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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating allegations that about 6 million General Motors Co. pickups and SUVs may be susceptible to brake-line failure as a result of corrosion.

NHTSA’s preliminary evaluation, the first stage of a formal investigation, covers Chevrolet Silverados, Avalanches and Suburbans and GMC Sierras, Tahoes and Yukons from the 1999 to 2003 model years.

In addition, 189,000 GM heavy-duty pickups from the same model years are being investigated for the same issue.

NHTSA said it has received three complaints that brake failure caused by corroded lines led to crashes. None of the accidents involved injury or death.

GM is cooperating with NHTSA, GM spokesman Greg Martin said in a statement.

A NHTSA document said one complaint alleged that the brake line “burst in an area that was weakened by corrosion.”

Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche says the German company will become a leading manufacturer of electric-car batteries. Trouble is, his new business partner Renault SA CEO Carlos Ghosn has the same idea.

Both chiefs have vowed to produce the best power pack as they begin working together to jointly develop electric cars, creating a potential conflict in their budding cooperation before it even starts.

Daimler and Renault, which swapped 3.1 percent stakes last week to seal a vehicle and engine development cooperation, left batteries out of the deal. Each side will instead vie for the right to install their power packs in electric-powered Smart and Twingo cars they will jointly develop by 2013.

“Daimler has been a company that has traditionally been reluctant to give up its own technology path,” said Anil Valsan, London-based director of automotive research at Frost & Sullivan. “While Daimler’s battery may have a technical edge, Renault-Nissan’s solution may end up being more cost competitive.”

Daimler, the world’s second-largest maker of luxury cars, and Renault, France’s second-biggest carmaker, both regard the technology for storing and managing electricity as critical in the shift to pollution-free driving. Batteries, rather than engines, will be the “heart” of future vehicles, Thomas Weber, Daimler’s development chief, said in a March interview.

Along with Renault, Stuttgart-based Daimler plans to work with BYD Co. Ltd., the Chinese carmaker backed by billionaire Warren Buffett, to build an electric vehicle for China and team up with Evonik Industries AG to develop electric powerpacks.

‘Pioneer’

“Daimler aims to be, and will be, a pioneer in the field of electric mobility,” Zetsche told shareholders earlier this week. “When alternative drive systems go into mass production in a few years, we will be ahead of the competition.”

Ghosn meanwhile plans to make Renault, along with the carmaker’s partner Nissan Motor Co., the global leader in zero-emission vehicles. The effort is due to begin in December with the Nissan Leaf, a battery-powered, five-person car that can travel 100 miles (161 kilometers) before recharging. The Leaf is set to go on sale in Europe before the end of the year.

Potential conflicts in the new alliance bring to mind Daimler’s failed merger with Chrysler LLC as well its effort to absorb Mitsubishi Motors Corp., investors said at yesterday’s annual meeting in Berlin. Working with Renault and Nissan may not bring the benefits Daimler expects, they said.

“We have grave doubts that the new partnership will be a success,” Ingo Speich, a Frankfurt-based fund manager with Union Investment, said at the meeting. “The traces of missteps run like a red thread through Daimler’s cooperation history.”

Sparring partners

The competition between Daimler and Renault to supply batteries for the two- and four-seat versions of the Smart and Twingo minicar was already evident in an exchange between Zetsche and Ghosn at the alliance’s announcement April 7.

“We are obviously going to do everything in order for our battery to be considered as the best,” Ghosn said. While Ghosn said that Daimler is “not obliged” to accept batteries from the Renault-Nissan alliance, he said he “doubts” Daimler would find better components elsewhere.

Zetsche responded that while he may not be able to find a better battery on the market, he may find one “inside” Daimler.

“We have the production know-how and the financial muscle to secure a long-term competitive position,” Zetsche said yesterday in re-emphasizing Daimler’s battery ambitions.

On Thursday Renault’s Chief Operating Officer Patrick Pelata said he did not expect competition between the partners on electric vehicles: “No, no. We’re putting everything together at the moment … We’re in the process of comparing who does what.”

