America’s leading producer of recreational vehicles, Fleetwood Enterprises RV Group announced yesterday their 2009 American Allegiance diesel luxury motor coach. The first American coach introduction for eight years, the 2009 American Allegiance was launched to dealer and industry representatives at the RVIA’s 45th Annual National RV Trade Show, a Fleetwood event held at Louisville, Kentucky.

Two new modern floor plans were on the launch including a triple-slide floor plan (42G) and a triple-slide mid-ship TV floor plan (40X). Aside from that, the American Allegiance has an opposing 30” deep flush floor slide boxes creating an exceptional open living space, never seen in the automotive industry.

For the looks, the American Allegiance features new exterior graphics along with DuPont® full-body paint. It also has curved front and rear caps and a seamless hidden-fastener molding. A Cummins ISL 400HP diesel engine makes it run and you can really enjoy with the exterior entertainment via a 26” LCD TV.

"The launch of the 2009 American Allegiance brings the reality of owning an American Coach luxury motor home to a new group of consumers," said Paul Eskritt, President of Fleetwood’s RV Group. "During the past 10 years, we have worked with our valuable dealer network to develop a product that upheld the elite standards of the American Coach brand. Based on the early feedback from these dealers, we think Allegiance will be a home run with this new customer demographic."

"One of the things that struck a chord with me was that the American Coach management team asked us [dealers] for feedback and input on the features in the early planning stages," said Gary Stroud, co-owner and Vice President of Tom Johnson Camping Center. "The result — the 2009 American Allegiance — is a well thought out luxury motor coach that will capture the attention of our customers."

It’s the travel season of the year, to guarantee safety and reduce accidents, SafeAuto Insurance Company offers their tips to winterize your cars. SafeAuto based their tips from market experience and frequent customer reports from their roadside assistance program.

"Millions of drivers will be traveling this holiday season, and taking some simple preventative steps to winterize your car can mean the difference between a happy holiday and being stranded on the side of the road," said SafeAuto president Jon Diamond. "We pioneered the concept of keeping our customers legal for less, and keeping them safe is simply an extension of that spirit. Our customers know that if they need assistance we’ll be there for them. However, if we’re able to keep our drivers on the road, or prevent a roadside tragedy, that’s a benefit that can’t be beat."

SafeAuto recommends that all drivers should follow these tips to winterize their cars:

Last Thursday, Volkswagen of America announced that they will be giving Stanford University $5.75 Million for the creation of the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab (VAIL). The Lab will be built inside the campus of the World-class academic institution, also the amount will further support automotive teaching and support.

With the VAIL, Volkswagen aims to level up automotive research and teaching in partnership with Stanford. The two institutions, at the top of their own fields together will build a community of academic and industrial partners to broaden automotive research.

"The VAIL will be a solid foundation on which Volkswagen researchers and Stanford scientists will be able to find new ways to explore automotive technology," Dr. Burkhard Huhnke, executive director, Electronics Research Laboratory, Volkswagen of America, Inc. "The work done at VAIL will help to further develop the future of mobility and autonomous driving that we started with our partnership on the DARPA Grand Challenge vehicles, Stanley and Junior."

The $5.75 Million will be divided into, $2 million for the construction of the lab and every year, Stanford will be receiving $750,000 from Volkswagen for five years to fund automotive research and teachings at the lab.

"The success of Junior and Stanley in the DARPA Grand Challenge events show that when Stanford collaborates with great partners in industry, such as Volkswagen, we can create significant new technologies," says Jim Plummer, dean of Stanford Engineering. "Transportation is a vital part of life and our goal as engineers is to find innovative ways to meet important human needs."

The DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects) pave way for the Volkswagen-Stanford partnership with the two successful vehicles.

"The initial focus for VAIL will be vehicle safety, mobility and environmental performance," said Plummer. "Already signed up for space in the facility are the research groups of computer science and electrical engineering Professor Sebastian Thrun, leader of the Stanford Racing Team that fielded Junior and Stanley; mechanical engineering Associate Professor Chris Gerdes, whose research group is studying cleaner combustion and advanced vehicle dynamics control; and communication department Professor Clifford Nass, whose research studies the psychology of making cars safer and more enjoyable."

Debbie Harry, lead singer of the Blondie band that rocked the music world in the 1970s until the 1980s talks about her new album, old cars and a plan of turning one of it into a shark. Shira Levine of forbesautos.com cites all her conversation with the rocker after an interview with Debbie Harry herself.

ForbesAutos: What car do you drive?
Harry: I have a 1973 Chevy Caprice. I’ve had it forever. I love it and somehow or other I keep it going. But I think I’m about to hand it over to some chop artist and have him make it into a shark.

Why chop it up now?
I was watching this movie the other night with [1960s Southern California car customizer] Big Daddy Roth and I thought, "God, I should really do something to that Chevy." So, I decided I’d like to make it into a shark.

What exactly does that mean?
Honestly, I don’t know. I just know I want to make it into a shark!

What’s the style of your new album?
The new album is my first solo album in a long time. It’s pretty much a rock album. It’s a collection of songs about love. There are also some social comments included.

What social issues are you commenting on?
It’s actually about the press.

Oh, what did we do now?
Well it’s not really about you guys. It’s about scandal. A song on the album is called “School for Scandal.” There’s an old play written a long, long time ago called “School for Scandal” and it sort of rings true for today as well as back then. It’s scandal for the sake of scandal. I want real scandal! I don’t want any more of this fake scandal!

Is this an album you’d recommend for a long road trip?
Oh definitely, yes. The quality is really great. It sounds great in my car’s speakers. It has a mixture of things. There are some up-tempo things, there’s some serious things and there’s some weird things. And that is pretty much it.

Do you recall the first car you ever owned?
It was a ’60-something Plymouth or something like that. It was $20 or something. It had no brakes. Well actually it did have brakes, but it needed brake lining and somehow the brake fluid was always leaking out. So I was always driving around with two things of brake fluid with me and was always having to pour it in. That was my car!

Do you consider yourself a “car person”?
I like cars and everything. I’m not really a souped-up kind of car person since I am mostly in New York.