http://www.qtautonews.com Automotive news stories and public relation feeds Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:21:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced an increase of 8 cents in the business related mileage rate deduction. The rate increase goes into effect July 1, 2008, and will increase from 50.8 to 58.8 cents per mile. The IRS mileage rate increase is a welcome sign after a spike of ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/06/24/irs-increases-standard-mileage-rate/ The FCX Clarity hydrogen car is now available for lease from participating Honda dealers for Southern California residents who live in Santa Monica, Torrence or Irvine. The FCX Clarity lease runs at$600 per month which includes maintenance and insurance costs. Honda is currently limiting the lease to residents who have access ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/06/16/honda-now-leasing-the-fcx-clarity-hydrogen-car/ A123Systems announce six initial certified partnerships that are authorized to install and convert the hybrid Toyota Prius to an plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The conversion is expected to increase the gas mileage of the Prius to over 100 MPG for the first 30 - 40 mile commute. The L5 ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/06/11/a123systems-l5-module-converts-hybrids-to-plug-ins/ A former NASCAR employee filed a $225 million dollar sexual harassment, racial discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit against NASCAR today. Mauricia Grant, a thirity-two year old African American Woman, worked for NASCAR from January 2005 to October 2007. The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/06/10/maurcia-grant-sues-nascar-over-harassment-charges/ Ft. Worth, Texas – Dan Wheldon crashed today at the Texas Motor Speedway during a practice run. He injured his right ankle after rolling his car on the infield grass. Wheldon, who teams with Chip Ganassi Racing, is expected to enter Saturday evening in the Indy Car Bombardier LearJet 550 ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/06/06/indy-driver-dan-wheldon-crashes-at-texas-motor-speedway/ A 78-year old man was helplessly left unaided by bystanders after being hit by a car that left the scene. It wasn’t until several minutes until a Police Cruiser patrolling the area found the victim in the street. A dozen witnesses stood by as the hit-and-run victim in lay helplessly ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/06/06/man-hit-by-car-needs-good-samaritan/ Toyota announced at the Detroit Auto Show that it plans to sell lithium-ion battery plug-in hybrid vehicles to fleet customers in the US by 2010. The plug-in hybrid typically plugs into a normal 120V or 240V outlet outfitted in household’s garages and charges the battery for the next days commute. Testing of ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/01/22/toyota-plug-in-hybrids-coming-in-2010/ Good news for New Jersey residents, IFA is lowering auto insurance rates! New Jersey drivers can expect on the average a 5% reduction in full coverage. Improvements in overall vehicle safety, as well as more conscientious drivers have resulted in fewer losses for our company. IFA believes it is ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/01/16/new-jersey-drivers-may-see-lower-insurance-rates/ The India Tata Group unveiled the world's lowest priced automobile starting at 100,000 rupees or about $2,500 USD. Competing against Renault and Suzuki, the Tata Group expects their lower-priced auto to make deep penetration into the Indian market. Less than 1% of the Indian population own an automobile and typically use motorcycles ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/01/09/india-to-produce-2500-car/ When inventor Marvin Weinberger decided he had enough of flimsy ice scrapers, he came up with a revolutionary idea which would "tenderize" the ice build up on windshields. The IceDozer, tenderizes the ice before scraping it off and leaving a clean windshield. "A really thick ice buildup on your car, like that ... http://www.qtautonews.com/2008/01/03/windshield-ice-tenderizes-away-with-icedozer/