U.S. Export Initiative Launched to Foster Cooperation and Compliance on Vehicle Export Issues
 

Bridgewater, NJ, USA - After a challenging year for the independent automobile export industry in the United States, a new initiative launched jointly by American Automotive Shippers Association and the North American Automobile Trade Association is aiming to help resolve issues relating to the vehicle import and export industry.

 

The American Automotive Shippers Association (AASA), in partnership with the North American Automobile Trade Association (NAATA) announces the launch of the U.S. Export Initiative, a special committee comprised of association members and industry professionals. Its mandate is to analyze the export process, interface with government officials and rationalize the process by which vehicles may be legally exported from the United States.  

 

"Our objective is to enter into a dialogue with the relevant agencies in the United States government to provide information to further enhance their understanding of industry practices and remove any misperceptions. The aim is to cooperate and work with all agencies to develop improved export guidelines for the industry," said Tahverlee Dunlop, President and CEO of NAATA/AASA.

 

"NAATA/AASA non-franchise dealers legally export thousands of automobiles every year and are running legitimate businesses in support of the United States economy" said Dunlop. "Buying and reselling vehicles to desiring markets helps dealerships meet their sales quotas, while creating and supporting U.S. jobs. These companies pay the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price on the vehicles they buy, as well as millions of dollars in sales tax, licensing fees, export fees, and shipping costs. These small to medium-sized business are helping the American economy, and are supporting the U.S. President's National Export Initiative," Dunlop added.

 

The U.S. Export Initiative

 

NAATA/AASA has launched a special committee called the U.S. Export Initiative with a mandate to analyze the export process, interface with government officials and help support a uniform and transparent process by which vehicles are legally exported from the United States.

United States Automobile Exports

United States Automobile Exports Strong While Fuel Companies Struggle    (Libery Voice) The United States (US) automobile industry is doing well. Honda USA Corporation exported over 20 percent more automobiles from the US than it imported from Japan last year. 2013 marks the first time a car manufacturer's foreign-based operations exported more than it imported from the home country. However, while the US auto industry has flourished, the fuel industry, automobile companies' mutually dependent counterpart, struggled with strong government interference.   Honda spent more than $2 billion dollars to expand its Marysville, OH production facility. The company's US facilities manufacture Accords, Accuras, Civics, and Sport Utility Vehicles. Along with its plant in Marysville, the company has production facilities in Lincoln, Alabama and Greensburg, Indiana.   UC Berkeley professor, Harley Shaiken states that such production and exports illustrate that the US still manufactures goods for domestic and global markets. US manufacturing continued an overall decline however, falling by 16 percent since 2004. The US automobile market itself remained import heavy, with over 50 percent of cars manufactured abroad. Still, the automotive manufacturing industry showed signs of growth in the U.S. Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford exported over a million cars in 2012, including 740,000 to Canada.   Read the rest of this breaking news in the Liberty Voice article  "United States Automobile Exports Strong While Fuel Companies Struggle."

Mexico To Claim Top Spot in Exports to U.S. By 2015

Mexico To Claim Top Spot in Exports to U.S. By 2015   CELAYA, MEXICO - Mexico is on track to replace Japan, the Asian automotive giant, as the second-largest exporter of cars to the United States by the end of the year.   An $800 million Honda plant opening Friday in the central state of Guanajuato will produce about 200,000 Fit hatchbacks a year, helping push total Mexican car exports to the U.S. to 1.7 million in 2014, roughly 200,000 more than Japan, consulting firm IHS Automotive says. And, with another big plant starting next week, Mexico is expected to surpass Canada for the top spot by the end of 2015.   "It's a safe bet," said Eduardo Solis, president of the Mexican Automotive Industry Association. "Mexico is now one of the major global players in car manufacturing."   Read the rest of this article, "Mexico Climbs in Auto Exports to U.S." in The Tennessean.

 

Phoenix RC simulator update 2.5 to 3.0 file

Phoenix RC simulator update from version 2.5  to 3.0
missing file located here. PHOENIX UPDATE 2.5 to 3.0

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45993004/phoenixRC_25v_30m_update.exe

if you have any problems with downloading it , please email me.
file size is 177MB

Exports Lift U.K. Luxury Car Industry

Exports Lift U.K. Luxury Car Industry

 

(Wall Street Journal) Booming demand for Jaguars, Bentleys and Rolls-Royce luxury sedans is fueling a recovery in the British auto industry.

