If you can’t build a better car than Tesla…just don’t let them sell Teslas!

Well GM proves again they can Win when they really put their minds to it… like the amazing new Corvette… only this time GM Supported the “Anti-Tesla” Bill… so now the ELR won’t look so bad when there is nothing to compare it to… except a Chevy Volt… wait it is a Chevy Volt… with a $50K interior and a different body.

GM released a statement today supporting a last-minute addition to Michigan House Bill 5606 that would effectively prohibit Tesla from selling cars in the state or even providing customers with information about its cars. It’s the classic David-versus-Goliath tale, where Goliath wants the state to take away David’s slingshot.

The bill, originally focused on franchise-dealership fees, included a last-minute amendment addressing direct-to-consumer auto sales through manufacturer-owned showrooms. That amendment, added by Senator Joe Hune, was tossed onto the bill at the very last minute, a procedural loophole that meant the amendment never underwent public comment or debate on the State Senate floor. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder just signed the bill into law.

Snyder, is up for re-election in a couple of weeks. If he didn’t sign the bill, he would have likely faced an immediate onslaught of attack ads paid for by Michigan’s auto dealers—something that would not have helped his cause in a race he leads by a slim margin.

Governor Snyder said, “This bill does not, as some have claimed, prevent auto manufacturers from selling automobiles directly to consumers at retail in Michigan—because this is already prohibited under Michigan law.” The updated bill omits one word from the legal phrasing of the existing law, clarifying that manufacturers are only permitted to sell cars in Michigan through franchise dealerships.

“Not content with enshrining their ability to charge consumers dubious fees, on the last day of the legislative session, the dealers managed to make a last-minute change to the bill in an attempt to cement their broader retail monopoly,” Tesla said in a statement. “Using a procedure that prevented legislators and the public at large from knowing what was happening or allowing debate, Senator Joe Hune added new language in an attempt to lock Tesla out of the state.” Tesla’s statement goes on to point out that the Michigan Automobile Dealers Association is one of State Senator Hune’s top financial backers.

A GM spokesperson said about the law, “We believe that House Bill 5606 will help ensure that all automotive manufacturers follow the same rules to operate in the State of Michigan; therefore, we encourage Governor Snyder to sign it.”

This isn’t the first time Tesla has had to fight for its right to sell its cars. Anti-competitive measures, backed by politically connected dealer associations, have barred the electric carmaker from selling its vehicles in New Jersey and Missouri, while dealer cartels in Georgia, Iowa, and elsewhere hope to effect similar bans. For its part, GM previously backed an amendment to an Ohio law that would ban Tesla sales there; that amendment was eventually struck down.

Who said trucks are dangerous…

We’ll they are finally getting better. But if you are going to hit the back of a tractor trailer… choose wisely… your life depends on it.

Read this crash test from IIHS.org:

On most crash test days at the Institute’s Vehicle Research Center, a car or SUV races toward a deformable or rigid barrier in a frontal crash. Recently, though, a Vanguard trailer hitched to a parked rig was the target. A 2010 Chevrolet Malibu hurtled toward the trailer at 35 mph, smashing into the outer half of the trailer’s rear underride guard.

Evaluating the Malibu’s crashworthiness wasn’t the goal of the test. Instead, the trailer’s steel underride guard was the focus.

When the test was over, the Malibu ended up behind the trailer — not crushed beneath it — because the Vanguard’s underride guard held up. That’s important because serious injuries and death can occur if a passenger vehicle slides underneath a higher-riding large truck. The Vanguard’s underride guard stopped the oncoming Malibu, preserving survival space for the test dummy in the driver’s seat of the car and preventing the dummy’s head from contacting the rear of the trailer itself. When that happens, injury measures taken from the dummy almost always indicate certain death for a person in a real crash.

“The Vanguard’s underride guard performed great — a big improvement from our earlier tests,” says Sean O’Malley, senior test coordinator for the Institute.

The test is part of an IIHS research program to spur better underride guards that won’t buckle or break away when a trailer gets rear-ended by another vehicle. IIHS trailer crash tests have demonstrated that underride guards need to be stronger than current U.S. safety standards — and in some cases exceed tougher Canadian rules — in order to prevent underride in the kinds of crashes that happen on North American highways (see “Not good enough,” March 14, 2013). U.S. regulators have signaled they are working on a new standard.

Vanguard National Trailer Corp. is among the manufacturers taking the Institute’s findings to heart. The trailer’s passing score is a big win for the Indiana-based company. Two earlier Vanguard models failed prior IIHS 50 percent overlap tests despite complying with U.S. and Canadian regulations.

In an initial test in 2010, the Malibu slid beneath the 2007 model Vanguard trailer as bolts on the rear guard broke and the guard tore off the trailer. The result was moderate underride at 25 mph and severe underride at 35 mph (see “Crash tests demonstrate the need for new underride guard standards,” March 1, 2011).

Vanguard made improvements and requested a second test. When the Institute put the updated 2013 model through another 50 percent overlap test in 2012, the underride guard failed again. The guard’s vertical support broke off the trailer on impact, just as it did in the earlier test (see “Not good enough,” March 14, 2013). The Vanguard was the only trailer of the eight the Institute tested to fail the 50 percent overlap test. Because it failed, the trailer didn’t advance to the next round of 30 percent overlap testing. Only one trailer, a model from Manac, has passed that test so far.

“The Vanguard team is pleased to see a positive result from the recent IIHS test of a new Vanguard rear-impact guard design,” says Charlie Mudd, president of Vanguard National Trailer Corp. “We are always interested in reviewing safety-related options.”

This isn’t the first time IIHS has evaluated an improved design. Hyundai Translead is another manufacturer that made design changes to a trailer and underride guard after at first failing a full-width IIHS crash test in 2010. Two years later the upgraded model built to the tougher Canadian standard passed both the full-width and 50 percent overlap tests. Other manufacturers are working on design improvements to their dry van trailers in response to IIHS evaluations and are expected to request retests.

2013-Vanguard

2015-Vanguard

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What costs less than $100K and still goes 0-60 in under 3 seconds?

The 2015 Corvette Z06 Hits 0-60 In 2.95 Seconds

2015CorvetteZ06

We all knew the 650 horsepower 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 would be fast. That’s the whole point. Now we know it’s gonna be crazy fast: reaching 60 mph in 2.95 seconds, and it will run a 10.95 second quarter mile. Now that’s fast.

2015 Corvette Z06 Is A Deal At $78,995
These mind-blowing numbers come to us from Hot Rod magazine, who today came out with the most detailed reports on the upcoming Z06’s performance that anyone has seen yet.

There’s a catch here, and it’s a big catch: those crazy numbers are with the new 8-speed automatic. The 7-speed manual-equipped Z06 ONLY does zero to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds and the quarter mile in 11.2 seconds. Just keep in mind thats the same with all the much pricier competition… and you’ll be hard pressed to find another car that even offers a manual.

Hot Rod’s report says that the new Z06 is quicker to 60 mph with that gearbox than a Dodge Viper TA and an Audi R8 V10. It’s not quite as fast as the Nissan GT-R Track Pack to 60 mph but it has a better quarter mile time, and is almost on par with the quarter mile time of the Porsche 911 Turbo.

More importantly, the Z06 is vastly cheaper than all of those cars. The Z06 has always been a giant-slayer, but the new one may just be the best performance bargain around.