– Merlin Muffler & Brake Shops is offering a lifetime warranty on tires sold by its franchises. There is no mileage limit, and the warranty includes failure due to road hazards. The warranty applies only to the original purchaser and vehicle on which the tires are installed. Customers must have tire rotations and wheel balancing done by Merlin shops to keep the warranty in effect. About 50 of Merlin’s 70 franchises sell tires for cars and light trucks.
– Honda plans to market a home-refueling system for its natural gas Civic. The fueling system, developed with FuelMaker Corp. of Toronto, will go on sale in California for about $2,000 early next year. Phill, as the system is called, attaches to residential natural gas lines and takes about six hours to refill a car.
– General Motors will sell a car in Brazil that runs on gasoline, alcohol or natural gas. The multi-fuel technology will be in one of the models it makes in Brazil and is expected to go on sale in September.
– Animal-related accidents are responsible for more than 26,000 injuries on the nation’s roads, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s motor vehicle injury prevention team. In half of the animal-related accidents, motorists are injured by hitting the animal; the other half are injured by swerving to avoid the animal.
