Current Events in August 2014

We get a lot of emails from readers who are under the impression that warranties and recalls will take care of just about any problem they may encounter, no matter how old or worn out their vehicle may be.

Case in point: "I bought a 2005 Buick Rendezvous at a car auction. I want to know if there are any recalls or ignition problems I should know about because it overheated on me and I needed a head gasket," someone named Debra asked today.

While a 2005 car is not all that old, any car that's purchased at auction is likely to be trouble. It's like picking up a stray dog off the street. It may turn out to be just fine but it's not wise to count on it.

On the other hand, there are certain problems that owners insist are candidates for a recall, even when the vehicles in question are a little long in the tooth. Take the brake lines on certain GM trucks. Truck owners say the brake lines are too quick to corrode, potentially causing the brakes to fail unexpectedly.

GM says it's up to truck owners to maintain their vehicles. 

"Brake line wear on vehicles is a maintenance issue that affects the auto industry, not just General Motors," GM spokesman Alan Adler said. "The trucks in question are long out of factory warranty and owners' manuals urge customers to have their brake lines inspected. In fact, more than 20 states require brake line inspections at one- or two-year intervals or when stopped for a violation."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been investigating reports of corrosion-related brake failure in 1999 through 2003 Silverado pickup trucks. NHTSA has received 890 consumer reports about the problem, 761 of them from cold-weather states that use salt to clear ice from roadways.

Issue ignites controversy

Truck owners like Joe Palumbo, who drives a 2004 Chevrolet Avalanche, are adamant in their insistence that GM should invest a few dollars more per truck to use stainless steel brake lines, which would in most cases last for the life of the truck. 

When he's not writing his blog, GM Unsafe Brakes, Palumbo carries on what amounts to a one-way correspondence with GM. His lengthy emails to GM CEO Mary Barra's office generally produce little more than a cursory response, like this one from Alyssa in the GM executive offices:

I wanted to let you know that I have received an update from our Technical Assistance team; I requested additional information to know if this is a known concern to GM. The information I received clearly explains it is not; however, there are pre-formed replacement brake lines that can be installed on your vehicle that meet higher quality standards than the originals.

After a thorough review of the information and conversations with the dealer and Executive panel, we would be unable to provide any financial assistance towards the repairs. This is due to the age of the vehicle, lack of dealership service records, and being outside of all factory warranties. We appreciate the opportunity to review this matter and hope you understand our position as it relates to the manufacturer’s obligation.

It goes without saying that this did not do much to satisfy Palumbo, who fired back the following detailed response:

I was NOT looking for any financial assistance (see how GM thinks?).  I wrote to Mrs. Barra to implore her support to have GM acknowledge and address a major safety issue with metal brake lines corroding/rusting to the point of a sudden and unexpected dangerous brake failure with the potential for serous and/or lethal injuries.  This is not about financial assistance for me - GM can keep their money.

Specifically, I would have liked the opportunity to ask Mrs. Barra and GM to recall all vehicles over 4 years old for a brake line inspection and replacement as needed, at no expense to GM customers.  Furthermore I would ask GM to extend the warranty on all their vehicles, now out of warranty, for 10 years or 100,000 miles against brake line failure due to rust through.  For those GM owners who had their brake lines replaced, they should be reimbursed,  Finally I would hope Mrs. Barra, recognizing the severity of brake line failure, would include metal brakes lines in their new vehicle rust through warranty.

You asked that I understand GM's position as it relates to the "manufacturer’s obligation."  Where is GM's obligation to produce safe vehicles for its millions of customers? GM continues to prove it is impotent in this regard because GM refuses to acknowledge the deadly seriousness of a metal brake line suddenly bursting gushing brake fluid all over the road.

"Lack of dealership service records".  Really?  In today's computer age?  All brake line replacements made on my 2004 Avalanche were performed at the same GM dealership - SUN GMC Buick in Moosic Pa.  If GM can't find their own records, it suggests GM is eliminating all footprints relating to this issue in the event the NHTSA, Congress and/or other legal bodies subpoena's GM's records.  Not to worry, I have all the paper copies.

Your statement "I requested additional information to know if this is a known concern to GM. The information I received clearly explains it is not; however, there are pre-formed replacement brake lines that can be installed on your vehicle that meet higher quality standards than the originals."  Please consider the following points in rebuttal;

A.  The preformed replacement brake lines “meet higher quality standards”??  That statement suggests the existing brake lines were of lesser quality.

B.   Mrs. Barra, CEO, acknowledged the brake line corrosion problem exists but she chose to ignore it.  Your spokesman Alan Alder said "brake lines rusting out in as soon as six years is a normal wear and tear issue."  I supplied the link supporting this in my original email to Mrs. Barra but apparently no one chose to read it.  It is included again here.

http://nlpc.org/stories/2014/06/11/mary-barra-denies-rusting-brake-lines-gm-trucks-serious-problem

C.  The NHTSA has already opened an investigation of corroding GM brake lines on 1999 to 2003 GM trucks.  GM is unaware of this investigation?  That link was supplied also in my email to Mrs. Barra.  It is here.

http://nlpc.org/stories/2014/05/08/another-nhtsa-gm-investigation-chevy-silverados-rusted-brakes

D.  Numerous consumer organizations and media outlets have reported the rusting brake line problem and how GM refuses to acknowledge this as a safety issue.  Clearly, GM doesn't want this major safety issue to see the light of day (like the ignition switch problem).  But for GM to say this is not a known concern is simply ludicrous.  Just take a look at what was found on the NHTSA database in this link - > http://nlpc.org/stories/2014/07/02/nhtsa-lists-1895-complaints-gm-brake-lines-gm-denies-problem.

E. Below are just a few of the recent stories that have been published indicating the safety ramifications of  corroding/rusting GM brake lines and they are quite well known - but apparently not to GM engineers.

