I wonder… The year has just begun and heaps of car recalls have also started. On the month of January, Honda was the first car to get a review. The Honda Dream has to be recalled and it entails having to call back 1.2 million cars because of placing the wrong NHTSA’s telephone number on the printed manual that led callers to a sex phone service. Honda also recalled 1,397 vehicles in the U.S. that are having troubles affecting the safety of the cars.

Toyota also gets its pieces of share that almost 500,000 units of both the Tundra and Sequoia are going on a recall. According to the report, the cars have a problem with its wheels.

And now, Chevy will never let the month end without joining the bunch. GM’s Chevrolet Cobalt is now prepared to recall 98,707 units. The coupes do not pass the standards for occupant head protection. The recalls will focus on the Chevrolet Cobalt manufactured for the model years 2005-2006. The car does not have safety parts such as optional roof-mounted side impact airbags. However, there are no noted injuries and car accidents that go along with the reasons as to why they have to be recalled.

To resolve the problem, GM is now using safe Chevy parts like installing extra padding in the coupes which has been on the assembly line since last March. The same energy-absorbing plastic used will be placed to the headliner so that head protection will be improved for the 2005-2006 models.

For the owners of the particular Cobalt, you can call this hotline (800) 630-2438 for more assistance.

General Motors has laid down the red carpet at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit and let their products accompanied by some famous celebrities, including Hollywood stars Christian Slater and Vivica Fox. But the star who has drawn the attention of the crowd was the new Chevrolet Camaro Convertible. The Camaro features an aggressive look and classic sleek orange body paint along with dark grey stripes. The Camaro convertible also gets tonneau cover over the folded top, halogen headlamps, LED taillamps, rear spoiler with LED-lit CHMSL, racing-inspired fuel filler door, front-inlet hood scoop, and heritage-inspired rear fender gills. The Camaro Convertible is equipped with a powerful V8 engine couple with a manual transmission as a standar powertrain feature. The car rides on a 21-inch front and 22-inch rear five-spoke charcoal wheels.The Camaro’s interior gets a platinum-tone leather at the front seats along with Alcantara inserts and black sculpted seatbacks.

GM has already confirmed the production of the Chevrolet Camaro Convertible by 2009 so you better watch out for it. You can also try to look for quality Chevrolet Parts for replacement at your trusted online aftermarket shops.

Around 100 engineering students from the country’s top universities, who don’t let their schooling interfere with their education, trooped to the General Motors proving grounds in the outskirts of Mesa, Arizona as participants to this year’s edition of the GM-sponsored Challenge X.

With the temperature at the tarmac sputtering to 115 and the competition supposedly not granting any academic credits to the participants, it was some thing to see the young men and women get their hands dirty for a trifling accolade as winner of the Challenge X.

Now on its third year, the Challenge X competition seeks to explore clean and efficient automotive technologies. This year’s edition was billed as “Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility,” and presented by GM in collaboration with the academe and the US Department of Energy.

Challenge X puts 17 US universities to test in reengineering the Chevrolet Equinox, a crossover sports utility vehicle, to minimize energy consumption, emissions, and greenhouse gases while maintaining or exceeding the vehicle’s utility and performance.

GM supplied the teams with the vehicle for modification, threw in $10,000 seed money for each team, donated production parts such as engines and transmissions, provided engineering consulting for each team, competition facilities, operational support and $20,000 in prize money.

But there’s one caveat: with the increased fuel economy of the Chevrolet equinox, it must maintain the performance, utility, creature comforts and safety attributes consumers want. And, the vehicle’s total package has to be feasibly produced at a price that buyers wouldn’t walk away from.

List of participants include the Michigan Technological University, Mississippi State University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, San Diego State University, Texas Tech University, University of Akron, University of California, Davis, University of Michigan, University of Tennessee, University of Texas at Austin, University of Tulsa, University of Waterloo, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Virginia Tech, West Virginia University.

“If the Chevrolet Volt works as advertised,” the Chicago Tribune writes, “you can travel for weeks, if not months, without a drop of gasoline.” This ground-breaking Chevrolet concept, unveiled at the prestigious MoTown auto show, is poised to represent the future of alternative power technology on automobiles. Based on General Motor’s new Delta platform technology, the Chevy Volt is a four-door urban car that boasts of running up to 525 miles per gallon.

Different Volt versions that break cover in the Detroit auto show included one equipped with an electric motor, a battery pack and a generator souped up with 1.0-liter three-cylinder petrol engine, while another Volt had its motor replaced by a fuel cell, dramatically reducing the size of the battery pack. Both Volt versions are powered by GM’s E-Flex system. It seeks to fit in practical energy sources by combining electric motors, internal combustion engines and fuel cells in a common chassis to create different cars.

The E-Flex technology is designed to be altered to suit buyers’ specifications and what fuels are available locally. GM has unveiled E-Flex cars fitted with a generator equipped with a small engine setup and powered by ethanol, and is earmarked for Brazil market where ethanol is widely available.

“This is not a science fair project. We have quite some development under way,” said GM vice president for global program management Jon Lauckner. “Engineering development has been initiated.”

The Chevy Volt concept remains just that, however, a concept and is still to make it into production line. Plans for an all-electric car are being held back by a practical battery technology. A car charged purely by plugging it in to the mains requires pushing the envelope of battery technology that GM’s experts “don’t see yet.”

But, going by Chevrolet’s record of producing concept cars with little alterations, the odds are good that the Chevy Volt will soon usher in the dawn of alternative power technology on automobiles.