Unfair Insurance Claim, Toyota Tundra For Nurse Hero Update, No New Car Smell For Ford, GM Cuts, And Speeding Excuse

Today on PND…

• Confusion Over Who Should Pay For A Guy’s Car Damage
• UPDATE: Toyota Came Through With New Tundra For Hero Nurse
• Ford Is Attempting To Get Rid Of The “New Car Smell”
• General Motors Has Plans To Cut Production And Close Plants
• And A Man Who Claims Speeding Is Ok When You’re Testing New Parts Out

Unfair Damage
When you take your car to the shop, the last thing you expect is to get it back worse then you left it. But when Vince Hansen took his pride and joy, an Audi S4, to Titan Motorsports in Orlando to get performance parts installed he had that problem. After dropping it off a few days earlier, he came back to pick it up. The dealership told him a technician was going to take it for a quick test run to make sure everything was working while he took care of the bill. Nothing wrong with that. However, when the phone rang and the technician said he had wrecked the car, Hansen assumed the dealership would take care of the new damage. But they expected him to file a claim under his insurance, even though he wasn’t driving at the time. What would you do?

Tundra Update
An update on this awesome story. We reported on a California nurse who saved the lives of his patients during the traumatic wildfires. Allyn Pierce is a nurse from Paradise, California who couldn’t leave patients behind so he hopped in his Toyota Tundra and drove through the fires to get to the hospital and load in patients to get them evacuated. Based on Pierce’s Instagram, he put a lot of time and money into his truck. And Toyota heard his story and commented on his page that they want to replace the scorched and melted Tundra with a new one. They followed through at got him a new 2018 Tundra TRD Pro. On top of that, Rockstar Garage has offered to build/perform upgrades on the new truck and take the truck and Allan to SEMA next year.

New Car Smell
Ford is in the process of getting rid of the famous “new car smell” that a vehicle has after it rolls off the production line. It’s the smell some people even try to replicate with air fresheners but overseas, mainly China, people don’t quite welcome it. And with Ford being a global automaker, not just selling the U.S., it’s something that has to be addressed.

It’s reported that in China, the biggest car market in the world, drivers hate the new car smell more than poor fuel economy. So Ford has filed a patent for an automated method to remove the smell. Per the patent request, the solution is to bake the smell out by parking the car in the sun, rolling down the windows and firing up the engine, heater, and fan. So if you’re a fan of the new car smell, you may need to stock up on those air fresheners. Although as of now, it’s unclear if Ford will get rid of the smell worldwide.

GM Production Cut
General Motors is faced with the decision to close factories in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, and Canada, and slash 15 percent of its salaried workforce in a sweeping cost-cutting plan designed to boost its profits. AutoBlog reports the Detroit-based automaker said it would end production by the end of 2019 at its Lordstown Assembly plant in northeast Ohio; its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant in southeast Michigan; its Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario; its Baltimore Operations parts plant; and its Warren Transmission Operations plant in southeast Michigan. CEO Mary Barra is seeking to reposition GM for a future defined by self-driving cars, ride-sharing networks and electric vehicles. The plan may signal the demise in the U.S. of several passenger cars that have been struggling, including the Chevrolet Cruze, the Chevrolet Impala and the Cadillac XTS. The workforce reduction will affect 15 percent of the company’s salaried and salaried contract workforce. It’s not clear how many of those cuts will be voluntary and how many will take the form of layoffs. GM offered buyouts to 18,000 workers several weeks ago.

Parts Test
There’s a laundry list of reasons people have given police for reasons they were speeding. Here’s another one to add to it: trying out new parts. A Georgia man was pulled over by an officer after doing 118 in a 45. When the officer asked him why he was going so fast, he told him he just installed new parts and wanted to make sure everything was working okay. Unfortunately, that didn’t get him off the hook. Full video here.