Autos
* The Smart ForTwo goes on sale early in 2008 as the smallest car in the U.S. at a base price of $11,590 for a Pure coupe. The $13,590 Passion coupe adds air conditioning, a panorama roof, alloy wheels, power windows, heated power mirrors and a CD sound system. The Passion cabrio starts at $16,590 with a power convertible top and an MP3-compatible six-disc CD changer. The freight charge has not been set.
* Prices on the redesigned 2008 Honda Accord sedan range from $20,360 for a 4-cylinder LX model with manual transmission to $30,260 for an EX with a V-6, leather seats and navigation system. Coupes range from $21,860 to $30,510. Honda expects 4-cylinder EX sedans to be top sellers priced from $23,060 with manual transmission and $23,860 with automatic. The prices do not include the $635 destination charge. The sedan, which went on sale last week, is classified a large car based on interior volume, and the coupe, which goes on sale this week, is a midsize.
FYI
* Gov. Rod Blagojevich has signed a law that increases the amount of adult supervision Illinois teen drivers need to nine months from three. The new law, most of which takes effect in January, also moves up by an hour curfews for teen drivers to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends. And it prohibits teens from having more than one other unrelated teen in the car in their first year of driving, up from six months now. By next summer, schools also will have to give teens more road practice. Starting in July 2008, teens will get six hours of road training, up from one hour on the road and five in a simulator.
* Chrysler is offering six-year, no-interest loans and cash rebates on some 2007 models, incentives set a day after reporting its first sales drop since being taken over by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP. The offer runs through Oct. 1 and is in addition to five-year, no-interest loans Chrysler will continue to offer on some models.
* The chairman of India’s Tata Group says his company is interested in the Jaguar and Land Rover units of Ford to expand Tata Motors reach. India now accounts for more than 90 percent of its sales. Two former Ford executives also reportedly have joined forces with private equity firms to bid for Jaguar and Land Rover: Nick Scheele, Ford’s president between 2001 and 2005, and Jacques Nasser, Ford’s chief executive from 1999 to 2001.
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Quick Trips are compiled from the notebook of Rick Popely and from Tribune news services.