GM truck owners say safety review has ignored brake-line corrosion issue - ConsumerAffairs

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/gm-truck-owners-say-safety-review-has-ignored-brake-line-corrosion-issue-070714.html

GM’s Rusting Brake Lines Don’t Make Cut in Record Recalls - Bloomberg News

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-07/gm-s-rusting-brake-lines-don-t-make-cut-in-record-recalls.html

G.M. Resists Recalling Trucks Over Brake Lines - NYTimes.com - NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/automobiles/gm-resists-recalling-trucks-over-brake-line-problem.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A14%22%7D

GM pushes back on calls for brake recall | WDIV-TV Detroit

http://www.clickondetroit.com/money/automotive/GM-pushes-back-on-calls-for-brake-recall/26851160

BTW Drew, how come my exhaust system on my 10 year old Avalanche is still all original but the most important safety system in my vehicle is not?  My exhaust system is exposed to the same environmental conditions as my brake lines.  Well it's because your engineers and designers used stainless steel for the exhaust system and cheap steel for the brake lines.

God forbid there comes a day when a major accident with deaths occur because a rusted GM brake line suddenly burst.  And when GM is asked - "how long have you known about this?" what will GM say?  It was not clearly of concern?  In case GM was not aware – Subaru recalled 660,000 vehicles for the same problem GM says is not of concern.  You can see that here;

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/subaru-recalls-660k-cars-for-brake-problems?icid=autos_5809

I have pursued this safety issue since 2009 and I will continue to pursue this serious safety issue through all legal, media, legislative and consumer organizations available to me.  

 At last word, Palumbo was once again waiting for a response. 

What the Federal Reserve survey wanted to know boils down to, “how ya doing?”

What U.S. families told the Fed is somewhat disturbing.

While over 60% of people responding said their families were either "doing okay" or "living comfortably" financially, one-fourth said that they were "just getting by" and another 13% said they were struggling to do so.

The report also found the effects of the recession continued to be felt by many households, with 34% reporting that they were somewhat worse off or much worse off financially than they had been five years earlier in 2008 and 34% reporting that they were about the same.

The American Dream

The outlook for the housing market among homeowners appeared generally positive. Many homeowners said they expect home prices in their neighborhoods to increase over the 12 months following the survey, with 26% expecting an increase in values of 5% or less and 14% expecting an increase in values of greater than 5%. Fewer than 10% of homeowners expected house prices in their neighborhoods to decline over the 12 months following the survey.

Many renters seemed to express an implied interest in home ownership The most common reasons cited by renters for renting rather than owning a home were an inability to afford the necessary down payment (45%) and an inability to qualify for a mortgage (29%). Ten percent of renters said they were currently looking to buy a home.

Retirement readiness

The survey results suggest that many households are not adequately prepared for retirement. Thirty-one percent of non-retired respondents reported having no retirement savings or pension, including 19% of those ages 55 to 64. Additionally, almost half of adults were not actively thinking about financial planning for retirement, with 24% saying they had given only a little thought to financial planning for their retirement and another 25% saying they had done no planning at all.

Of those who have given at least some thought to retirement planning and plan to retire at some point, 25% didn't know how they will pay their expenses in retirement.

The Great Recession pushed back the planned date of retirement for two-fifths of those ages 45 and over who had not yet retired, and 15% of those who had retired since 2008 reported that they retired earlier than planned due to the recession.

Among those ages 55 to 64 who had not yet retired, only 18% plan to follow the traditional retirement model of working full time until a set date and then stop working altogether, while 24% expected to keep working as long as possible, 18% expected to retire and then work a part-time job, and 9% expected to retire and then become self-employed.

The full Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households is available on the Federal reserve website.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today declared the Ebola outbreakin West Africa an international public health emergency demanding an "extraordinary" response.

With more than 1,000 known fatalities in West Africa, the WHO said the outbreak -- the worst in modern history -- is uncontained and spreading rapidly, and warned that:

• the Ebola outbreak constitutes an ‘extraordinary event’ and a public health risk to other states;
• the possible consequences of further international spread are particularly serious in view of the virulence of the virus, the intensive community and health facility transmission patterns, and the weak health systems in the currently affected and most at-risk countries.
• a coordinated international response is deemed essential to stop and reverse the international spread of Ebola.

The WHO recommended against a general travel ban but said all nations should maintain border surveillance to try to prevent the virus from spreading into their territories.

U.S. measures

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines for hospitals and other healthcare organizations but emphasized that the disease does not yet represent a "significant risk" to the U.S.

Questions & Answers

The CDC issues these questions and answers about Ebola:

What is Ebola?

Ebola virus is the cause of a viral hemorrhagic fever disease. Symptoms include: fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, lack of appetite, and abnormal bleeding. Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to ebolavirus though 8-10 days is most common.

How is Ebola transmitted?

Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected symptomatic person or through exposure to objects (such as needles) that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

Can Ebola be transmitted through the air?

No. Ebola is not a respiratory disease like the flu, so it is not transmitted through the air.

Can I get Ebola from contaminated food or water?

No. Ebola is not a food-borne illness.  It is not a water-borne illness.

Can I get Ebola from a person who is infected but doesn’t have any symptoms?

No. Individuals who are not symptomatic are not contagious. In order for the virus to be transmitted, an individual would have to have direct contact with an individual who is experiencing symptoms.

Q: Are there any cases of individuals contracting Ebola in the U.S.?

No.

What is being done to prevent ill passengers in West Africa from getting on a plane?

CDC is assisting with active screening and education efforts on the ground in West Africa to prevent sick travelers from getting on planes. In addition, airports in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are screening all outbound passengers for Ebola symptoms, including fever, and passengers are required to respond to a healthcare questionnaire.  CDC is also surging support in the region by deploying 50 additional workers to help build capacity on the ground.

What is CDC doing in the U.S.?

On the remote possibility that an ill passenger enters the U.S., CDC has protocols in place to protect against further spread of disease. These include notification to CDC of ill passengers on a plane before arrival, investigation of ill travelers, and, if necessary, isolation. CDC has also provided guidance to airlines for managing ill passengers and crew and for disinfecting aircraft. CDC has issued a Health Alert Notice reminding U.S. healthcare workers of the importance of taking steps to prevent the spread of this virus, how to test and isolate suspected patients and how they can protect themselves from infection.

What about ill Americans with Ebola who are being brought to the U.S. for treatment? How is CDC protecting the American public?

CDC has very well-established protocols in place to ensure the safe transport and care of patients with infectious diseases back to the United States. These procedures cover the entire process -- from patients leaving their bedside in a foreign country to their transport to an airport and boarding a non-commercial airplane equipped with a special transport isolation unit, to their arrival at a medical facility in the United States that is appropriately equipped and staffed to handle such cases. CDC’s role is to ensure that travel and hospitalization is done to minimize risk of spread of infection and to ensure that the American public is protected. Patients were evacuated in similar ways during SARS. 

What does the CDC’s Travel Alert Level 3 mean to U.S. travelers?

On July 31, the CDC elevated their warning to U.S. citizens encouraging them to defer unnecessary travel to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone over concerns that travelers may not have access to health care facilities and personnel should they need them in country.

In a way, perhaps Microsoft should take it as a compliment. Its Windows XP operating system, introduced a dozen years ago, is well-liked by enough users that they haven't upgraded. They didn't upgrade to Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.

But software companies don't make money if they don't keep improving technology and turning out new products. So back in April, after having extended the deadline once, Microsoft said it's done with XP, even if it sounds a little defensive about it.

“We support our older operating systems much longer than most other businesses in this industry, but we can’t keep supporting old operating systems and still move forward creating new and better products,” the company says on its website.

Move on

In other words, move on. Only a lot of people haven't. The most recent report from NetMarketShare, a technology analytics firm, shows Windows XP still commands nearly 25% of the PC operating system (OS) market.

That share has fallen sharply in the last year, and 3 months after Microsoft finally ended XP support, is only half of the Windows 7 market, but more than twice the number of those using Windows 8 and 8.1 combined. So who are these hold outs?

At the end of last month Adaptiva, a company providing software products, surveyed 100 attendees of the TechEd North America conference. Amazingly, 53% of the businesses that responded said they were still running XP in their organization.

New life for XP?

That's creating an opportunity for entrepreneurs to step in and offer potential solutions so users can keep XP running on their PCs. One such company is Prairie IT, a Colorado-based firm that is introducing a new product it says turns existing XP PCs into web-based cloud computers.

In a press release, the company says that some existing PCs are still working fine but can't be upgraded to run Windows 7 or higher. To continue to use them without Microsoft support, however, puts them at risk to viruses and hackers.

Since most PC usage is now web-based, whether accessing company portals, Google docs and apps, or other web-based apps, Prairie IT has created PrairieConnect, which takes an existing XP computer and runs it on the cloud.

"There are some 500 million XP computers still in use around the world,” said company founder Mark Oman. “They all have to be upgraded to a new solution or face the ever growing onslaught of hackers and viruses. PrairieConnect is that solution, transforming those aging computers into useful, productive tools for your business or organization."

Free trial

Oman said Prairie IT created the product for its internal use before realizing it might have appeal to other XP holdouts. A free trial download is available at the company's website. The cost is $10/seat with no requirement for a seat license.

You can probably expect others to jump in with additional products and services designed to extend the useful life of Windows XP. Meanwhile, Microsoft is doing its best to encourage consumers to let go of the past.

“In the past 12 years you’ve probably gotten a new phone, maybe a new TV, and possibly even a new car. Maybe it’s time for a new PC too, so you can make sure you have more memory and storage, faster processing speeds, and a higher-quality display (some even come with touch),” its website pleads. “And they’re less expensive than you might think.”

But it's very possible that money is the sticking point, not a particular love of Windows XP. In a tight economy, consumers as well as businesses may be tightening their belts, getting every last ounce of usage out of the products they buy.

Fair Isaac is about to get a little less unfair, as the formula used to calculate people's FICO scores is being revamped to reduce the impact of medical debt and old bills which have been paid off.

FICO stands for Fair Isaac and Company, a financial/analytical company whose primary customers are banks, credit-card companies and other financial entities.

Your personal FICO score is supposed to help lenders know how likely you are to actually pay back any money you might borrow. The higher your FICO score, the greater your perceived creditworthiness and (in general) the lower the interest rate you'll be charged for any loans or financial services you take out, anything from credit cards to wireless-phone plans to your home mortgage.

It's not too much of an oversimplification to say “The way FICO works is, if you don't pay your bills your score goes down, especially if those unpaid bills make it to a collection agency.”

Glaring problems

In many cases this makes perfect sense. If, for example, someone has the regular habit of maxing out credit cards, buying things on store credit and rarely paying those bills on time, chances are that someone isn't very good at handling money, and is a poor risk to repay any funds you might lend them.

But, critics of FICO said, there were two glaring problems with this measurement scheme, with medical debt being the biggest one. The current FICO system makes no distinction between, for example, discretionary debt purchases versus medical emergencies not covered by insurance: it figures debt is debt, so where your personal creditworthiness (read: trustworthiness) is concerned, it doesn't matter if you're $50,000 over your head because you or your spouse had an expensive medical emergency, or $50,000 in the hole because you keep putting luxury vacations on your credit card — the same stigma of financial recklessness clings to you either way, and you'll still be charged higher interest rates as a result.

Under the new plan, medical debt still counts against your FICO score, but will have less weight – if unpaid medical debt is the only black mark against your credit rating, your FICO score could rise by as much as 25 points.

