It's a new day for the American automobile industry. In order to obtain loans from the federal government that were needed for immediate survival, the new Chrysler Corporation is now partially owned by Fiat SpA as part of an arrangement worked out in federal bankruptcy court. In similar court actions, New General Motors is now partly (temporarily) owned by the federal government. The United Auto Workers union is now part owner of both companies.

Earlier this year, AMG chiec Volker Mornhinweg declared the "war of horsepower" is over. This is a bit like Bob Dylan declaring there are no more songs to be written; if it's really true, he's got nothing left to do and we're all poorer for it.

Most people consider diagnostics the biggest challenge in automotive repair. This has been true since the days when a technician's diagnosis relied mostly on finely-tuned senses and years of experience. But unless it's a mechanical malfunction, the things we can see, hear or feel are not the most common clues on today's cars.

I just found an old photograph I shot in a museum. It shows a fuel injector protruding into the combustion chamber of a cutaway engine. Things I've seen and learned since that day have made this old picture tell a new story that explains how an old technology has come full circle.

The one thing we all want most from our job is the freedom to do it the way we think it should be done. Whether you're sweeping floors or running a multinational corporation, the one thing that provides more job satisfaction than anything else is the freedom to do things your own way. It's hard to imagine sticking with a job that denies at least a little bit of that freedom.

The automotive industry began phasing out lead wheel balance weights in 2003. Progress toward eliminating them completely has been uneven, but there is progress, and you should be seeing changes in your shop already.

During a recent trip to El Salvador, I got my first look at the automotive culture of an "emerging nation." The country is preparing to enter the world labor market, and though it has a very long way to go, things already are beginning to change. And where there are jobs, there are commuters.

It's time for this fall's ASE tests. I'll be taking some recerts, because even though I no longer make my living with tools, my certifications are valuable to me as a technical writer. That shouldn't be hard to understand, just as I understand why techs and shop owners value their certifications. But I wonder what your customers think about your certifications, if they think about them at all.

One of the more surprising things I learned was that almost every idea in automotive technology had been tried or at least described in drawings and patent applications by about 1915. Some ideas, such as the pneumatic tire (1887) and the electric starter (1912), worked out pretty well right away and are still in use today.