Dick Scott Automotive

Everything you thought you knew about car seats is wrong. Okay, not everything, but things have changed and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced new guidelines today. And it's big news! The recommendation is that children rear face longer and they also changed the details for kids in boosters.


More from The Stir: 7 Rules for Buying & Installing a Car Seat



It was believed that 1 year and 20 pounds was the benchmark for forward facing babies in car seats, despite evidence elsewhere that that was still dangerously early. Now, hopefully, with new guidelines, parents and doctors can get on board and spread the word about the safest practices for children. Here are the details.


New Rear-facing Recommendation: Parents are to keep children rear-facing until 2 years old, or until they reach the maximum height and weight for the seat as noted in the manual.


Safe Kids agrees. Two years is a goal easily met, considering even some of the lowest cost seats now rear-face until 40 pounds. When your baby outgrows their infant carrier, that is when you buy a convertible seat that rear-faces longer, not a forward-facing seat, which you can put upright up to 30 degrees when kids are bigger with better head control, often making them take up less space than infant seats.


New Boostering Recommendation: Children should ride in a belt-positioning booster (that means a high-back!) until they are at least 4 foot, 9 inches, AND 8-12 years old.


Jennifer Hoekstra, the Safe Kids Program Coordinator at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, shared:


In working with parents, we educate them beyond the law and share with them the best practice for keeping their child safe. We strongly agree with the new AAP policy and support the extended rear-facing limits as well as the new booster seat advice.


It's best to keep children in their harnessed seat until they outgrow it, which is into elementary years with the height and weight of most convertible seats and even harness-to-booster seats these days. But they will outgrow it and go into a booster, and eventually they need to meet all points in a 5-point test before they're ready to sit in a car's seat without a booster of any kind. Remember that these belts are designed to fit an average adult. Best practice is also waiting until children are 80-100 pounds as well.


More from The Stir: The Forward-Facing Car Seat Controversy Continued


Beyond that, all kids need to stay out of the front until they're at least 13 years old.


While 2 years or 8 years may now be the minimums, we don't parent by minimums, do we? Buying a high quality (not necessarily high cost!) seat to start, after you do all your research to choose the best seat for your child, can easily help you meet these recommendations.


Make sure you're using the car seats correctly, too. There's a lot of intricacies for both harnessed seats and boosters. When in doubt, find a Safe Kids inspection station or event and get checked out by a tech. And hopefully more and more pediatricians, with these new recommendations, will be on board as well, and we can maybe put an end to vehicle related-injuries being the number one cause of death in kids ages 2-14.

As read on: http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/aaps-new-car-seat-guidelines-change-rear-facing-booster-rules-2466904.html

Nissan's all-electric Leaf hatchback has only been on sale in the U.S. for the past 15 months, but Nissan has already confirmed it will get some much-needed upgrades for the 2013 model.

Speaking to The Detroit News yesterday, Mark Perry, director of product and advanced planning for Nissan Americas confirmed that the 2013 Leaf will get an improved heating system and an upgraded interior fitted as standard.

Although the electric-powered air heater found in the 2011/12 Leaf is adequate enough to keep the interior warm in all but the coldest of temperatures, its use comes with a caveat: a drop in range of as much as 30 miles.

As we've found in the past, sacrificing heat for range is hardly pleasurable.

Neither Nissan nor Perry has detailed how the heating system in the 2013 Leaf will be different, but we do know it will improve winter performance.

"You may not see much change on the EPA rating, but in cold-weather conditions you may see 20 to 25 miles of improvements," Perry promised, although it is important to note Nissan hasn't mentioned a change in either battery pack capacity or chemistry.

The other major improvements -- aside from the 6.6 kilowatt charger that Perry promised last year -- are focused on the car's interior.

When the Leaf launched, its white seats made from recycled plastic bottles may have been environmentally responsible, but not everyone liked them, Perry admitted.