The second problem involves any sort of debt (medical or otherwise) that goes unpaid long enough to go to a collection agency, but is then paid off in full. Under the current FICO system, that debt still drags your credit score down for seven full years after it's been paid off, but once the new calculations come into play, those paid-off debts will no longer count against your score.

The new revised FICO scores are expected to come into use sometime this fall. If you're thinking of applying for a car loan or home mortgage, signing up for a new cell phone plan, or engaging in any other financial transaction where you must pay interest, and your FICO score currently has black marks due to already-paid-off debt or currently unpaid medical bills, try holding off on that loan for another couple of months, until the new FICO scores come into use: you might qualify for a higher score and a better interest rate then.

There's mildly good news for Gmail users trying to reduce the number of spam messages they get: Google is moving any “Unsubscribe” links from the bottom of email messages to the top.

Google announced this change in a publicly available Google+ post on Aug. 6:

Email is a handy way to get updates from your favorite brands, social networks, discussion boards and more. But sometimes you end up subscribed to lists that are no longer relevant to you, and combing through an entire message looking for a way to unsubscribe is no fun.

Both statements are completely true: email genuinely is a handy way to get updates from your favorite brands, etc., and combing through an entire message looking for a way to unsubscribe is no fun. Google is 100% correct about that.

Needle in a bitstack

Come to think of it, combing through entire messages looking for anything is no fun. For example: do you remember last April, when Google changed its service and privacy policies for the nth time, this time to explicitly say that yeah, if you use Gmail your writings will be scanned for various purposes, including advertising?

In order to discover these changes, all the average Gmail user (or consumer-journalist investigating Google's policy change du jour) had to do was visit Google's Privacy Policy page (which, you'd think, is where they'd discuss such privacy-related issues as “Are we or aren't we scanning your email content”), read through all 2,049 words there (according to my word processor's word-count function) in order to determine that none of those words say anything about scanning or analyzing email content one way or the other, then click the link to Google's Terms of Service page and scroll down or read though the first 849 words written there until you finally get to the part where it says “Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.”

Nope, combing through an entire enormous eye-glazing pile of unwanted words in search of the one small bit you actually want is no fun at all. It's nice to know that Google empathizes with this, though.

Anyway, Google's Gmail-change announcement goes on to say:

Now when a sender includes an “Unsubscribe” link in a Promotions, Social or Forums message, Gmail will surface it to the top, right next to the sender address. If you’re interested in the message’s content, it won’t get in the way, and if not, it’ll make it easier to keep your inbox clutter-free.

That's great! (By the way: if you use any other email service where the unsubscribe links remain hidden down at the very bottom of your messages, you can make use of your browser's “Find” function: click on “Find,” type in the word “unsubscribe,” and if the word does appear anywhere in your email, you'll immediately be taken to the first appearance of it.)

Google ended its Google+ announcement by saying:

Making the unsubscribe option easy to find is a win for everyone. For email senders, their mail is less likely to be marked as spam and for you, you can now say goodbye to sifting through an entire message for that one pesky link.

Goodbye, sifting through an entire message for that one pesky link (provided of course the message is in Gmail, rather than about Gmail and lurking somewhere in the dense word thickets of Google's posted online policies, terms and conditions)! 'Twas nice knowing you.

Hyundai will pay $17 million for being slow to report a brake defect to federal regulators. The defect in 2009-2012 Hyundai Genesis vehicles involves corrosion in critical brake system components that can result in reduced braking effectiveness and increase the risk of a crash.

"Safety is our top priority, and all automakers should understand that there is no excuse for failing to report a safety-related defect, as required by law," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "This Administration will act aggressively and hold automakers accountable when they put the American public at risk."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that Hyundai had been aware in 2012 that brake fluids used in the Genesis did not sufficiently inhibit corrosion in key components of the vehicle’s brake system.

“Hyundai remains committed to making safety our top priority, and is dedicated to ensuring immediate action in response to potential safety concerns including the prompt reporting of safety defects,” David Zuchowski, CEO of Hyundai Motor America, said in a prepared statement.  

Service bulletin

Rather than issue a recall, Hyundai instructed dealers to change the brake fluid in affected vehicles without explaining the consequences of failing to change the brake fluid. Hyundai also did not inform Genesis owners of the potential safety consequences. Hyundai finally issued a recall of the affected vehicles in October 2013 as a result of a NHTSA investigation.

While there have been no fatalities relating to this safety defect, six consumers reported collisions, including two reports of injuries, NHTSA said. As of January 14, 2014, Hyundai had received 87 consumer complaints about Genesis vehicles, most of which suggest increased difficulty in braking.

"Federal law requires automakers to report safety-related defects to NHTSA within five days, and neither NHTSA nor the American public will accept anything less," said NHTSA Acting Administrator David Friedman. "Hyundai failed to act to protect their customers and others that were harmed in an accident, and must change the way they deal with all safety related defects."

As part of a consent order, Hyundai has agreed to make improvements to its processes for identifying, reporting, and communicating safety-related defects in a timely manner. 

After struggling with tarmac delays, flight cancellations and late arrivals in May, air travelers enjoyed a pretty good June.

There were NO reported tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights and only one of more than four hours on an international flight that month, according to the Transportation Department's (DOT) latest Air Travel Consumer Report.

During May, the airlines reported 4 tarmac delays of more than 3 hours on domestic flights and 1 tarmac delay of more than 4 hours on an international flight.

Also during June, the 14 airlines that file their on-time performance data with DOT reported that 71.8% of their flights arrived on time in June, virtually the same as for June 2013 but worse than the 76.9% mark in May 2014.

The consumer report also includes information on cancellations, chronically delayed flights, and the causes of flight delays, as well as data on airline bumping, mishandled baggage reports filed by consumers with the carriers, and consumer service, disability, and discrimination complaints. Reports of incidents involving the loss, death, or injury of pets traveling by air, are also included.

