Compact Car

Chevrolet has found a bit of mojo over the past 24 months in a segment of the automotive landscape that, historically, hasn't been its strong suit: small cars. The compact Cruze was a sales leader for much of 2011 and after slowing a bit for some of 2012, was the bestselling car in its class for August. Meanwhile, GM (Chevrolet's parent) says people bought almost 74,000 of its sub-compact Sonic in its first 12 months on the market. So Chevrolet is going even smaller with the Spark.

Honda said Friday that it will recall almost 44,000 of its tiny Fit Sport compacts to fix a problem with its stability assist software that crops up when the vehicle is equipped with certain tires. On some of the 2012 and 2013 model year cars, the yaw rate -- a force that can change the direction of the vehicle -- exceeds federal safety standards. Honda discovered the problem during testing for compliance with federal regulations.It is not aware of any crashes or injuries resulting from the problem.

Ford is recalling its hot-selling new Escape sport-utility vehicle again -- the fifth recall for the auto since the redesigned model started selling last year. This time Ford is recalling about 7,150 cars from the 2013 model year, including the Escape, the Focus compact car and its C-Max hybrid to ensure the child lock on the rear left-hand door works properly. Ford said that in some of the vehicles, the left rear door child lock “may have been built incorrectly.” It might seem like the child lock is engaged, but it won't hold the door closed if someone attempts to open it. The automaker said it is not aware of any accidents or injuries attributed to this problem.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of trying to kidnap a 15-year-old girl after he and accomplice attempted to snatch her as she walked to Valley High School in Santa Ana. Moises Rendon, 28, Santa Ana, was caught by police shortly after the attempt to abduct the teenage girl about 8:24 am, said Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department. Police are searching for the getaway driver. As the teenage girl walked past a small red compact car parked in the 1200 block of South Sullivan Street, a man she did not know but was later identified as Rendon suddenly jumped out of the passenger seat, Bertagna said.

If today's compact car segment is a party, it's a good one. Nearly every automaker is attending; the room is packed with plenty of attractive models that are worth spending some time with. This is a crowd in which even the few Debbie Downers and malcontents are due for updates soon. Conspicuously absent from this soiree has been Dodge. Its previous offering was a hatchback thing called the Caliber, as in "Boy, this is a really low-caliber product. " To no one's disappointment, it left the party in 2011.

Honda Motor Co. plans to lure young American consumers by rolling out a compact car for the U.S. market next year that will be priced lower than its Civic sedan. "Civic is becoming a bit higher-priced for some of the young people," said Tom Elliot, Honda's North American sales chief. One model Honda is considering is a version of the subcompact car that is marketed as Fit in Japan and Jazz in Europe, Elliot said.

After months of speculation, teaser photos and heavily camouflaged prototypes caught testing on the roads of Italy and the famed circuits of Europe, Ferrari's next-generation supercar was revealed Tuesday morning at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. All this for a car called LaFerrari. And it's a hybrid. That's right; the highlight of the Geneva show and one of the most widely anticipated debuts of all of 2013 is a car whose name translates to TheFerrari. And it's not a Ferrari LaFerrari.

Three years after their shotgun marriage, Chrysler and Fiat are rolling out a new car that combines Chrysler's legacy with Fiat's Italian design roots. FOR THE RECORD: A story in Wednesday's Business Section about Chrysler's reintroduction of the Dodge Dart misspelled the last name of Karl Brauer, chief executive of TotalCarSCore.com. The Dodge Dart, a reinterpretation of the 1960s' nameplate, needs to hit the bull's-eye if Chrysler is to have any chance of regaining a toehold in the competitive compact car market long dominated by import brands such as the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic.

An airbag problem forced Nissan to recall of a bunch of its cars Wednesday, including its Altima sedan, Leaf electric car, Sentra compact car, Pathfinder sport-utility and the upscale Infiniti JX35. Late last year, the automaker started to see cars come into its dealers with warranty claims about the airbag system.  Sensors placed in the passenger seat were faulty and caused the system to malfunction and could block activation of the airbag in the event of a crash. The same part is in all of the autos, which are 2013 model year vehicles.

Through 10 months of this year, no compact car has sold better than the Honda Civic. Not the Toyota Corolla, the Ford Focus, the Chevy Cruze nor the Hyundai Elantra. That's nothing new for Honda or its popular economy car, long a favorite of car critics. Such are the royalties earned from years of consistent reliability, fuel efficiency and strong resale value. And yet Honda on Thursday trotted out a thoroughly updated Civic at the Los Angeles Auto Show, hoping in part to appease auto critics who almost universally panned the 2012 redesign.