 

Global demand for pricey cars and sport utilities made in the U.K. has rebounded strongly under their now mostly non-British parents, which revitalized the brands through multibillion-dollar investments in new models and U.K. production.

 

Bentley Motor Cars, now owned by Germany's Volkswagen AG, says it is investing more than £800 million ($1.2 billion) to build a new luxury sport-utility vehicle at Crewe in northwest England, creating 1,000 new jobs.

 

Read the rest of this story at The Wall Street Journal.

American Regulators Cracking Down

American Regulators Cracking Down  On the heels of the Federal Trade Commission's attention to deceptive dealer advertising and unfair and deceptive trade practices, State Attorneys General have been busy lately, filing and settling a raft of enforcement actions against car dealers across the country.   There are lessons to be learned for car dealers from these actions, key among them is to keep claims honest and true.   To read the rest of this article, reprinted from the summer issue of The Dealer Standard, DOWNLOAD THIS ARTICLE IN PDF

Xvipers.com true story - august 2012

If you ever do business with xvipes.com
I suggest to go there, choose your parts, pay and leave.
My overal buying experience from xvipers.com was not as easy as online shopping should be.

My 1st online transaction with xvipers owner Michael Nouri went very smooth and with no issues.
Parts arrived few days later and all was the way it supposed to.

Second transaction was not as good:

I ordered a rear clip for 2010 prius in JUNE 2012, THEY HAD it , price was not lowest on the market but they offered to cut clip the way I want and promissed that they will include all internal parts, tail lights and bumper and hatch doors for 2010 toyota Prius with matching interior and exterior colors.

I called few days for payment, Michael took my CC numbers over the phone.
Unfortunatelly my CC ( had a limit ) and would cover only amount for parts without shipping charges.

I called day later and told him, that I want to pay shipping with other CC. He said it will be taken care by secretary and that she will call me soon.

3 months later, no phone from secretary or from Micheal and me calling every second day at different times, no one is picking xvipers toll free or regular phone up.

No one is answering emails at sales@xvipers.com either, and I am on my way with empty trailer to little city of: OWENSVILLE in Missouri where Xvipers are located.

I checked their address via google maps and it shows a building with warehouse and many salvage vehicles around. I thought that if between the time then the satellite picture was taken and now nothing happened they should be still there. I searched  for business in the area and called local Auto parts store just accross the street. They did not know who Xvipers is but they knew who the guy with Toyota Prius parts is so I was very confident that someone is there.

Well,  unfortunately when I arrived to Owensville all invenotry of salvage cars was gone.  As I was told by Police officer later that day, Xvipers.com moved away to enclosed warehouse 5 miles away from the town.

When I talked to local police officer he told me that city officials kicked Xvipers out from the city due to large amount of complains from outside customers. Police told me that there are hundreds people like me comming/calling/sending letters to Police/city of Owensville annually beginning in 2008 until now ( AUG/2012 ) to get their money back or purchases. Unfortunately they ( Police/City) cannot do much. I heard stories about several russians  flying there with their own translator to recover their about 30k USD  investment in Viper parts and someone else flying from Sweden to get their money back.

Reason for no Police action:
All transactions are done via Internet not cash register so police cannot prove anything to xvipers.com
Showing your online transactions won't work. Xvipers uses Australian credit card company to process their orders. I tried to call/email/mail that company and never got answer. Try for yourself:

Police officer told me that he submit bunch of complains to FBI for investigation year ago but they refused it because it is not cost effective for them unless each case is worth more than 100k USD

He told me that the only remedy is to hire local lawyer and open civil suit against xvipers.com , he told me these things happened in the past and at the moment Michael Nouri coughs out money or parts to his customers.

Below are few pictures of what I saw  in Owensville, Missouri on August 2012.
Shop name is Eliteauto not Xvipers. there are approximately 4 workers there. I had no privilege to meet Michael, and he could only communicate over the phone with his workers.

They pretend as they do not know what is going on. Once I showed then an INVOICE and proof of payment on my credit card statement where it says Xvipers.com then they could give me what I came for.

If you need any more info, please email me. I will be happy to share my thoughts.

I was LUCKY !  I got my parts and I left as quickly as I could.Here some pics from the site: