September 2014 - Greater Cincinnati Automobile Dealers Association

Safe Travel For Kids

As Child Passenger Safety Month comes to an end, the GCADA would like to express thanks to our partners, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) and Evenflo, for their assistance promoting this important initiative.  We’re also thankful for the support of our dealer members, associate members, local fire departments, pediatrician offices, OB-GYN offices, and daycares that promoted with us, hanging the Safe Travel For Kids™ flyer so that caregivers may know that car seats and booster seats have an expiration date.  Though, National Child Passenger Safety Month ends tomorrow, the GCADA’s Safe Travel For Kids™ campaign is promoted year round.  It’s important to us, that children travel safely in the proper child safety restraints at all times.  Therefore, child passenger safety information will remain on our website for visitors to view at their any time. 

Registration to win a free Evenflo car seat or booster seat will end at midnight tomorrow, September 30th, 2014; winners will then be announced Wednesday, October 1st.  Thank you again to all of our supporters and respondents.

Man gets stolen Jaguar XK-E back 46 years later

It really is the year for recovered stolen vehicles!   One man who probably thought he’d never see his 1967 Jaguar XK-E again, received a great surprise when U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found the car at the Port of Los Angeles along with a slew of other stolen cars; the cars were sitting on a cargo ship which was headed to the Netherlands.  The 1967 Jaguar had been reported stolen over 46 years ago by owner, Ivan Schneider. 

Last month, authorities returned the car to Schneider, who had been living in Manhattan years ago when the car was stolen outside his apartment.  Schneider had purchased the vehicle for $5,000, and when he last saw it, it was a shiny-gray color, and only had 6,000 miles.  Today, the color has faded, and the car has been traveled over 28,000 miles.  “Despite its condition, customs officials estimate that the car is now worth more than quadruple its original value: $23, 600… Schneider, now 82 says he plans on painting and repairing the classic car, a process that could cost as much as $100,000 he says.”

 

Source:

Pleskot, Kelly. “Man Gets Stolen Jaguar XK-E Back 46 Years Later.” MSN. 20 Sept. 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.

Remember the Yugo?

Does anyone else remember the Yugo?  If so, you’re not alone!  Phil Dust, a 42 year old science teacher from Ipstones, England, is on a mission to redeem the notorious car.  Yugos became popular back in the 1980s; it was the cheapest car around, and they were seen as throwaways.  It was 1992, when the war broke out in the Balkans, that Yugo cars started to disappear in America and the U.K.  Dust’s interest in Yugos began when he was looking on eBay for a car for his son; he bought a Yugo, and now has four of them!  Dust started the Zastava and Yugo Owners Club in 2010, and they’ve found that there are only 25 road-going Yugos left in the U.K.  His latest addition was a yellow 1984 Yugo 311 that had been sitting in a woman’s garage for 28 years.  “I bought it for £150, gave it a clean, a service, and replaced the brakes.”  Their club motto is: Somebody has to look after these cars, or they will disappear forever.

 

Source:

Baime, A.J. “One Man’s Mission: To Redeem the Yugo.” The Wall Street Journal 17 Sept. 2014, D4 sec. Print.

Child Passenger Safety Information

September is Child Passenger Safety Month, and our Safe Travel For Kids!! Campaign is continuing to progress.  This initiative is of grave importance to the franchised dealers, because the Greater Cincinnati Automobile Dealers Association (GCADA), like the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) is committed to preserving and promoting personal freedom of mobility by supporting organizations and initiatives involved in emergency medical care.

The automobile industry upholds safe travelling, and proper security for all passengers at all times. Thousands of new-car dealers around the country even host free child safety seat inspections at their dealerships to encourage safe travel for infants.

Did you know?  Three out of every four car seats are not properly installed!  If you have trouble fitting or adjusting your child car seat, visit an Authorized Restraint Fitting Station.  Fitters have been trained to:

  • Inspect and adjust child car seats to make sure they are installed correctly
  • Fit child car seats that require vehicle modifications
  • Install more anchorage points
  • Retrofit lap and lap-sash seatbelt
  • Show you the correct way to use your child car seat so that you can be confident your child is safe

Information regarding child safety restraints, including Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana restraint laws, and fitting station locations for car seats/boosters are available on our website; click here for more.

Stolen 1964 Ford Thunderbird found 33 years later

If you reported a car stolen well over a decade ago, it may be your lucky year to be reunited with that long lost baby!  Gary Chartrand recently got a big surprise, when police called to tell him that they’d found his 1964 Ford Thunderbird, which had been reported stolen 33 years ago!  The car was stolen from the Sacramento bar Chartrand was working at in 1981; but when police picked it up, it was 750 miles away in Washington State.  “Apparently when someone tried to register it, Chartrand says, but exactly who took it, and where it’s been all these years is still unknown… He says the blue hardtop looks pretty much the same as he remembers it, with only a couple of new bumps and bruises.”  Chartrand’s story is similar to another from back in June, when a Chevy Corvette that was stolen in Detroit in 1981, and was found in Mississippi.  That car too was returned to its overjoyed original owner.  To view the entire article, Click here.

August auto sales up!

The month of August was a record reaching one in the U.S. for new-car sales.  “It was an improving economy, generous incentive spending and increased demand for trucks and sport-utilities that lifted the annualized selling pace to an eight-year high… Overall, industry sales rose to an annualized 17.5 million pace, according to researcher Autodate Corp., the fastest since January 2006.”  However, auto makers do acknowledge that the strong performance comes at the end of the summer selling season, when car companies usually tack extra rebates and discounts on vehicles, making room for new models.  Auto makers and dealers are forecasting continued strong sales for the remainder of the year.

National Child Passenger Safety Month

For the second consecutive year, the GCADA has partnered with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) and Evenflo, to promote National Child Passenger Safety Month throughout the month of September.  This initiative is important to each organization, as making sure that children are buckled in an age and size appropriate car seat or booster seat, can be the difference between life and death.

We have launched our annual Safe Travel For Kids!!™ campaign, which promotes proper child passenger safety seat restraints.  “Motor vehicles have never been safer”, says Charlie Howard, Executive Vice President, GCADA.  “However, reaching out to the community and providing information that makes travel for kids even safer, is a top priority for the new car retailers in the tri-state area.”

Each year, the Safe Travel For Kids!!™ Campaign adopts a new theme.  This year’s theme?  Do you know what milk and car seats have in common?  It’s a little known fact, that they both have expiration dates!  “Many parents don’t realize that when they reuse a car seat, they’re running the risk of using an expired, or soon to be expired product”, said Donna Laake, Injury Prevention Coordinator, CCHMC.  In fact, car seat manufacturers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), recommend that families replace their car seats and booster seats six years from the date of manufacture.  Why do they expire?  Child safety seats expire for a number of reasons, including weakening of materials and parts, loss or breakage of parts, and older seats will often NOT meet current government safety standards.

To further bring awareness to this initiative, there will be a Car Seat/Booster Seat Giveaway, which will last for the entire month of September.  One of 6 Evenflo car seats and 6 Evenflo booster seats will be given to 12 lucky winners.  “Having a peace of mind in knowing your child is in a secure and reliable safety seat is important and deserving of parents and caregivers”, says Blake Downing, Associate Director of Sales, Evenflo. “Our seats come fully equipped with top notch safety restraints for infants and toddlers, and even grow with the child!”  Click here to register to win 1 of 12 Evenflo car/booster seats.  Winners will be chosen on October 1st.

For more information concerning child passenger safety, click here.