The full report is available on the DOT website.

Regeneca Worldwide of Las Vegas, Nev., is recalling its RegeneSlim appetite control dietary supplement from lot # EX0616R15814 and lot #11414RE5516.

FDA analysis has confirmed the presence of DMAA, which can narrow blood vessels and arteries, which can cause a rise in blood pressure or other cardiovascular problems such as shortness of breath, arrhythmias, tightening in the chest, and heart attack.

There have been no illnesses reported to date.

RegeneSlim is packaged in approximately 3 ½” by 3” green and white sachets that contain 2 capsules, with the name RegeneSlim displayed prominently on the front of the sachet. The product is purchased by and distributed through a direct sales force within the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and through online sales, for both personal consumption and retail sales.

Consumers who have purchased the recalled product should immediately stop using it and return it to the place of purchase for a full exchange.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-949-281-2600 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. PDT.   

Volkswagen Group of America is recalling 18,526 model year 2009 Routan vehicles.

Road conditions or some other jarring event may cause the ignition switch to move out of the run position, turning off the engine.

If the ignition key inadvertently moves into the OFF or ACCESSORY position, the engine will turn off, which will then depower various key safety systems including, but not limited to air bags, power steering and power braking. Loss of functionality of these systems may increase the risk of crash and/or increase the risk of injury in the event of a crash.

This defect also can affect the safe operation of the airbag system. Until this recall is performed, customers should remove all items from their key rings, leaving only the ignition key. The key fob (if applicable), should also be removed from the key ring.

Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will modify the ignition switch, free of charge. The recall was expected to begin in August.

Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1- 800-822-8987. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 28G1/U8.  

As previously noted, the housing market has cooled in recent months as Millennials have been slow to jump into home ownership. Young people usually make up the lion's share of first-time buyers but that category has been getting older lately. And maybe a slower approach is not a bad thing.

Like many things today, buying real estate is more complicated and more costly than it used to be. The purchase price is not the only cost – it's only the start. So knowing exactly what you're getting into by purchasing a home is not a bad idea.

The purchase price is a good starting point, however. It helps you to begin to narrow down your choices.

How much can you afford?

The U.S. Census Bureau suggests that consumers should not pay more than 30% of household income on housing costs. If your household earns $4,500 a month, your housing costs should not go over $1,350.

What if the house you want to buy costs $175,000 – can you swing that on $4,500 a month and still stay within the 30% rule? Let's see.

First, how much will you be putting up as a down payment? This is critical to your monthly payment.

Most lenders of conventional mortgages would like to see 20% down, which would come to $35,000. Many first time buyers, especially those just starting families, don't have that kind of cash lying around. But for the moment, let's assume they do.

Figuring the payment

Financing $140,000 at a fixed rate at today's prevailing rates over 30 years gives you a principal and interest payment of around $675 a month. Not bad. But we're not done.

The lender is going to require a homeowner's insurance policy on the property to protect its investment. It will also make sure that you pay local real estate taxes so that your property isn't seized at a tax auction.

Depending on where the property is located that can add around $150 to the monthly payment, pushing it up to $825 a month. To make sure it's paid each month, the lender will maintain an escrow account, paying the taxes and insurance premium for you.

The principal, interest, tax and insurance that make up your monthly payment are referred to as PITI, and it's the basic cost of homeownership. But there will likely be other costs.

Mortgage insurance

If you are unable to make a down payment of at least 20%, the lender will probably require you to take out private mortgage insurance (PMI), to protect them in case you default. That premium is added to your monthly payment.

If you take out an FHA loan and make a down payment of 3.5%, your down payment is much lower – $6,125 – but your principal and interest is higher each month, $806.

Using a PMI calculator, you determine that the monthly PMI payment will be $162. Add in the $150 for taxes and insurance and your monthly payment is now around $1118.

If the home is a townhouse or condo, it will likely have a home owners association (HOA) fee, anywhere from $125 a month on up. Assuming it's on the low end, our payment is now approaching $1250 a month, just within our 30% cut-off.

Closing costs

Of course, we haven't talked about closing costs. When a buyer and seller come together to transfer ownership of property, there are costs involved.

These costs vary from state to state but an analysis by Bankrate.com finds these costs are going up, just about everywhere. They rose 6% over the past year and now average $2,539 on a $200,000 loan. Origination fees increased 9% to $1,877 and third-party fees rose one percent to $662.

"New mortgage regulations are the biggest reasons why closing costs went up over the past year," said Holden Lewis, senior mortgage analyst, Bankrate.com. "The good news is that some lenders have not increased fees. To get the best deal, consumers should compare good faith estimates from at least three different lenders."

More importantly, take closing costs into consideration when deciding how much you can afford to pay for a home. Unless you can persuade the seller to pay all closing costs, you will need to come up with that money – in addition to the down payment – at settlement.

With rising rents, buying a home can be a smart move. But it's also a big commitment. You probably won't be able to sell and move on in a couple of years, unlike during the recent housing boom when prices quickly escalated.

The bottom line -- don't buy until you're ready and you can afford it.

According to some presumptive-genius ad executive at Nine West I can go barefooted the rest of my life, since I'm married and don't have kids.

Seriously. Nine West (a shoes-and-accessories company whose slogan is not “High heels at high prices,” but it should be), revamped its website to appeal to the modern American shoe-buying woman and the two “Shoe Occasions” in her lifetime: “Starter husband hunting” and “First day of kindergarten.”

That's the complete list. Starter husband hunting and the first day of kindergarten are the two occasions for which Nine West thinks your typical contemporary American woman might buy their shoes. Graduation? Job interview? Landing that promotion? Any of the thousand and one other reasons a woman might want (or even need) a decorative new pair of shoes?

