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180,000 new vehicles are sitting, derailed by lack of transport trains

If you're planning on buying a new car in the next month or so, you might want to pick from what's on the lot, because there could be a long wait for new vehicles from the factory. Locomotives continue to be in short supply in North America, and that's causing major delays for automakers trying to move assembled cars.
According to The Detroit News, there are about 180,000 new vehicles waiting to be transported by rail in North America at the moment. In a normal year, it would be about 69,000. The complications have been industry-wide. Toyota, General Motors, Honda and Ford all reported experiencing some delays, and Chrysler recently had hundreds of minivans sitting on the Detroit waterfront waiting to be shipped out.
The problem is twofold for automakers. First, the fracking boom in the Bakken oil field in the Plains and Canada is monopolizing many locomotives. Second, the long, harsh winter is still causing major delays in freight train travel. The bad weather forced trains to slow down and carry less weight, which caused a backup of goods to transport. The auto companies resorted to moving some vehicles by truck, which was a less efficient but necessary option.

Ford, Alcoa announce next generation of aluminum lightweighting for F-150

Ford likes what it has seen with the use of aluminum in its world-beating F-150 pickup trucks. Now, the Blue Oval is working with Alcoa to use that company's Micromill material to increase the amount of aluminum in Ford vehicles. In fact, Ford will start using Micromill on 2016 model-year F-150s later this year, and will double the material's use in 2017. The purpose, as you might suspect, is light weighting, which allows Ford to boost towing capacity while adding as little weight as possible. Ford will be the first automaker to use Micromill, and will use it in both structural components and exterior panels. Micromill's rolling-mill system cuts the time it takes to turn molten metal into coil to 20 minutes from about 20 days. Already, Ford has had positive results by using aluminum on its leading pickup truck model. In April, it was announced that the 2015 Ford F-150 achieved a five-star Overall Vehicle Score in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's testing. Safety features like inflatable seat belts, adaptive steering columns and a forward collision warning system helped matters. General Motors may have taken note of those results, even after running an ad campaign touting its continued use of steel over aluminum. Last month, GM said it would sink $877 million into its Flint, MI, truck factory. Reuters said much of the expense was to convert many of the bodies for models like the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups into aluminum. You can take a look at Ford's press release below. Ford Motor Company and Alcoa Inc. are collaborating to produce next-generation automotive aluminum alloys that are more formable and design-friendly. Ford will use Alcoa's Micromill® material in multiple components on the 2016 F-150 – becoming the first automaker to use the advanced automotive aluminum commercially. The companies entered into a joint development agreement to collaborate on next-generation aluminum alloys for automotive parts using Micromill™ technology. ''Light-weighting enables us to design vehicles with great customer attributes – like the F-150, which can tow more, haul more, accelerate quicker and stop faster than the previous F-150, and is more fuel-efficient than ever," said Raj Nair, Ford group vice president and chief technical officer, Global Product Development.

Autoblog Podcast #410

Episode #410 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Chris Paukert, and Greg Migliore talk about the Mercedes-Benz GLE, the next generation Audi Q7, and Ford's promise of 12 new performance models by 2020. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the rundown with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #410: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics: Mercedes-Benz GLE 2016 Audi Q7 New Performance Ford/End of MyFordTouch In The Autoblog Garage: 2015 Toyota Camry XLS 2015 Ford F-150 2015 Volkswagen GTI Hosts: Dan Roth, Chris Paukert, Greg Migliore Runtime: 01:28:00 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 Tacoma - 24:17 Barn Find - 38:27 DB10 - 49:23 Q&A - 01:00:00 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Podcasts Detroit Auto Show Audi Ford Mercedes-Benz ford performance