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Planned high-tech upgrades include a new crash test, new dummies, crash-avoidance ratings

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation today proposed high-tech changes to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 5-Star Safety Ratings for new vehicles. The planned changes will improve on the well-known safety ratings by adding an additional crash test, using new and more human-like crash test dummies, rating crash-avoidance advanced technologies, and assessing pedestrian protection. These proposed changes will give consumers even better information to help them choose a safe vehicle, and will encourage manufacturers to produce vehicles with better crash protection and new technology innovations that will save lives.

With the holidays right around the corner, now is the time to get the family sleigh ready for travel and gift-delivery duty. By taking care of simple maintenance checks now, you can help ensure stress-free driving all winter long.

Even if you’re meticulous about taking care of your car and diligent about following its recommended service intervals, there are things you’re probably not doing in order to squeeze maximum mileage from each gallon of fuel. Improving your gas mileage by even one or two miles per gallon can save you a significant amount of money over time and eliminate pounds of harmful emissions from being released into the environment. Read on to learn how to improve gas mileage.

Even a tiny dust particle can damage an engine’s delicate internal system. Automobile owners in Arizona face the hazard of driving in dusty areas so it’s crucial to take care of your vehicle’s air filters.

Changing your car’s air filter regularly can have a large impact on your vehicle’s performance and the engine’s longevity.

In the hustle and bustle of the day, it’s sometimes easy to forget to take proper care of your vehicle. It’s easy to overlook simple maintenance items because you can’t see the problem so it’s easy to forget about it until something happens.

Even desert dwellers can run in to roadway trouble driving in mild Arizona valley winter weather. But, a few simple steps of prevention can lead to a long road of safe driving.

Drivers paid the lowest averages for the Christmas holiday since 2009, and pump prices continue to hover around the $2 benchmark. Retail averages have fallen for 45 of the past 52 days, and despite prices moving higher by fractions of a penny on the week, today’s average price of $1.999 is the lowest for this date since the Great Recession. Monthly and yearly discounts persist, and consumers are saving five cents per gallon versus one month ago, and 30 cents per gallon versus this same date last year.

Leading into 2016, the national average is expected to continue to slide because supply should continue to outpace demand. Gas prices typically fall during this time of year as demand for gasoline decreases, and many motorists will remember the fourth quarter of 2014 when pump averages tumbled from $3.33 on October 1 to $2.26 on New Year’s Eve. While seasonal price declines are again reflected across much of the country, prices on the West Coast have moved higher following supply issues in California. Earlier in the year, ExxonMobil’s Torrance, CA refinery unexpectedly went offline, and as a result, prices spiked in the region. Ongoing and unexpected refinery maintenance has kept production from returning to normal levels, and new problems have tightened supply within the region and once again sent prices higher. This regional challenge could keep the national average higher than we would otherwise see, and contribute to volatility to close out the fourth quarter of 2015.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today announced its nationwide campaign to get drunk drivers off the road this holiday season and unveiled a new Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over ad to run in movie theaters immediately before the hotly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opens nationwide this weekend.

“We hope the millions of Americans who will be on the road over the holidays will make the safe choice not to drink and drive,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “Across the country, local law enforcement officers will be on the roads, protecting all of us from the risk of drunk driving.”

Fine is auto company’s second since 2012

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has imposed a $40 million civil penalty and a series of performance requirements to automaker BMW North America for a series of violations of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and NHTSA regulations.

Under terms of a Consent Order issued to BMW, the company acknowledges that it violated requirements to issue a timely recall of vehicles that did not comply with minimum crash protection standards, to notify owners of recalls in a timely fashion, and to provide accurate information about its recalls to NHTSA. NHTSA imposed a $3 million civil penalty to BMW in 2012 for similar violations.

“NHTSA has discovered multiple instances in which BMW failed its obligations to its customers, to the public and to safety,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The Consent Order NHTSA has issued not only penalizes this misconduct, it requires BMW to take a series of steps to remedy the practices and procedures that led to these violations.”

(Washington – January 4, 2016) Gas prices rang in the New Year by reaching the lowest average price ($1.997) for the holiday since 2009.  Today’s average price of $1.99 per gallon is the cheapest average since March 25, 2009, and the national average has moved lower for 50 of the past 59 days, largely due to an abundance of crude oil. Pump prices are discounted by fractions of a penny on the week, by five cents per gallon on the month, and are down by 22 cents on the year.