Nope, because according to the deep thinkers at Nine West there aren't 1,001 reasons for a woman to buy their shoes, only two: one pair of do-me pumps to snag yourself a Man and then, at least five years and nine months later, a second pair of shoes to wave Junior off to his first day of kindergarten.

Husband-hunting tip, courtesy of Nine West: “Go get em' [sic] tiger. Whether you're looking for Mr. Right or Mr. Right Now … we got a shoe for that.” If the term “Mr. Right” is all-encompassing, that suggests you should also consider Nine West once you're ready to trade in your “starter” husband for a more deluxe model.

(Note to the ladies: if you want to snag a husband who's also a hot-n-sexy grammarian, the way Barbara Stanwyck did in the 1941 comedy Ball of Fire, [admittedly old-fashioned by circa-2014 standards, but right up Nine West's alley], bear in mind that last bit of encouragement should have read “Go get 'em tiger” with the apostrophe in front of the “em” to indicate the replacement of missing letters: 'em in lieu of them. You should also know this if you want to be a grammarian yourself, or any other type of college professor or professional-type person ... but in that case you lack "Shoe Occasion" and there's no need for you to patronize Nine West, no matter how much they patronize you.)

Dry those tears

And what about “First Day of Kindergarten?” Nine West says: “The bus arrives and so do the waterworks. Then it hits you: Mommy now has the weeks off. Wipe those happy-sad tears … we got a shoe for that.”

My neighbor is going to be ecstatic when she finds out that after her kid starts kindergarten next month, she'll have the weeks off and nothing to do but prance around in Nine West stilettos all day. I almost stopped typing this long enough to run next door and give her the good news, but then I remembered: she's not home now, and won't be for several hours yet because she's at work, tending to the job she holds to earn money, pay off her college loans and support her family. Does Nine West “got a shoe for that?” None that I could find on their website.

The first person to walk out in front of my Chevrolet Volt today was a gentleman cutting quickly through a parking lot behind a medical building. The second was a fellow spraying weeds along the road.

The fellow in the parking lot was never aware of my presence, as far as I could tell. I had been creeping along looking for a parking place, which prevented his becoming embedded in the windshield. 

The gent with the weed sprayer panicked as I came upon him after rounding a blind curve. He spun around and doused the front of the Volt with Roundup before diving into the weeds -- a nice gesture but not really necessary as I had already stopped.

After eight months or so behind the wheel, I have become acutely aware of the Volt's propensity for sneaking up on pedestrians and bicyclists. There is a special horn -- it makes an ooga-ooga sound -- intended to alert pedestrians but I find the the brakes a more foolproof method of avoiding accidents.

Another drawback I've found with the Volt is that it only seats four passengers, thanks to the space taken up by the 435-pound battery pack. Admittedly this is two more than the Porsche 911 that was my previous daily driver but it still comes up short on occasion.

This failing, however, will apparently be remedied in the next generation Volt, scheduled to creep silently into showrooms in late 2015, according to GM marketing officer Tim Mahoney, quoted in today's Automotive News. 

Mahoney said the next-generation Volts will have a fifth seat in the rear, though if so, the rear-seat passenger will either have to be very short or the design of the rear hatchback will need some major revision. Someone is already looking into this, no doubt.

The current luggage area is hardly worth discussing. It looks to be about the right size for a small dog. But when we put our pug Tater there for a short ride, the sunlight pouring in through the large rear window threatened to melt him down into his base elements. 

A gas-free year

The two areas in which the Volt excels are fuel economy and performance. I buy gas so seldom that I have a hard time remembering where the gas cap release button is. In warm weather, a full battery charge is good for 40 miles or more, which means I can go for weeks without ever burning a drop of fuel. I have gassed up only nine times in about nine months.

On a few trips from Northern Virginia to New York and New Jersey, the Volt averaged about 35 miles per gallon when running on the gas engine. These are hard miles on I-95 and the New Jersey Turnpike -- high speeds, sudden stops and last-minute maneuvers. Not for timid drivers or wimpy cars. 

Lifetime fuel economy so far, according to the onboard computer and my calculations is about 81 miles per gallon. This doesn't count the electricity consumed, of course, but our household electricity usage continues to be less than it was the previous year so the Volt is hardly putting us in the poor house. Incremental Volt usage is undetectable using the 220-volt Bosch charger, which puts the mojo back into the battery in four hours or less.

The car's performance is outstanding. It has excellent acceleration, accurate handling and braking that has saved the day on more than one occasion. Unlike other hybrids I've road-tested, it's actually fun to drive.

Unplugged in Jersey

Of course, there are some consumers who routinely drive long distances and spend nights away from home. The Volt might not be for them, simply because there aren't all that many places to plug it in.

It's surprising that hotels that have no shame charging $15 or more for parking make no accommodation for electric cars that would use less than $1 worth of kilowatt hours to charge up each night. 

Last time I was at the Hilton Doubletree in Jersey City, the bellman was speechless when I asked if there was a place to plug in the Volt. In fairness, there was something of a language barrier in the mix. 

But for a daily commute of 40 miles or less, the Volt is ideal. The Bosch charger that GM recommends is easy to use and costs just a few hundred dollars. Installation requires a professional electrician and dealing with Bosch requires extreme patience. The company may be technologically adept but their sales and service is back in the buggy-whip era. 

Sales still slow

Sales of the Volt have been disappointing -- with only 65,000 sold since it went on sale in December 2010 -- and GM is hoping the forthcoming changes will put some tiger in the Volt's tank.

Besides the third seat, the next Volt will have a smaller gas engine -- a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder version instead of the current 1.4-liter four-cylinder plant, Automotive News quotes sources as saying.

Is this a good thing? Hard to say. Remember that the car always runs on electricity. When the battery is charged, it provides the juice. When it's depleted, the gas engine kicks in and acts as a generator. There is no discernable difference in performance between the two modes.