"We were like, 'Ah, let's do the clean, green recycled materials.'" Perry said. But as Nissan soon found out, customers wanted other options, especially those with children or pets.

As a consequence, the 2013 Leaf will be offered with optional Leather seats, as well as a choice of light or dark interior trim.

At the moment, little else is known about the 2013 Leaf, except that it will be manufactured in the U.S. at Nissan's Smyrna plant in Tennessee.

Some analysts have suggested that the domestic manufacture of the Leaf will also help Nissan keep its price down, but Nissan has yet to confirm official pricing.

If you're considering a Nissan Leaf, we're keen to know if the latest announcement will delay your purchase decision.

Or perhaps you've been looking at other electric cars and now think the 2013 Leaf may meet your needs?

As read on: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1074273_2013-nissan-leaf-better-heater-leather-option-6-6-kw-charger

Dealer Concepts, a leader in providing innovative customer retention and marketing programs, today announced its partnership with Dick Scott Automotive Group of  Plymouth, Mich., to provide full-scale QR-code promotions at each of its dealer locations.

QR codes are a visual representation of a website address, YouTube video, Google Map, vCard, or links to social-media sites.  Dick Scott Automotive Group is one of Michigan's first dealers to support this technology with a full-marketing campaign.  Each Dick Scott location will feature banners, loyalty cards, T-shirts, and cut-out displays featuring their custom QR code.  The dealership also plans to display a 10?10 QR code outside its Plymouth location.  The QR codes will direct consumers back to Dick Scott's website for the latest offers and promotions.

"Since 70 percent of all phones sold today are Smart Phones, it makes good business sense for us to embrace this technology," said Nichole Scott, director of operations, Dick Scott Automotive.  "Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for our customers to have access to the latest discounts and specials.  QR codes are the perfect solution. We are very excited about this promotion and committed to making it a success."

Dick Scott selected marketing and retention leader Dealer Concepts as their partner for this project.  Dealer Concepts recently launched QR-etention? - a program that generates custom QR codes for automotive dealers.  QR codes can be featured on any marketing item, including Dealer Concepts' award-winning loyalty key tag.  The goal of the program is drive consumers to the dealer's website to help generate more leads, sales, service appointments and eventually more profits.

"Most dealers who use this technology just adapt black and white QR codes," said Andy Wolfe, managing partner, Dealer Concepts.   "Dealer Concepts takes it to the next level by branding a QR code for each specific dealer.  Dick Scott Automotive is one of the first dealers we know of to take advantage of this concept."

"There is energy and excitement again about the auto industry," continued Wolfe.  "All of that translates into what we're seeing at the dealership level.  Dealers are looking for new and innovative ways to attract and retain customers.  QR codes are the perfect solution -  it's a fun and cost effective way to drive traffic to your website and ultimately increase sales."

 

DEALER CONCEPTS, LLC

Founded in 2000, Dealer Concepts is operated by a staff with more than 85 years of combined experience in targeted marketing for automotive dealers.  The company provides innovative and timely customer retention and loyalty programs to more than 5,000 dealerships and service centers worldwide.  Dealer Concepts is committed to providing clients with a constant competitive advantage in the market place through products like the award winning Punch-A-Deal? Key Tag and Loyalty Rewards? software that currently has more than 18 million units in circulation.  To find out more about Dealer Concepts product and programs, please call 1-866-GET IDEAS or visit www.dealerconcepts.com.

 

DICK SCOTT AUTOMOTIVE GROUP

Dick Scott Automotive Group is a family-owned group of dealerships that includes Dick Scott Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Plymouth; Dick Scott Motor Mall in Fowlerville; Dick Scott Nissan and Dick Scott Classic Motorcycles in Livonia.  To find out more about Dick Scott Automotive Group visit www.dickscott.com.

As read on: http://dealer-communications.com/product-news/marketing-and-retention-leader-dealer-concepts-partners-with-dick-scott-automotive-group-for-qr-code-blitz/

Perhaps you'd be more willing to buy an electric car if you knew that you could sell those pricey batteries down the road.

