Ohio

General Motors took a hit to third quarter earnings compared with last year due to European struggles, but handily beat Wall Street forecasts thank to strong demand for its vehicles in the U.S. and better profit margins.

A new TV ad produced by the Romney-Ryan campaign, running in Ohio heading into the last week of the Presidential campaign, severely distorts the facts of the auto bailout in the hopes of swaying independent voters.

Memorial Day weekend is one of the premiere road trip holidays. According to the American Automobile Association, more than 30 million people will hit the road this weekend, averaging 642 miles each. That means, for many, crossing state lines. And nowadays, that's more confusing than ever. Speed limits may vary, but at least those are posted. Cell phone laws, however, are much more confusing.

Bad news, Buckeyes. The Ohio Supreme Court just ruled that a police officer needs nothing more than his or her informed guess on how fast a vehicle is traveling in order to issue a traffic citation. Yep. You can forget the radar gun, LIDAR or even the archaic pacing method. As of right now

In spite of Honda's latest production cuts, the Japanese automaker reached a significant milestone this week. Twenty-seven years after opening its Marysville, Ohio, assembly plant, Honda has produced its 20 millionth vehicle in North America. The original U.S. plant is still open but it has been joined by assembly operations in East Liberty, Ohio; Lincoln, Alabama; and Greensburg, Indiana. T

Ohio legislators are changing laws that allow any hybrid into the HOV lane. This means that GM's SUV hybrids are no longer allowed in the get-to-work-on-time lanes. House Bill 62, sponsored by state Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, would bring Ohio in line with the new national standards which only include hybrids that improve mileage by 50 percent in the city or 25 percent overall. Smaller SUV hybrids like the hybrid Toyota Highlander would sti

click above for more pics of the 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe

We here in Ohio love our Ford plants. We've got 'em all over the place – in Cleveland, in Toledo, in Cincinnati... wait. Scratch those last two, as the Way Forward plan counts among its victims a stamping plant in Maumee near Toledo and a transmission plant in Batavia near Cinci. Ohio Governor Bob Taft and his Lt. Gov., however, have just offered Ford Motor Company a package worth $15.7 million in incentives to keep the Maumee plant open,

Those who're reckoning to check out the first Chinese vehicle coming to the U.S. may want to book a trip to Columbus, Ohio. Sib site Blogging Ohio posts that not one, but two auto distributors have obtained the rights to distribute Chinese vehicles.

The Dodge Nitro received the green light from DaimlerChrysler back in 2005 to be produced as a 2007 model. Now, sibling blog Blogging Ohio posts that production of the SUV has began at Toledo's Jeep Liberty plant. The Nitro will be the first non-Jeep vehicle made there since production of the Dodge Dakota ended in 1995. The American/German automaker spent $100 million to expand the plant resulting in the addition of

Remember last week's post on the Ohio-based Honda R&D facility receiving the gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) award? One of the environmentally-friendly technologies named is an ice-chilling system used to cool the main facility. The Associated Press wrote a more detailed report on it.

Sibling blog Blogging Ohio provided no less than three news pieces on our favorite topic, biodiesel. The first covers the ASAlliance Biofuels company as it continues its progress to build a $120 million ethanol plant in Bloomingburg. After a permit hearing later this month, construction of the new plant should begin shortly which will take a 12 to 18 months to complete.

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a decision by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled the state of Ohio's decision to use tax incentives to attract DaimlerChrysler's business was unconstitutional. Ohio had granted DCX an investment tax credit after the company decided to build its Toledo North Assembly plant in the state but a "taxpayer group" headed by who else but Ralph Nader challenged it. DCX sees the ruling as a victory for America that will help keep investment and j