Asked sidelines of a conference on electric vehicles in Paris if Renault and Daimler would work together on electric vehicles, Pelata replied: “Our teams are discussing that … It was part of the talks (before the deal was signed) but to talk and to concretize you need numbers,” Pelata said.

Daimler aims to spend 2 billion euros ($2.72 billion) to develop batteries and fuel-saving engines in the next two years, up from an average of 567 million euros a year in the past three years, after losing ground to competitors, Weber said.

Competing ventures

Part of that money will be funneled into a battery venture with Evonik for a factory in Kamenz, Germany, to produce lithium-ion powerpacks for an electric-powered Smart as well as Mercedes-Benz vehicles by 2012. Daimler earlier this month signed an agreement with BYD to set up a partnership to develop electric vehicles for China, the world’s largest car market.

Renault-Nissan plans to manufacture batteries through a joint venture with NEC Corp., Japan’s biggest personal-computer maker. The alliance is building five battery plants in Japan, the UK, France, Portugal and the United States, with a total production capacity of 500,000 units annually.

Carmakers are teaming up to develop electric batteries out of necessity because of the cost. Lithium-ion batteries, which are lighter and more powerful than the nickel-hydride batteries now in use, currently cost $700 to $750 per kilowatt hour, about twice as much as the cost projected to make electric vehicles competitive with fuel-burning cars, according to Frost & Sullivan estimates.

Cost comparison

For a 24 kilowatt-hour battery like in the Nissan Leaf, the battery cost would therefore range from $16,800 to $18,000, or more than the price of the Nissan Sentra, which starts at $15,420.

Mike Tyndall, a London-based automotive specialist with Nomura Securities, said he’ll be “hugely surprised” if Renault and Daimler end up using separate batteries for the small cars they produce together given the cost.

“They may reach a point where it’s clear that one technology will be better than the other,” Tyndall said. “It’s all a question of how willing they are to work together.”

Toyota Motor Corp. suspended sales of the 2010 Lexus GX 460 on Tuesday after influential magazine Consumer Reports urged car shoppers not to buy the SUV, calling it a “safety risk” that could roll over.

Toyota said its engineers were “vigorously testing” the luxury model to identify the risk cited by Consumer Reports, which said the vehicle was prone to slide when driven in sweeping turns and gave it a “not acceptable” rating.

The rare safety warning from the magazine, which is seen as an objective voice on auto safety and quality in North America, comes at a time when Toyota is battling to repair damage to its reputation from a series of recalls.

“We are taking the situation with the GX 460 very seriously and are determined to identify and correct the issue Consumer Reports identified,” Lexus Group Vice President Mark Templin said in a statement.

“At this time we have asked our dealers to temporarily suspend sales of the 2010 GX 460,” Templin said.

The automaker said it would provide a loaner vehicle until a remedy is available to owners who are concerned.

The last time Consumer Reports concluded that a vehicle was “not acceptable” for consumers to buy was in 2001, when it warned consumers away from the Mitsubishi Montero Limited.

The warning also stands out because past endorsements from Consumer Reports have been credited as one reason for Toyota’s steady sales growth in the United States over the past 15 years.

“It certainly does no favors for Toyota and adds doubts in people’s minds as to the safety and reliability of Toyota vehicles,” IHS Global Insight analyst Aaron Bragman said.

Toyota has struggled under massive recalls due to defective sticky accelerator pedals and the potential for floor mats to entrap the accelerator. The sticky accelerator pedals also led to U.S. sales and production halts.

Another chink in Toyota’s armor

U.S. safety regulators have proposed a record $16.4 million fine against Toyota, the highest allowed, accusing the automaker of knowingly delaying a recall over the defective accelerator pedals and may seek more penalties. The recalls also sparked congressional hearings and numerous lawsuits.

The automaker’s U.S. sales fell 16 percent year-over-year in January and 9 percent in February before rising 41 percent in March under unprecedented incentives. Toyota has extended broad incentives and widened a maintenance offer into May.

Investigations continue into whether unintended acceleration, which Toyota has attributed to mechanical issues, also could have been caused by electronics issues.

Dennis Virag, president of the Automotive Consulting Group, said Toyota appears to have work to do on its software strategy to manage situations within the vehicle under normal or panicked driving situations.