I seldom hear my gas engine rev up, meaning that it generates ample electricity at relatively low engine speeds. It may be that there won't be a substantial performance difference with the smaller engine. There's no tachometer so it's not possible to measure how fast the gas engine is turning over.

In an interesting aside, GM says that nearly 70% of buyers who trade in another vehicle for a Volt are coming out of non-GM brands, the majority of them Toyota Prius hybrids.

Having driven a Prius, I can understand this. The Volt feels like a big, powerful sports sedan while the Prius feels like an underpowered hybrid with numb steering and brain-dead handling. The Tesla no doubt leaves the Volt in its dust but otherwise, GM's entry is the clear leader in the electric car derby.

If you're looking for a place to live you already know to be on guard againat “rental scammers” or “landlord scammers” – thieves who fraudulently collect rental deposits on houses they don't own.

The typical rental scam usually works like this: the thief visits a genuine real estate website offering places for sale or rent; copies the photos, addresses and other information from various listings; then use this to put up a convincing-looking listing, usually on Craigslist or some other local-based classifieds board.

Earlier this summer we told you about a few rental scammers who most likely operate from overseas; I personally once answered a rental ad in good faith and immediately recognized a scam when the “landlord” wrote back to say he's currently doing Christian missionary work in China, but if I wire him the deposit money there he'll get the keys to me.

Incidents like that explain why we warn prospective renters to always meet the would-be landlord or rental agent face to face; never try renting from someone with whom you only ever have remote contact.

“Always meet face to face” is an important anti-scam rule but it's not the only rule, and it wasn't enough to protect the victims of Gino Eckstein, the 21-year-old San Francisco man and alleged rental scammer who was arrested this week on suspicion of residential burglary, possession of stolen property, renting property under false pretenses and identity theft.

Stolen sign

Eckstein allegedly stole the “For Sale” sign off the lawn of an actual house for sale in the city of Hercules, then put up a Craigslist ad offering the house for rent. The San Francisco Gate said that an unnamed woman and would-be victim first let police know about his scam, after she answered the Craigslist ad and met Eckstein at the house.

Eckstein introduced himself as “Eric Stegner,” and said he was managing the property for his father. He showed the woman into the house (hence the burglary charge), gave her a credit application and asked for a $1,500 deposit in cash or a cashier's check.

(That, incidentally, violates another important anti-scam rule: never trust anyone who demands payment via cash, a prepaid money card or any other anonymous, untraceable form. Legitimate and trustworthy landlords don't avoid leaving a financial paper trail of their interactions with tenants.)

The woman agreed to give “Stegner” the deposit money at a later date. Luckily, before making any payments she spoke to a real-estate-agent friend of hers, who told her that house was actually for sale, not for rent. (Indeed, the real owner had accepted a sale offer on the very day she toured the house as a renter.) The woman called the police and helped them catch Eckstein by agreeing to meet him back at the house to hand over the deposit payment.

Hercules police think there might be other victims cheated by Eckstein's rental scam, and are actively looking for anyone who answered a Craiglist rental ad and spoke to an “Eric Stegner” about renting a house.

It will soon be back-to-school time and teens will be exhorted to practice safe driving habits -- to hang up the phone, forget about texting, wear seat belts and so forth.

But a new survey by Liberty Mutual Insurance Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) finds that parents are often the biggest offenders -- and says that teens speak up about their parents’ risky driving behaviors but parents don’t always listen.

“While parents may think they’re setting a good example for their teens, these findings suggest that some parents engage in unsafe driving habits more often than they might admit,” said Dave Melton, driving safety expert with Liberty Mutual Insurance and managing director of global safety. “Research shows that teens often replicate their parents’ poor driving behaviors, so it’s critical for the safety of everyone on the road that parents be a model for responsible driving whenever they are behind the wheel.”

Parents’ behavior

According to the survey, parents actually admit to engaging in many of the same dangerous -- and in some cases, illegal -- driving behaviors that they warn their own children against, often at alarmingly high rates:

• Talking on cell phone while driving: 86%
• Speeding: 80%
• Texting and driving: 40%
• Driving after consuming alcohol: 34%
• Driving without a seat belt: 21%

The data also reveals that the majority (83%) of teens say their parents engage in unsafe driving behaviors with them in the car, sometimes at higher rates than their parents like to admit. For example, 58% of teens say they have witnessed their parents texting and driving, and 41% have observed their parents driving without a seat belt.

Teens speak up

Teens are not only taking note of their parents’ risky driving behaviors, they are making concerted efforts to change them. Of the teens surveyed, 60% report they have asked their parents to put an end to dangerous driving habits, with texting and driving being the most common concern among teens (42%).

Similarly, the majority of parents admit that their teens are speaking up:

• 40% say their teen has asked them to stop driving without a seat belt;
• 33% say their teen has asked them to stop texting and driving;
• 26% say their teen has asked them to stop speeding; and
• 23% say their teen has asked them to stop posting social media updates while driving.

According to the survey data, parents may not be taking these requests to heart. While the majority (84%) of parents say they change their driving behaviors when asked, nearly half (41%) of teens report that parents do not.

The Jetsons started it. The culture of flying cars and facial recognition to open doors. Now we have facial recognition for dogs. Actually the process of facial recognition is to aid in finding lost dogs. Finding Roveris an app that will help expedite the process if you should lose track of your dog.

Here's how it works: With a smartphone, you take a front-facing image of your dog that has a clear shot of its eyes and nose -- the two most important features the facial recognition technology uses to identify the animal.

Once the photo is approved, Finding Rover keeps the pet's file in its system. When a lost dog is located, the person who found it can then use the app to snap a photo, and Finding Rover scans its database to see if a match is made.

So far San Diego is the first to use the technology in the shelter intake process. Every dog that comes in gets its picture taken and it's then matched up in the Finding Rover database.

