Word: auto
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...guzzling life-style. If oil is found on the refuge, major production could take 10 years to gear up. Even then, the contribution to U.S. petroleum needs would be relatively small compared with other means of reducing demand and finding alternative energy sources. One Senate proposal to boost auto fuel-efficiency standards 40% in the next decade could save 10 times as much oil as the refuge might produce. And while a new oil field would eventually run dry, the savings would be ongoing...
...manager of Lexus in the U.S., which picked up the undisclosed cost of the recall operation. That assiduous concern has paid off in spectacular fashion: from a cold start one year ago, Toyota's luxury division in July swept past both Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the vital U.S. auto market. Although Mercedes retook the lead during August, the Lexus performance sent shock waves through the global auto industry. BMW and Mercedes have seen their U.S. sales dip 29% and 19%, respectively, over the past three years at an estimated loss of $1 billion each in revenue in that market...
...model that Car and Driver magazine rated as better than both the $63,000 Mercedes 420SEL and the $55,000 BMW 735i in terms of ride, handling and performance. Up against the industry's pedigreed names, Lexus has created virtually instant brand loyalty, a feat unprecedented in the luxury-auto market. Charles Ruffner, a tax attorney in Miami, is a Lexus convert after owning four Mercedes-Benz over the years. "The Lexus is the best car I've ever had," says Ruffner, who describes the Mercedes as "Teutonic and utilitarian, like driving a Jeep," and its dealers as "arrogant...
...Kuenheim's concern stems at least in part from a fact that U.S. car manufacturers learned painfully in previous decades: Japanese automakers, according to a recent M.I.T. study, assemble their luxury cars in a mere 25% of the man-hours -- 16.9 for each auto -- that their European competitors need. Japan has gained a huge advantage by applying flexible automation to the task of building well-crafted cars, while Europeans do a greater portion of the work by hand...
...famous fantasy about flying with Mikhail Gorbachev over the sun-soaked swatches of Southern California, with its mosaic of turquoise swimming pools and tidy lawns and fat white garages plump with new cars. "Those are the homes of American workers," he would proudly declare, describing a Hollywood dreamland where auto mechanics have summer houses and anyone can go to college...