“It is another chink in their armor and an indication that perhaps they do have software problems not only in this vehicle but in other vehicles as well,” Virag said.

Consumer Reports said the sliding its test drivers found in the GX 460 could cause rollover accidents resulting in serious injury or death. It said it knew of no reports of such accidents.

“CR is urging consumers not to buy the GX 460 until the problem has been fixed,” the magazine said in a statement.

Toyota has sold about 5,400 of the Lexus GX 460 SUVs in the four months since it has been on the market. The luxury SUV, which is based on the same platform as the Toyota 4Runner, starts at just over $50,000.

Consumer Reports said the vehicle’s electronic stability control did not intervene quickly enough to stop the vehicle from sliding out in a turn. When pushed to its limits, the rear slid out almost sideways before it regained control.

The magazine said the risk of a rollover accident in the GX 460 was significant because it is a tall SUV with a high center of gravity.

It said no other SUV had slid as far as the Lexus in its recent testing.

Chevrolet dealers who want to sell the Volt plug-in hybrid car will have to invest in staff training, tools and equipment.

John Hughes, Volt marketing manager, would not give details, saying dealers will be told this year. Chevrolet plans to begin selling the Volt by year end.

“Our retailers will have a training requirement and a tools and equipment requirement,” Hughes said last week at the New York auto show.

That could mean that some Chevrolet dealers don’t sell the Volt, he acknowledged.

GM began making Volts with production tooling last week at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant. Hughes said those initial vehicles will be used for testing, as were earlier models built by hand.

The Volt, unveiled at the 2007 Detroit auto show, is General Motors Co.’s attempt to solve the range problem of electric vehicles. GM says the car will travel 40 miles using an electric motor powered by a lithium ion battery, then use an internal combustion engine to recharge the battery.

The powertrain gives Chevrolet the opportunity to attract a new kind of customer, Hughes said. But it will require a major effort to educate consumers beyond electric-vehicle advocates who understand what GM calls its range-extended electric vehicle

In a set of Ford TV commercials scheduled to start Tuesday, owners of competing brand vehicles tout Fords after taking week-long test drives.

The campaign, called “Swap Your Ride,” runs through May 31, a spokesman for Ford Motor Co. said.

The campaign consists of more than a dozen TV spots featuring Mike Rowe, who hosts “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel and currently appears in Ford spots.

The last time Ford ran Swap Your Ride commercials was in 2007.

Ford wants dealers to support the national spots with regional advertising, said a source who saw the commercials. The source said that in one spot, Ford swaps a Fusion sedan with a Toyota Camry owner and an Escape crossover for a Honda CR-V.

General Motors Co.’s South Korean unit plans to recall about 60,000 units of the Chevrolet Cruze and Captiva in South Korea, the government and the company said on Sunday.

Without being more specific, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology officials said units of the Captiva and Cruze with the same defects would be recalled in overseas markets. The cars are sold in Europe and Russia.

“Every country has different rules and standards and each GM operation will decide the size and timing of recalls of those cars depending on their own situations,” a GM Daewoo official told Reuters by telephone, asking not to be identified.

GM Daewoo officials declined to comment on costs of the recall.

In South Korea, GM Daewoo will recall 45,957 Captiva SUVs, which are sold as the Winstorm, due to defects with the steering system, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said in a statement. The recall affects Captivas made between April 1, 2006 and Dec. 31, 2007.

The company also plans to recall 12,604 units of the Cruze compact sedan, which is sold as the Lacetti Premiere in Korea, due to defects with fuel supply pipes, the ministry said. The recall applies to cars produced between Sept. 25, 2009 and March 2, 2010.

This has gone on so much that I am at wits end. All sensors, ignition coil, fuel pump, fuel filter, and relays have been changed out. I was told to check for the hall effect but that is something that concerns a carborated engine and this one is fuel injected. Fuel pump relay is working as well. What would make the fuel pump shut down? If it stalls you can listen for the pump to kick in and after the 2nd time the car will start. I called a dealer but they want $166 just to look at it. IS there anyone who could and will help me as this is my only car? Thank you to all.

Response:

1) Get your ECM Checked.