Happy endings

Finding Rover founder John Polimeno wants to expand the photo database to improve the odds of more happy endings, More shelters across the country are soon signing on. He's also showing it to rescue groups, veterinarians and dog groups and is visiting other countries.

The technology powering Finding Rover was built by Steven Callahan and John Schreiner of the University of Utah's software development center. They found the eight markers on dogs are far fewer than the 128 points on the human facial recognition program.

According to Callahan, dogs' eyes and snouts are in different places. People though, he said are sort of uniform -- the shape of their faces, skin tones, all their eyes, noses and mouths are in the same general place.

This is one of many apps to help find a lost pet. There are also alarms, microchips, scanning on a collar and of course the old fashioned way of putting up signs in the neighborhood, but if it's one more way to bring back your 4 legged best friend its worth a try.

You can register on your iPhone or Android. 

Supplement sales are booming in the U.S. as consumers become more health conscious. Supplements been around since the early 1940s, when drug makers started marketing multivitamin/mineral supplements (MVM). Vitamins are still big sellers but consumers now have a wider choice of supplements. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. supplement salestotaled $30 billion in 2011.

Among the latest supplements competing for consumer dollars are enzyme supplements, marketed to aid digestion. Your body naturally produces enzymes, whose job it is to break down food so that it can be digested.

Some enzymes called amylases break down starches into sugar molecules. Others, called proteases, convert proteins into amino acids. The enzymes known as lipases break down fat.

Digestive problems

Consumers who have digestive problems, or don't think their bodies produce a sufficient amount of enzymes, are providing a huge market for enzyme supplements. And these products are not cheap.

According to Berkley Wellness, a publication of the University of California Medical School, one best-selling supplement called Vitalzym, a combination of enzymes, costs about $40 a month. Are these pills worth it?

Dr. Brent Bauer, director of the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program, says it's hard to really know.

Lack of testing

“A huge challenge with dietary supplements is that most haven’t been tested as most drugs are,” Bauer said. “We have a lot of information, but we don’t have definitive information. So our patients hear a lot of positive things, but they do not always hear the negatives or the side effects.”

Bauer says the Mayo Clinic is taking a closer look at enzyme supplements, taking a very evidence-based approach.

“We don’t want to say no, there’s no reason to ever take an over-the-counter enzyme,” he said. “By the same token, we don’t want to just rush out and buy it because we heard somebody say something positive on TV.”

Medical needs

Some people may actually need more enzymes. If a patient’s pancreas isn’t working, for example, that patient may need to take a medically prescribed enzyme supplement.

“That’s a little different story from a healthy person who wants to use over-the-counter bromelain, or papain — the enzymes that come from the pineapple and the papaya — or trypsin, or chymotrypsin,” Bauer said.

Older consumers appear to be the biggest users of enzyme supplements. They value them to help with many of the effects of getting holder – more indigestion, bloating and even inflammation.

Years ago enzyme supplements were touted for their supposed anti-cancer properties. These claims are sometimes still made today, though Bauer says there simply isn't enough evidence to prove or disprove the claims.

Side effects not an issue

And what about side effects? Unless you are taking hand fulls of pills at a time, there aren't very many.

“Some people get gastrointestinal upset or some irritation,” Bauer said. “So I’ll have that conversation with my patients: If they want to try enzymes, I want them to understand the risks, the potential benefits, the limited amount of evidence.”

He also urges his patients who want to try enzymes to do so for a short trial period of 2 to 3 weeks. If it's not working, he says, they should stop taking it.

There are cases where a consumer should not take an enzyme. For example, bromelain, the enzyme from the pineapple, may have anti-platelet activity.

“So for people taking blood thinners or who have anti-platelet activity, theoretically there could be increased risk of bleeding” Bauer said. “For children with cystic fibrosis, there have been a couple of bad adverse reactions where those taking prescription enzymes can get a bad colon disorder called fibrosing colonopathy.”

And what are consumers to make of the advertising claims about these products? Take them with a grain of salt, Bauer advises. Remember that there is no scientific research to back them up.

If you are thinking about an enzyme supplement, it's best to discuss it with your doctor first.

Fast-food restaurants take a lot of blame for the U.S. obesity epidemic but a new study weighs in with the news that eating out -- period -- piles on the calories, sugar, saturated fat and sodium.

The study, appearing online in Public Health Nutrition, finds that on days when adults ate at a restaurant -- fast-food or full-service -- they consumed about 200 additional total daily calories.

"The United States is one of the most obese nations in the world, with more than one in three adult men and women in defined as obese," said Dr. Binh Nguyen of the American Cancer Society. "Just as obesity rates rise, there's been a marked increase in total energy consumption consumed away from home, with about one in four calories coming from fast food or full service restaurants in 2007. Our study confirms that adults' fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption was associated with higher daily total energy intake and poorer dietary indicators."

For the current study, Nguyen and Lisa M. Powell of the University of Illinois at Chicago used recent data from more than 12,000 respondents between the ages of 20 and 64 taking part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003 (NHANES). Participants were asked about visits to fast-food and full-service restaurants on two successive days.

The study found on days when eating at a fast-food restaurant, there was a net increase of total energy intake (194.49 kcal), saturated fat (3.48 g), sugar (3.95 g) and sodium (296.38 mg). Eating at a full-service restaurant was also associated with an energy intake (205.21 kcal), and with higher intake of saturated fat (2.52 g) and sodium (451.06 mg).

Individual characteristics moderated the impact of restaurant food consumption. Net energy intake was larger for black adults compared with their white and Hispanic counterparts and greater for middle-income v. high-income adults.

The researchers say the larger adverse effect they measured on energy intake for some lower socio-economic and minority populations has policy implications. They say efforts to improve diet and reduce energy intake from restaurant sources could actually help to reduce racial and socio-economic disparities in Americans' diets.