Automobiles

Insurance companies "total" millions of vehicles every year, giving policyholders a lump sum that is supposed to represent the true market value of their wrecked cars and trucks. In many cases, however, motorists charge that their insurers low-ball them. With billions of dollars at stake, determining the value of totaled vehicles can sometimes become contentious. All too often, motorists say, settlements fall far short of the prices of comparable vehicles for sale in the used-vehicle market.

The gig: Jared Rowe is president of auto information company Kelley Blue Book. The Irvine company has been providing new car pricing, used car values, reviews and other data for 87 years. Once just a modest blue publication, now the company also operates a website that gets about 560,000 visitors a day. The subsidiary of AutoTrader.com employs about 400 people, most in California. Embrace what you love: "I always had an interest in cars when I was growing up. I had a 1968 Mustang that my father and I restored.

Not everything you've heard about increasing gas mileage is true. There are plenty of legitimate ways to stretch your mileage: slow down, keep tires at proper inflation, avoid quick acceleration, don't pile luggage on a roof rack, use a properly fitted gas cap. But at this time of skyrocketing gasoline prices, several myths are circulating. The claims were tested by car experts at the Automobile Club of Southern California and Consumer Reports magazine.

NEW YORK - Eric Gsellmeier's shortest commute home this week began in downtown Manhattan at 4:30 p.m. and ended two hours and 20 minutes later in his three-bedroom Colonial home in Westwood, N.J., 27 miles to the north. It included a rattling subway ride, a 30-minute wait in an unmoving line in the Port Authority Bus Terminal and a halting, hourlong bus ride in the dark, where commuters squeezed up and down the aisles, some standing with hands pressed against overhead compartments for stability.

A good set of tires has always made a big difference in safety, fuel economy and handling, but one area that is getting new attention is the quality of tires to reduce or increase the amount of noise a vehicle makes. Tire manufacturers are racing to develop tires that reduce noise, aiming to meet tough new standards mandated by European and Asian nations that want to reduce noise pollution. Though U.S.

Nearly a third of older-model cars stopped for roadside smog tests in Southern California failed them, despite having received a passing grade at inspection stations within a year, a state audit has found. The results of those surprise inspections of 6,000 models manufactured before 1996 have led law enforcement officials to crack down on unscrupulous stations, step up fines and file more criminal charges. Legislation introduced in the California Assembly this week would allow the state to bar low-performing test stations from conducting smog checks.

In Paris, women clutch flirtatious little Chanel bags, so small they hold next to nothing. In New York, they take the opposite tack, lugging mega-tote bags that bend their backs into Quasimodo crouches, so they can keep their subway reading, gym clothes and other such sundries close at hand. But in Los Angeles, women breeze around town carrying nothing except a set of keys. That's because the quintessential California purse comes with four wheels and a trunk.

Federal marshals seized a grand piano and an aged Rolls-Royce on Thursday from the Encino home of entertainer Michael Jackson's parents to satisfy part of a $1.3-million default judgment. "This is a tempest in a teapot," said Brian Oxman, attorney for Joseph and Katherine Jackson. He said the seizure was illegal because the couple were not served with court papers before the default judgment was obtained. Besides, he said, "the piano belongs to Michael, not his parents.

J. D. Power & Associates in Agoura Hills is nearly synonymous with car research, which Power has earned by publishing customer-satisfaction surveys and other analyses for the world's auto makers for more than a decade. But that isn't stopping AutoPacific Group Inc. of Santa Ana from trying to muscle in on parts of Power's business.

In tough times, Nissan Motor Co. is hoping less is more. On Friday, the Japanese carmaker said it would begin selling a cut-rate version of its Versa sedan in the U.S. for $9,990 -- more than $1,000 less than the cheapest new car currently sold in America. The frills-free Versa -- which is made in Mexico and will be available starting Nov. 18 -- will come without power windows or air conditioning and will be the only new car available in the U.S. for less than $10,000.