Ford is recalling its hot-selling new Escape sport-utility vehicle again -- the fifth recall for the auto since the redesigned model started selling last year. This time Ford is recalling about 7,150 cars from the 2013 model year, including the Escape, the Focus compact car and its C-Max hybrid to ensure the child lock on the rear left-hand door works properly. Ford said that in some of the vehicles, the left rear door child lock “may have been built incorrectly.” It might seem like the child lock is engaged, but it won't hold the door closed if someone attempts to open it. The automaker said it is not aware of any accidents or injuries attributed to this problem.

An airbag problem forced Nissan to recall of a bunch of its cars Wednesday, including its Altima sedan, Leaf electric car, Sentra compact car, Pathfinder sport-utility and the upscale Infiniti JX35. Late last year, the automaker started to see cars come into its dealers with warranty claims about the airbag system.  Sensors placed in the passenger seat were faulty and caused the system to malfunction and could block activation of the airbag in the event of a crash. The same part is in all of the autos, which are 2013 model year vehicles.

After months of speculation, teaser photos and heavily camouflaged prototypes caught testing on the roads of Italy and the famed circuits of Europe, Ferrari's next-generation supercar was revealed Tuesday morning at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. All this for a car called LaFerrari. And it's a hybrid. That's right; the highlight of the Geneva show and one of the most widely anticipated debuts of all of 2013 is a car whose name translates to TheFerrari. And it's not a Ferrari LaFerrari.

Through 10 months of this year, no compact car has sold better than the Honda Civic. Not the Toyota Corolla, the Ford Focus, the Chevy Cruze nor the Hyundai Elantra. That's nothing new for Honda or its popular economy car, long a favorite of car critics. Such are the royalties earned from years of consistent reliability, fuel efficiency and strong resale value. And yet Honda on Thursday trotted out a thoroughly updated Civic at the Los Angeles Auto Show, hoping in part to appease auto critics who almost universally panned the 2012 redesign.

Though fall is far from over, the Kaanapali Beach Hotel on Maui has put together a spring break deal that's good through the end of November. Daily breakfast for two and a rental car come with rooms starting at $215 a night. The deal: Besides the extras, the Spring Bonus Rate Special allows a third and fourth person to share the room at no additional cost. The compact car from Budget Rent-a-Car can be picked up from Kahului International Airport, but drivers must be 21 or older.

When it comes to autos, white is the new white. Automakers in North America offered more white cars than vehicles in any other color during the just-completed 2012 model year, according to the automotive coating division of PPG Industries. The paint company said 22% of the 2012 cars painted white.  That compares to 21% last year.  White stole market share from black, which fell to 19% this year from 20% last year.  Silver held steady at 20%. Americans just don't seem to be into cars with dynamic colors, according to the 2012 model year build data collected by PPG.  Red is 9%, blue 7% and green 2%. But that hasn't stopped PPG from offering up some interesting colors for consideration by the industry for the 2014 model year and beyond.

Five teen-agers were killed when their compact car veered out of control and collided with a semi-trailer truck filled with kerosene. The truck driver was not injured in the Saturday accident.

A woman was killed and three other people injured Saturday in a two-car collision on California 126, a Ventura County Sheriff's Department spokesman said. Their identities were not revealed until their families could be notified. At 4:20 p.m., a compact car traveling east near the Los Angeles County line spun out and struck the car behind it, the spokesman said.

Chevrolet has found a bit of mojo over the past 24 months in a segment of the automotive landscape that, historically, hasn't been its strong suit: small cars. The compact Cruze was a sales leader for much of 2011 and after slowing a bit for some of 2012, was the bestselling car in its class for August. Meanwhile, GM (Chevrolet's parent) says people bought almost 74,000 of its sub-compact Sonic in its first 12 months on the market. So Chevrolet is going even smaller with the Spark.

If today's compact car segment is a party, it's a good one. Nearly every automaker is attending; the room is packed with plenty of attractive models that are worth spending some time with. This is a crowd in which even the few Debbie Downers and malcontents are due for updates soon. Conspicuously absent from this soiree has been Dodge. Its previous offering was a hatchback thing called the Caliber, as in "Boy, this is a really low-caliber product. " To no one's disappointment, it left the party in 2011.