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Mixed sales results, but automaker stocks rise on need for cars in Houston

DETROIT — The Big Three Detroit automakers on Friday reported better-than-expected August sales and issued optimistic outlooks for demand as residents of the Houston area replace flood-damaged cars and trucks after Hurricane Harvey, sending their stocks higher. General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler posted mixed August U.S. sales, with GM up 7.5 percent and Ford and Fiat Chrysler down. Japanese automaker Toyota improved sales by nearly 7 percent, while Honda fell 2.4 percent. Still, analysts focused on the potential for Detroit automakers to cut inventories and stabilize used vehicle prices as residents of Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, are forced to replace tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of vehicles after the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Mark LaNeve, Ford's U.S. sales chief, told analysts on Friday that following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 "we saw a very dramatic snapback" in demand. That said, Ford sales fell 2.1 percent in August. It sold 209,897 vehicles in the United States, compared with 214,482 a year earlier. Sales were down 1.9 percent in the Ford division and off 5.8 percent at Lincoln. Demand was down for cars, crossovers and SUVs. It was not clear how many vehicles in the Houston area will be scrapped, LaNeve said, saying he had seen estimates ranging from 200,000 to 400,000 to 1 million. Ford's Houston dealers may have lost fewer than 5,000 vehicles in inventory, he said. Ford is the No. 1 automaker in the Houston market, with 18 percent share, according to IHS Markit. The company plans to ship used vehicles to Houston dealers and has "every indication we would have to add some production" of new vehicles to meet demand, LaNeve said. Investor concerns about inventories of unsold vehicles and falling used car prices have weighed on Detroit automakers' shares most of this year. Now, automakers can anticipate a jolt of demand from a big market that is a stronghold for Detroit brand trucks and SUVs. "It's got to be a positive for the industry," LaNeve said. Investors appeared to agree. GM shares rose as much as 3.3 percent to their highest since early March. Ford increased 2.8 percent at $11.34, and Fiat Chrysler's U.S.-traded shares were up 5.2 percent $15.91, hitting their highest in more than five years. GM reported a 7.5 percent increase in U.S. auto sales in August, helped by robust sales of crossovers across its four brands.

Audi traffic light recognition could save 240 million gallons of fuel [UPDATE]

Any hypermiler will tell you that the way you drive your car has a huge impact on how much energy it uses. But these greenfoot drivers haven't had a car that's smart enough to tell them about the inner lives of traffic lights. That's what a prototype system in an Audi A6 Saloon that the German automaker recently tested in Las Vegas can do. Since the car can communicate with local traffic signals and is able to predict when lights will change, the car can help reduce CO2 emissions by up to 15 percent. Further, Audi says that the system could save some 238 million gallons of fuel (900 million liters), if deployed across Germany. We can only imagine what hypermilers could do with this. We got to drive the Audi Online traffic light information system prototype in January, but we focused more on how the system worked rather than the green aspect. Now that Audi has had a bit more time to crunch the numbers, it has released fuel economy information for the connected car. The key points for the eco-side of things are that the driver is told in the dashboard how fast/slow to go to hit the next green light. This can help prevent unnecessary speeding and or encourage drivers to go a bit faster in order to hit the green, thus preventing idling and wasted time. The system is too smart to let you idle for long. Except that Audi Online is too smart to let you idle for long. The Audi connect system can calculate how much longer the light will be red and can access the car's start-stop capabilities and will fire up the engine "five seconds before the green phase." That seems like an awful long time in a world where competitors have figured out ways to restart an engine in 0.35 seconds. We've asked Audi for an explanation on why this buffer is so lengthy, and will let you know what the reasoning is when we hear back. Despite the trials in the A6, Audi says the Audi Online traffic system could be integrated into any Audi model, "subject to the necessary government legislation." Aside from the Sin City tests, Audi is running trials of the connected car in Verona, Italy and Berlin, Germany. If you'd like to test it out yourself some day, take heart from this line in the press release, available below: "A market launch is currently the subject of intense analysis in the United States." *UPDATE: Audi's Mark Dahncke told AutoblogGreen that the five second window is meant, "To alert the driver that the light is about to turn green.

Audi RS5 test drive ends with potential buyer stealing car

Two men are wanted in the Houston area tonight after they stole an Audi RS5 from a local dealership. The brazen theft happened in the middle of the business day, when a salesperson stepped away after letting one of the men take the car for a test drive, while the other sat in the (getaway) car. He then swiped the keys and his license before running out to the lot and taking off in the 450-horsepower coupe.
The men drove to the dealership in an plate-less, white Range Rover Sport, and fed the salesperson a fake phone number - it ironically led to a collections firm - along with what is probably a fake name and a fake background, although the dealership does have both men on video. The dealer, Audi West Houston, is offering a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to the Audi and the crooks that stole it. Scroll down for the full news report from Houston's CBS-affiliate KHOU 11.