engine tuning, but hey, it’s a solution. Too bad GM’s Theta CUVs have yet to live up to their MPG ratings in real-world testing.

Back in November, NHTSA announced that it was investigating how long it took for rental cars to be repaired under recall, saying

NHTSA understands that there is presently a petition before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking to prohibit at least one rental car company from renting vehicles on which safety recall campaign remedies remain outstanding.

Because only vehicles made by the Detroit Three are under investigation, they are the only firms who have been asked to disclose how long it takes rental fleets to repair their vehicles. And, according to the Detroit News

GM and Chrysler told NHTSA this week that 30 days after a recall — 10 to 30 percent of vehicles sold to rental car companies had been repaired.

By 90 days, it had improved to about 30 percent and within a year, the number had improved to 50 percent or higher.

Ford did not make its data public, citing the fact that the release of the information could damage it is relationship with rental car companies and result in “decreased sales of motor vehicles to rental car fleets.”

Rental car companies are not legally required to complete recalls before they rent the cars to customers.

Zoinks!

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Via autogetspot.com come these first pictures of the Lamborghini Aventador awaiting the adoring attention of Geneva Auto Show attendees…

When I was a budding young copywriter in 1973, older, more settled advertising types smoked a pipe, had two basset hounds at home and came to the office in a British racing green, topless Morgan.  In wintertime, their lips were blue. Our generation was too drunk to even drive a car – even in the more lenient 70s. Now, Morgan, one of the last remaining true British carmakers, is going back to its roots: Three-wheelers. Read More >

Three usually reliable research organizations agree: When automakers release February sales this coming week, they will be strong. Analysts see a sales increase of about 20 percent, and a SAAR in the 12 million territory. Read More >

In January, car imports to Japan shot up 53 percent, reports Automotive News’ [sub]Asia Editor Hans Greimel from Tokyo. Quick, who do you think takes top honors? Read More >

The first thing I ask any company that wants to do anything in China is: “Did you register your trademark?” Usually, they did not. I either help them registering it  (costs around $1,000). If they refuse, I won’t work with them. It would be a waste of time.  All too often someone else in China sees a value in that trademark. Being a “first to file” country, anybody can file any trademark in China that isn’t already filed – in China. Getting your trademark back is a long, expensive, and often hopeless case.

Ignorance takes another victim: Land Rover. Read More >

Sergio Marchionne  is a multitasker: He has been knighted in Italy in 2006, and is CEO of two carmakers, Fiat and Chrysler. Money-wise, he’s just getting by. A 300-page filing with the SEC revealed that his pay as CEO of Chrysler equals what he draws from his knighthood: Niente. Marchionne received no cash salary from the company. He didn’t work entirely for nothing though. Read More >

Everybody, please say hi to Matt Gasnier, our newest TTAC contributor. Matt has a strange car fetish: He counts them. Out of Sydney, Australia, Matt runs a blog named Best Selling Cars. If your want to know what cars sell best in Austria to Zimbabwe, Best Selling Cars is the go to site. What cars do Afghanistan and Sudan have in common?  The Hilux. Which car is most popular in Sweden? It’s not a Swedish car. Matt will grace TTAC regularly from now on. He wanted to know where he should start. My answer: “Wherever.”

Said Matt: “Why don’t I start with A.” – ED

Most of the car world is either still recovering from the GFC gloom or is suffering the hangover of a couple of artificially boosted years. Only a few countries are at their highest levels ever. Among them China and Brazil (doh!) but little do people know that Argentina also belongs to this super-exclusive club. Read More >

Chrysler just filed its first SEC disclosure in over a decade, providing a peek under the hood of the smallest Detroit automaker. One of the most interesting items: a history of Chrysler’s fleet sales breakouts since 2006. And despite Chrysler’s vows to break its fleet addiction, 2010 saw the firm’s highest fleet percentage since 2006, at 36.1%. Back in the Cerberus days, they held the line at 30%, thank you very much. But then, ChryCo knows how to defend the fleet sales, arguing:

Although our vehicle sales to dealers for sale to retail customers are normally more profitable than our fleet sales, our fleet sales are an important source of revenue and can also be an effective means for marketing our vehicles. Further, fleet orders also help normalize our plant production because they typically involve the delivery of a large, pre-determined quantity of vehicles over several months. Fleet sales are also a source of aftermarket service parts revenue for us and service revenue for our dealers. In recent years, our fleet customers, particularly our commercial and government fleet customers, have tended to order vehicles that are smaller and are more fuel-efficient.

But the best thing about fleet sales? They conceal the steady erosion of consumer demand for your products and brands. After all, at 36.1% fleet mix, Chrysler only sold about 695,000 vehicles to actual retail consumers last year (100k-200k below what the firm’s five-year plan called for).

Dieseldriver.com broke down diesel sales for 2010, and found that December’ diesel sales (7,604 units) were about double the monthly rate for January of last year (3,855), although diesel’s overall market share is not growing at a commensurate rate. For vehicles available in both gas and diesel versions, the diesel take rate over the course of 2010 was 32%. Audi buyers chose diesel powertrains most often where available, with a 48% take rate on diesel versions of the A3 and Q7. Volkswagen had the second-highest take rate at 7%, with its Jetta Sportwagon leading the way with nearly five diesel versions selling for each gas version sold.

Almost exactly three years and one week ago, my dad, Paul Niedermeyer called me up and told me there was an opening for a freelancer at TTAC’s then-new news blog. Little did I know at the time that just a few years later, so much would have changed. In fact, if someone had told me at the time that in three years I would be editing TTAC and that my dad would have moved onto his own site, I might not have taken the job. After all, if it weren’t for him I might not even be interested in cars, and I certainly wouldn’t be writing about them professionally.

Needless to say, there have been some twists and turns along the way… but sharing a profession with your dad is too deeply rewarding a privilege to simply come easily. His decision to leave TTAC was a tough for me to accept at first, until I realized that TTAC’s loss was the internet’s gain. We may have lost a valued contributor, but the autoblogosphere gained a new destination: curbsideclassic.com.

For legal reasons, you can still find an archive of Paul’s TTAC-era Curbside Classics here, but be sure to surf over to his new site for his latest additions to a body of work that is, without a doubt, one of the best sources of automotive history and nostalgia on the web.

Bloomberg [via Automotive News [sub]] reports that all 130 planned Fiat USA showrooms will not be opened until September. Initial rollout plans had called for “around 165” dealers, but that number has been dialed back, possibly due to overlap. It’s not clear if the delay will affect Chrysler’s goal of selling 50k Cinquecentos this year, but it probably will considering

About a dozen Fiat franchises have started up and a total of 20 may be open by the end of February, said Laura Soave, head of the Fiat brand for Chrysler.

About 30 to 40 will be open by the middle of March, she said. Chrysler said in September that it wanted Fiat showrooms running by the end of February, adding that it would allow some dealers to open later.

“It’s a tiny bit behind,” Soave said today.