Autos
– Saturn is sharing the spoils. The 2007 Saturn Aura sedan won the North American Car of the Year Award, and now it is sending the trophy, to admire for a day, to those who bought the car before the award was made in January. Actually, Saturn had five copies of the award made because it had to handle at least 140 owners.
Recalls
– GM is recalling 13,000, or almost all, 2007 Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia SUVs because front air bags may fail to deploy in a crash. It doesn’t include those built after Feb. 2. Computer controls for the air bags will be reprogrammed for free in a 25-minute procedure.
– Volkswagen is recalling 790,000 1999-06 Golfs and GTIs, 2001-05 Jettas, 2001-07 Beetles and 2004 R32s because of problems with the brake-light switch. The light could either remain on or not function, which would fail to provide other motorists with the proper braking signal and potentially lead to a crash.
FYI
– The AAA says membership has topped 50 million. The 105-year-old organization was founded in 1902 by a handful of local auto clubs. The roadside service program handled 30 million calls for help last year, and AAA supplied 166 million copies of travel maps to members.
– Nissan and Renault have entered into an agreement to build cars in India with automaker Mahindra & Mahindra. The first vehicles from the venture, which can build 400,000 annually, are expected to roll out in the second half of 2009.
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Quick Trips are compiled from the notebooks of Jim Mateja and Rick Popely, and from Tribune news services.
