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A more or less awful outlook for auto sales. By Bertel Schmitt, CEO Sinamotive Group (HK) Limited.

J.D. Power and Associates, the trusted authority when it comes to unbiased worldwide automotive data, has released their forecast for worldwide 2008 auto sales. Bottom line: It will be bloody.

All corners of the world will be affected by the slowdown. But not all corners will see equally dismal sales. The mature and saturated markets will be hit hardest by a sudden lack of appetite for new cars. Emerging markets will continue to grow - albeit at a much slower pace. Parts and services should gain as people hold on longer to their cars.

Will emerge stronger: China. The booming Chinese light vehicle market (which includes passenger vehicle and light commercial vehicle segments) will slow in 2008, yet, it will still grow at very attractive rates. J.D. Power thinks Chinese light vehicle sales will come in at 8.9 million units in 2008. This would represent an increase of 9.7 % compared to 2007. That number will be more subdued than the 24.1 % growth achieved in China in 2007. But many U.S. and European auto executives would sell their first-born for these growth rates. (Side note: The Indian light vehicle market will remain tepid. 1.8 million units are expected to change hands in 2008, nearly the same as in 2007. India has approximately the same population as China, making 1.8 million units pretty much a non-event when measured on a global scale.)

Bloody nose, but doing ok: Europe. Light-vehicle sales in all of Europe are expected to drop to 21.3 million units in 2008. This would be a rather benign decline, 3.1 % compared to 2007. For the more mature Western part of the European market, J.D. Power projects a reduction to 15.6 million units sold, 7.5 % less than 2007. Eastern Europe will keep on growing. Eastern European unit sales should be around 5.8 million in 2008, a remarkable (given the worldwide state of affairs) jump of 11.3 % over 2007. However, growth in Eastern Europe should also slow considerably.

Basket case: U.S. J.D. Power and Associates forecasts total U.S. new light-vehicle sales to nose dive to 13.6 million units in 2008, a 16 % fall from the 16.1 million units sold in 2007. For 2009, J.D. Power and Associates sees even lower numbers: 13.2 units. J.D. Power says there is a (downward) margin of error of 200,000 units, depending on how the 4th quarter of 2008 may develop.

Net/Net: J.D. Power doesn’t think that the market will recover anytime soon. Jeff Schuster, executive director of automotive forecasting for J.D. Power and Associates, said that “any truly pronounced recovery appears to be more than 18 months away.” And it may get worse before it gets better: “While the global automotive industry is clearly experiencing a slowdown in 2008, the global market in 2009 may experience an outright collapse,” Schuster said. “While mature markets are being impacted more severely than emerging markets, no country or region is completely immune to the turmoil.”

No crisis for after-sales. J.D. Power observed that “approximately two-thirds of the decline in retail sales can be attributed to consumers delaying vehicle purchases.” People are keeping their vehicles longer. Keeping their vehicles longer means more parts and labor are needed to keep the vehicles running. Buying a new car or even a used car can be delayed. But if the brakes fail, it’s either having the brakes fixed, or walk. One of the few recession proof segments in this collapsing economy appear to be parts and services.

Discount auto insurance is relative to the amount you are willing to pay for a certain amount of coverage. Many people do not understand that by purchasing the lowest policy you aren’t always protecting yourself right.

It important to look more at the coverages that are offered and the price changes between them if you truly want to get what I would consider discount auto insurance. One of the simplest ways to do this is by talking to an insurance agent. The agent will be able to see how much you would be required to pay at different levels of liability coverage.

Please be aware that there are two types of agents. There are captive agents that only can provide insurance for there company. A good example of a captive agent is a State Farm agent. The other type of agent is an independent agent. They can provide insurance policies for multiple companies but usually not the same companies that have captive agents.

Once you decide to speak with an agent always ask what auto insurance discounts are available to you. If you weren’t aware most agents work on a commission basis, so they might not always add on all the discounts that are available if you don’t ask. Once they add the discounts for you be sure to ask if there are any additional discount you could get.

Another way to get low cost auto insurance is to raise your collision deductible. The general public carries a $500 deductible. If you raise this to $1000 or even $750 you will most like be able to save $100 or more. It’s not advised to raise you comprehensive deductible though because it makes up only a small portion of your total premium.

You should always comparison shop between companies to receive the best rate for coverage from multiple companies. Each company has there own rating scale which could make the prices from one company significantly different from another.

