So, you 4×4 owners know the necessity of a transfer case. Basically this is the gadget that takes things from 2wd to 4wd. Kind of important. The fact of the matter though is most folks dont ever use their 4×4. They buy it thinking they will but they dont. On the other hand, folks that do use it depend on it. If yours goes out, rest assured you can find a quailty used transfer case for a fraction of new and in fact that used one you find very well be brand new, never engaged. Find out a bit about the donor car. Example is all the dodge, chevy and Jeep transfer cases that have been salvaged and were driven by owners who never took them off-road. Ask a bit about where the car was, the climate of that area etc and you’l find its not too hard to buy a slightly used one for a great price.

These days money is tight on all fronts. The idea of spending 20 to 30,000 bucks on a new car is a daunting task. We all know the newness wears off in a few weeks but that payment does not go away and if you pay cash you have now don’t have that cash that could have been invested or spent slowly on small things you enjoy.

One alternative that folks don’t think about is replacing the parts on their car. Specifically with the cars engine many times the problem could be related to the cams or just the top end of the engine called the cylinder head. This is basically the ‘cap’ to an engine and where lots of activity takes place. Used cylinder heads are readily available on the internet and can be a great alternative to a new car or even a new engine.

Tying warranties to the use of new, authorized replacement parts is illegal under
the Magnuson-Moss Act,” said Michael E. Wilson, ARA’s CEO. “Several months
ago we asked the FTC to review position statements by several automobile
manufactures that implied that recycled parts are lesser quality parts than new OEM
parts and that their use could void a manufacturer warranty”, said Wilson.
ARA raised concerns with the FTC that the position statements of the automobile
manufacturers might mislead consumers into thinking that using recycled parts in a
repair could void their warranty. As a result, the FTC announced the update of a
consumer alert entitled Auto Warranties, Routine Maintenance, and Repairs: Is Using the
Dealer a Must? The revised alert specifically notes that the mere use of recycled parts
does not void a warranty and that it is illegal for warrantors to void a warranty or deny
coverage simply because a recycled part was used. An updated version of the alert
can be found at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt192.pdf.

hat’s right – Honda announced last week that 10 of its 14 North American
manufacturing plants are now zero-waste-to-landfill, meaning absolutely zero
operating waste is sent to landfills; this includes production and all office and
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cafeteria waste. To that end, the Lincoln, NE plant was the first to reach this lofty goal.
Lincoln’s Senior Vice President, Charles Ernst, was responsible for making the facility zero
waste and said that “Honda always strives to improve. We wanted to be good
corporate stewards …” Amazingly, the Lincoln Honda plant annually recycles close to 4
million pounds of cardboard, 500,000 pounds of plastic and 20,000 pounds of aluminum
cans.
Per information given out by Honda, its North American plants have reduced waste
shipped to landfills from 62.8 pounds of industrical waste per automobile to about 1.8
pounds per vehicle.
Ernst added, “Honda has improved vehicle standards and it has been a corporate
emphasis to make the manufacturing process less of an impact on the environment as
well.”

Britain’s national agency for business-led technology studies, the Technology Strategy
Board, has granted almost £500,000 (more than $804,000) to six companies to conduct
seven feasibility studies on different aspects of the recycling and/or re-use of batteries
for low- and ultra-low carbon vehicles.
Studies will include ways to maximize battery life, cost-effective recycling and address
concerns on the sustainable reuse and recovery of raw materials from the automotive
batteries, as Andrew Everett, the board’s head of transport, explained. Results of these
studies are expected to direct commercial opportunities as well as establish an
automotive recycling industry in Britain.
Axeon, one of the companies awarded the funding, will lead the electric-vehicle
battery recycling research. Axeon, will look at how to determine end-of-life, which
appears to be a major issue with automotive batteries for manufacturers and the
consumer. They aim to ultimately develop a UK battery-recycling industry for these endof-
life batteries, which is currently non-existent.
Lawrence Berns, Axeon’s chief executive officer, explains that, “The issue of end-of-life
for batteries in hybrid and electric vehicles is incredibly important to OEMs and car
buyers alike, particularly in respect of the economic and environmental considerations”
and continues that, “Our project will help to define industry standards and best practice
for battery recycling,

The wonderful members of the Ontario Tire Stewardship (OTS) and the Ontario
Automotive Recyclers Association (OARA) have raised another $123,725 for the Sunshine
Foundation of Canada. How? By collecting more than 48,000 used tires at 64 OARA
member locations around the province between May 27th & 28th. This year’s “haul”
increased by more than 50 percent over last year and exceeded the set goal of
$100,000. Congratulations to all that participated!

Similar collections for items such as used abs pumps and used cylinder heads could raise funds as well and also give a boost to liquidation efforts on outdated inventory.
The collection allowance that members received for each tire was donated to the Fund,
along with a matching donation by OARA. The funds, along with a contribution from
registered tire hauler Liberty Tire Recycling, will go to help children with severe physical
disabilities or life-threatening illnesses.
Steve Fletcher, Executive Director of OARA, puts the credit where it is due, to the 64
OARA locations that participated in this event and, in his words, “have demonstrated a
commitment to finding environmentally friendly solutions for disposing of automotive
parts and we are proud of their contributions.” He added that, “We’d like to
congratulate Woodbeck Auto Parts in Stirling for collecting 4,011 tires, the most collected
in the province.”