Nissan and electric power company ABB yesterday announced a partnership to test the technical and commercial feasibility of repurposing used EV batteries for energy storage on the grid and in homes. ABB will work with a joint venture called 4R Energy (for reuse, refabricate, resell, recycle) created by Nissan North America and industrial conglomerate Suminoto to research secondary uses of EV batteries.

The partnership intends to make a prototype stationary lithium ion battery system with at least 50 kilowatt hours of stored energy, which is enough to supply 15 average homes for two hours.

Batteries are the most expensive component of an electric vehicle, costing several thousand dollars depending on the size. After 10 years of driving, automakers expect they will have about 70 percent of their original capacity, which will lower a car's range.

But the batteries are still workable for many energy storage applications, such as home batteries or buffering the distribution grid. Lithium ion batteries are well suited for delivering bursts of power on the grid for minutes or hours. That means they could be used to create a steady flow of power to consumers as more variable wind and solar power comes onto the grid, said Jochen Kreusel, global head of ABB's smart grid program.

ABB is already working with GM on a similar project to repurpose Chevy Volt batteries for energy storage.

In addition to the technical challenge of repackaging used batteries, the partnership will seek to answer whether the end stationary storage product is commercially viable. In the past few years, utilities in the U.S. have started to experiment with neighborhood energy storage systems to provide backup for a group of homes and relieve pressure on the grid during peak times.

As read on: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57361715-76/nissan-leaf-batteries-seek-second-life-as-home-storage/

Visit for more details on this All-New Pathfinder: http://www.nissanusa.com/all-new-pathfinder/

The Canton Chiefs are thinking about more than hockey this time of year.

Canton's varsity hockey club teamed up with Dick Scott Automotive and Toys for Tots to help make the holidays special for families around the metro-Detroit area.  During their Dec. 9 game against Novi at Arctic Edge Arena in Canton, the players, their families, and fans in attendance were encouraged to bring toys to donate to children in need.

"We understand the joy something like this can bring to a child's life, especially during these challenging economic times," said Canton coach Jeremy Majszak.

Dick Scott Automotive chipped in with $10 coupons for oil changes for every toy that was donated to the cause that night.

Majszak was also happy to see who else showed up with toys to help support the cause.

"All of our boys and all of our parents and some of the fans had brought [toys], and what was a real classy, really good thing - the Novi team also brought toys," Majszak said. "I think every single kid that got off that bus had a toy in their hand."

Cheryl Greenshields, a parent of one of the Canton players, initiated the event.

"That was something she said she would like to do," Majszak said.  "And of course, we had no problem doing that and wanted to so she set it up?it was really good to collect that many toys."

Coach Majszak feels that this is something Canton might do for years to come...

As read on: http://mihockeynow.com/2011/12/canton-chiefs-hold-toy-drive/#.TuoRlQT16ic.blogger

Canton Varsity Hockey and Dick Scott Automotive Group are teaming up with Toys for Tots in making the holidays a little brighter for local children in need. The team will be collecting new, unwrapped toys at the Canton vs. Novi game being held at the Arctic Edge Arena in Canton on Friday, December 9, 2011. Dick Scott Automotive Group will be providing $10 coupons towards an oil change for each donated toy.

Canton Varsity Hockey is proud to be collecting Toys for the Toys for Tots program. "We understand the joy something like this can bring to a child's life, especially during these challenging economic times," says Jeremy Majszak, Head Coach Canton Varsity Hockey. "The holiday season will no doubt be hard for some families. We want the children to have a nice Christmas. Canton hockey is so much more than just hockey. Together we can make a difference."

 

About Toys for Tots: Over the 62 years of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program, Marines have distributed more than 400 million toys to more than 188 million needy children. This charitable endeavor has made U. S. Marines the unchallenged leader in looking after less fortunate children at Christmas.

As read on: http://pcep.pccs.k12.mi.us/node/2446