On TV you are bombarded with insurance commercials stating they will save you hundreds of dollars. This makes it confusing to try to figure which insurance organization has the best insurance rates. All the insurance corporations have good rates for the market they are trying to insure. It’s your responsibility to try figure out if you fall into there preferred market so you get the best price.

A lot of people are now going to the web to get quotes, but they aren’t always getting the best deal. They will usually choose the cheapest quote that is sent back to them. That might mean really low coverage amounts putting them at great risk. Some insurance companies have the state minimum coverages listed as there defaults on their online forms. If you decide to get quotes from the web make sure you have the option to speak with an agent before you purchase your policy. This way you can take advantage of the some of the tips in this article.

Called the Windy City, Chicago is the United States’ third most populous city. With over 3 million people, Chicago is a center of economic growth and industry. Chicago is located along the Great Lakes. It was founded in 1833 by settlers who liked it’s location near the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The first settler arrived in Chicago in the 1770’s. He married a Native American woman of the Potawatomi tribe and started a trading post. This was the first commercial activity in the city that is now the economic hub of the Midwest.

The land where Chicago now rests was purchased from the Potawatomi tribe in the Treaty of St. Louis. After this, in 1833, the city was unofficially organized by 350 people. A few years later in 1837, the city was officially incorporated. Two main things helped Chicago to grow into an economic center: the railroad and the Illinois and Michigan canal. They started the railroad project in 1836 and finished it in 1848. In the same year that it was finished, the canal also opened. This made this time period in Chicago a strong time of growth. People flocked in from all over. The canal allowed transport from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. The railroad also brought many people in from the east. It was a great train station in between the east and the west. Therefore many people used it as a starting or stopping point on their journey.

Chicago grew extremely rapidly and was one of the fastest growing cities in the world. In only 40 years, it went from a population of 30,000 to over 1 million. This was obviously a great deal of people moving into a city at one time. In 1871, the city of Chicago also experienced a great fire. This fire destroyed almost a third of the entire city. The damage was great and cost many people a lot of money. Many people were out of house and home, or a place to work. Chicago soon rebuilt and came back more powerful than ever.

Prohibition in the 1920s ushered in a new era for Chicago. There were several gangsters that ruled the town including the notorious Al Capone. These gangsters controlled much of what went on during the prohibition era in American history. The government wanted to outlaw alcohol and Capone wanted to sell it. This meant that there were many conflicts and battles on the streets of Chicago in that time.

Since that time, Chicago has continued to grow into an economic power. Every year, more than 44 million people visit The Windy City and its attractions. If you live near the Chicago area, you will undoubtedly need some form of transportation to get around the beautiful city. Chicago has a vast array of used cars for purchase. In the market of used cars Chicago has a large supply for everyone. If you need to purchase a car, be sure and check with your local Chicago used car dealers.

GM pulling funds out of China - and possibly the rug out from under itself. By Bertel Schmitt, CEO Sinamotive Group (HK) Limited.

Bob Lutz, GM’s vice-chairman, said GM seriously considers moving money made from Chinese operations back home to the U.S. At the home front, cash is needed badly to keep GM from going under. There is little buyer’s interest in the ho-hum Hummer brand, which GM put up for sale. Therefore, pulling profits from China appears as one of the few options left for GM.

Draining the financial blood from the huge, vibrant and growing China market while the rest of the world is in shambles doesn’t sound like an intelligent idea. But as they say: desperate times call for desperate measures. “We do not rule out such a possibility under current conditions,” Lutz said.

GM had rolled up the Chinese market since they started producing vehicles here in 1999. Not so anymore. Shaking off a decade of falling market shares, the Volkswagen Group again is China’s market leader in passenger vehicles. GM is also being trumped by Toyota in the passenger segment. Pulling out marketing and development funds from China sound like a recipe for disaster. However, GM has to choose between a possible disaster in China and a sure disaster at home.

Defending his budget, General Motors Corp. Asia Pacific President Nick Reilly warned that the company’s vehicle sales in China fell in August and September from a year earlier. He also isn’t so sure about GM’s previous forecast of 11% to 12% overall sales growth in the Chinese auto market for 2008. “The market is too unpredictable to forecast with any credibility,” said Reilly, ostensibly blaming the market while in reality talking to Detroit.

The withdrawal will not sit well with GM’s joint venture partners. When cash is king and credit is an endangered species, cashing in will be extremely unpopular.