Last week, the U.S. government approved a measure intended to warn drivers to use
the right blend of gas for their car – the measure: new ethanol labels for gasoline pumps!
You may recall that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required the new
orange and black labels, following their approval of a 50 percent boost in the ethanol
blend rate in gas for cars since 2001.
The EPA wants to ensure that the public will use the proper ethanol percentage in older
vehicles, motorcycles, boats and other gasoline-powered equipment. In this instance,
use of the 10 percent mix is advised. While many stations will continue to sell gas with 10
percent ethanol, which can be used in all makes of vehicles, and not switch over, other
stations will have to invest in new pumps and separate storage tanks in order to sell the
E15 gasoline.
Some may recall that the EPA last allowed two types of gas to be sold side-by-side in
the 1970′s, when leaded gas was on its way out. Approximately 20 percent of motorists
then used the wrong fuel by mistake at that time.

An apparent shortage of tires, due to tire plant closings as well as rising demand for low volume specialty tires exists, resulting in automakers paying higher prices while tire
makers gain pricing power.

Continental Tire’s Vice President of original equipment in the Americas, David O’Donnell,
admits they can’t keep up and are “at maximum capacity…all shifts are maxed out.”
To meet the demand, plants in Brazil and Illinois will be expanded and a new factory
built somewhere in North America. The expansions will help, but are not expected to be
in full production until 2013.
Automakers in the U.S. and Canada will buy 62 million tires for new vehicles this year,
forecasted by the consulting firm IHS Automotive. That’s an increase from 55 million tires
in 2010 (almost 12%) – by 2016, that number could rise to more than 79 million units.
Why the decline in tire factories? Before the recession, in 2006 and 2007, four U.S. tire
plants closed. More tire sizes and low-volume specialty lines reduced a standard tire
plant’s capacity and factories. This eliminated close to 71 million units in the U.S.

Now, the increasing costs of rubber, steel and other materials used in the process of
manufacturing the tires have tightened the supplies and driven the costs higher.
Meanwhile, tire manufacturers such as Continental, Michelin North America, Goodyear
Tire & Rubber Co. and others, have raised prices several times over the years to offset
these supply costs. This is a good indicator of what’s going on in the original-equipment
market.

History was made recently when the independent auto recycling industry and SGI
Salvage formed the Saskatchewan Automotive Recyclers Association (SARA). SGI,
established in 1945, has two distinct operations: 1) The Saskatchewan Auto Fund, the
province’s compulsory auto insurance program, driver’s licensing and vehicle
registration system. It does not receive money from, nor pay dividends to, the
government; and 2) SGI CANADA, whose business is that of selling property and
casualty insurance products, such as home, farm, business and extension auto. SGI has
a network of almost 300 independent insurance brokers and approximately 420 licenseissuing
sites in Saskatchewan.
At the organizational meeting, with the assistance of Steve Fletcher from the
Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC), a draft of the bylaws was reviewed and
approved, membership criteria established and an interim Board of Directors elected.
The goal is to have the corporation up and operating within one month, at which time
membership applications can be processed. SARA is utilizing the National Code of
Practice for Auto Recycling for their membership criteria.
Fletcher informed the gathering on activities of the national association, all of which will
be made available to SARA and its members. He added, “We expect that SARA will
make a formal application to join ARC in the (Summer), at which time SGI Salvage, one
of the founding Members of ARC, will step aside and allow the new association to
represent all Saskatchewan auto recyclers.”

Last week, ARA letters of support for the Massachusetts Right to Repair legislation were
presented to members of the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Consumer Protection
and Professional Licensure during a hearing for the legislation.
In the letters, ARA CEO Michael Wilson said: ” We strongly support the establishment of
an Act guaranteeing consumers ownership and access to information for the
diagnostic, service, and repair of their vehicles. This legislation will allow consumers and
independent repair facilities to access vital information to accurately repair or upgrade
a vehicle. The adoption of this Act will allow independent repair facilities to compete
on a level playing field, which would foster healthy and fair competition.”
Today, in order to diagnose, service and repair automobiles independent repair facilities
need information, tools and software from the original equipment manufacturers. In
many cases, repair facilities don’t have access to this information and consumers are
forced to have dealers service or repair their vehicles. As a result, consumers are too
often faced with longer wait times and significantly higher prices. This situation not only
impedes the consumers’ ability to access the repair facility of their choice in a timely
manner but also limits the opportunity of independent repair shops and automobile
recyclers to operate fairly in the marketplace.
“The Massachusetts Right to Repair legislation will give consumers in Massachusetts
alternatives to repair their vehicles and guarantee access to recycled automobile
parts,” said Wilson.

ARA members Andrew Chuckran of Chuckran Auto Parts, Tom Andrade from Everett’s
Auto Parts, Jeff Kantor of Car World and ARA At-Large Director, Bob Phelps attended
the hearing. “The hearing had to be moved to a larger room because there were so
many attendees, between 300 to 400, most of whom were proponents”, said Bob
Phelps. “The best statement of the day was from a legislator who said, if you are making
all the data available for a fee why are you spending millions of dollars to defeat the
legislation? Testimony put forth by both sides was interesting but the opponents did a
good job of confusing the issue”, said Phelps.

The coalition supporting the bill was happy with the show of support and outcome of
the first hearing.