Here's an example of just how hot the collector car market has become this year. Santa Monica auction house Gooding & Co. has completed its 2012 auction season and reported sales of $189.6 million, an average of $640,635 for each of the 296 cars sold. The total is 44% higher than last year's results, which also included 296 cars. The auction house said the increase demonstrates the rising demand for collector cars as well as the selection of coveted vehicles compiled by Gooding this year.

Thomas V. McKernan, chief executive of the Automobile Club of Southern California, has retired after serving 46 years with the organization, including 21 in the top post. He was succeeded by Robert Bouttier, who previously was the club's president and chief operating officer. McKernan started out as a customer service representative in the Pasadena branch in 1966 and worked his way up the corporate ladder, serving as a computer programmer and chief financial officer before his appointment as CEO in 1991.

If you are planning to sell or trade in a used car, the next couple of months might be the most optimum time. Prices of late-model used cars are expected to peak for the year over the next six weeks or so, according to analysts at the National Automobile Dealers Assn. Used Car Guide. That's because auto dealers are trying to stock up on their used-car inventory for the busy spring and summer seasons and there is a shortage of good used cars, an echo effect of the recession.

Re "What to do about $4 gas," Editorial, Feb. 23 Who wrote this editorial? Not someone who lives in Upland but works in Irvine. Not someone who is an outside sales representative and needs to visits clients. Not someone who is keeping his old car because he cannot afford a car payment. How could someone live in Los Angeles and say that if you are not able to afford an expensive electric car, you can ride public transportation? In Los Angeles, what percentage of the workforce lives close to a public transportation line that will take them to work without any transfers?

John Chamberlain, a prolific American sculptor whose use of crushed automobile sheet metal became his signature during a career that spanned half a century, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 84. Reportedly in poor health, he had been working on a retrospective exhibition scheduled to open Feb. 24 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, his second at the Manhattan institution. The artist's death was announced by his wife, Prudence Fairweather, although no cause was given.

Louis Borick, the founder and longtime chairman of Van Nuys-headquartered Superior Industries International, one of the world's largest manufacturers of aluminum wheels for the automotive industry, has died. He was 87. Borick died of natural causes Monday, two days before his 88th birthday, at his home in Beverly Hills, said his son, Steven. A onetime used-car salesman who sold his half of a business that made clear plastic seat covers in St. Paul, Minn., before moving to Encino in 1956, Borick founded Superior Industries in a 4,000-square-foot plant in North Hollywood a year later.

When mom, dad and the kids drive to the neighborhood theater to see "Days of Thunder" this summer, they may be surprised to discover that the family car has a starring role. The Chevrolet Lumina, the transportation of choice for many people whose favorite option is a child safety seat, turns up as Tom Cruise's howling monster of a race car in the film, complete with stickers on its neon-green body armor promoting auto parts, not theme parks.

The Internal Revenue Service, selling off vintage cars seized in drug cases, netted $157,800 in an auction Thursday that drew 1,000 potential bidders and will help compensate the agency for unpaid taxes. Many of the prized automobiles were confiscated in drug seizures. Seven of the cars belonged to Rudy Henderson, a millionaire imprisoned on drug charges. One of the seven vehicles included a 1968 Chevrolet Corvette that went for $24,500, the highest of the sale.

Angel Sawle was one of the thousands of Southern Californians who heeded the "Carmageddon" warnings and curtailed her weekend routine, choosing to stay close to home in Los Feliz. Sawle was glad to do her part, but she doesn't see herself making this a permanent thing. "I didn't mind doing it to help out," Sawle said, though she enjoys exploring in her car on weekends too much to give it up. The success of Carmageddon has given way to a political and lifestyle question: If L.A. residents can cut their driving for one weekend, how can they be encouraged to drive less the rest of the time?

High fuel costs are expected to drive down the number of Southern Californians traveling this Fourth of July weekend, but road trips may come roaring back later this summer if gasoline prices continue to fall, as experts predict. The Automobile Club of Southern California is predicting that 2.9 million Southern Californians will travel at least 50 miles this holiday weekend, a 2.3% drop from the same weekend in 2010. "High gas prices this spring have started to impact travel, but the good news for consumers is that gas prices are continuing to drop," said Filomena Andre, the Auto Club's vice president for travel products and services.