General Motors has several JVs in China through mergers of local companies jointly held with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) - one of China’s top three automakers. SAIC is also an important JV partner of Volkswagen, and if the money flows back to Detroit, SAIC may like the Germans even better. Volkswagen doesn’t need the money. Like a second coming of the Wirtschaftswunder, the VW shares defy gravity and financial malaise while the rest of the world is going to the toilet.

The price of the goods we need every day seems to increase every time you visit your grocery store. Inflation is on the rise for over a year now. An economic downturn and a rise in oil prices is often blamed for this state of affairs. Indeed, the upward movement of prices is no more apparent than at the gas pump. With gas prices as high as they are, it’s easy to see why people are starting to seek out alternatives to save money on fuel costs. One of the newest fads out there these days is something frequently called water for gas, or “water4gas.”

Attractive as it seems, is it even possible to use water for gas? It is not technically possible to put water directly into your car to be used as a fuel. In fact, if you did this you would damage the engine and render your car useless. So does that make the water4gas technology a scam? In reality, the technology to convert water to usable fuel for powering your vehicle does exist and is quite viable, but not in the form that most people think.

When considering Water4gas technology, it would be incorrect to believe that water itself is the fuel alternative. In actuality, water’s constituent molecules are hydrogen and oxygen. These two elements when separated are capable of inducing a greater level of gas efficiency. Water for gas is simply worded to make it more appealing to people and to explain the chemical process. Hydrogen gas’s only emission is water vapor, plus it burns cleaner and more efficiently than ethanol-based gasoline.

Using water for gas comes from the creation of hydrogen gas, which in turn, an automobile uses to burn gasoline more effectively, thereby reducing the amount of consumption and emissions. By separating the oxygen and hydrogen atoms that make up water, you can generate an alternative fuel source for your vehicle. Here’s an interesting fact: hydrogen fuel is what NASA uses to send space shuttles into space!

Most of the water for gas systems show you how to transform your car into a vehicle that is able to use water as fuel. You can find kits on the Internet and you can do the adaptations on your vehicle yourself. Downloadable water4gas systems are typically ebooks that provide you with a set of drawings and instructions to create a hydrogen gas converter system. You’ll need to buy your own supplies to build these systems.

People tend to fear that anything untested or not mainstream is bogus or a scam. A search for the term “water4gas scam” on the internet yields dozens of sites that praise the water4gas system as a true money-saver and just as many that decry the water4gas principle as being a joke or worthless. Noteworthy is that several forums exist that have heated discussions amongst its users regarding the technology from people that claim the systems work to others that criticize it as a scam.

Whether the water4gas system is a scam or a truly revolutionary way for the average person to save money at the pump remains to be seen. However, it is interesting to note that major car manufacturers such as Honda and BMW have plans in the pipeline to produce hydrogen fuel cell powered cars for wide consumption. Honda’s Clarity FCX, the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to hit the market, is scheduled for limited leasing-only availability in Southern California for the 2008 summer season.

Thousands of cars are seized by customs, police and the government yearly. Seized cars are often auctioned at a steal price. You can patronize auctions to get a cheaply prices used car.

The internet is an excellent place to initiate the search for a used car. With the various used car websites out there, it can be very confusing. That’s why it’s very important for you to take your time while searching for used cars on the Internet. Also - don’t be quick to pay for used cars on the Internet until you are sure it’s safe to do so.

Among other things that you should look out for when checking out a used car is the oil change sticker. Ensure that any used car you are buying has an oil change sticker that matches the mileage of the car. Mileage is an important factor to check when you are buying a used car as it ultimately determines if you will save gas on miles or not.

As a certified used car owner, you get to enjoy almost all the same privileges as a new car owner. A new car owner gets perk such as free maintenance, oil changes and lower loan rates; a certified used car owner also gets the same perks as the new car owner because of the extended warranty.

Do not go for off lease cars when you are thinking about purchasing a used car or else you will risk spending your hard earned cash on extra repairs. A survey conducted by an oil company five years ago showed that about fifty percent of off lease cars had their odometers tampered with.

Government used car auctions can be an excellent place to get used cars that are in topnotch quality. You can get wind of a government used car auction by constantly perusing through the pages of the classified ads. Before you place a bid for any car in a used car auction, you should bring a professional mechanic to give the car you want a look over in order to determine its quality.

If you purchase your second hand car from an auction deal, you should always ensure that the ownership papers are transferred to you to avoid any misunderstanding.

It makes more sense to buy a brand used car than a new car from the same brand because it is cheaper. Used cars from brands such as Chevrolet or Lexus are not exorbitant but are slightly higher in price than other used car brands.