According to Wheels, GM has paid the U.S. Treasury $2.1 billion to repurchase the remaining shares of preferred stock held by the Treasury. More:

GM bought the 84 million shares for $25.50 apiece, 2 percent more than their liquidation value. The company said it would book a $700 million charge related to the buyback early next year. 

Of the $49.5 billion government investment, $23.1 billion has now been paid back -- including the $13.5 billion from last month's initial public stock offering for the company.

You can read a more detailed account of the financial goings-on at Dealbook.
 

A new application for mobile devices called DriveMeCrazy allows you to record bad driving behavior by other drivers. The creator hopes that virtual crowd-sourcing of dysfunctional driving behavior will have real-world consequences.

The voice-activated app, created by Philip Inghelbrecht, who co-founded the music discovery engine Shazam, allows you to "flag" motorists by speaking their license plate number into a smart phone; the driver then receives a virtual "ticket," while that same information -- which includes date, time and location -- is transmitted to the appropriate Department of Motor Vehicles and insurance companies. Of course, you don't have to be driving yourself to flag someone: A bicyclist who gets forced off the road, for example, can follow the very same procedure.

Inghelbrecht foresees a massive -- and potentially lucrative -- database of driver information, which could be used by insurance companies and DMVs to adjust premiums and monitor bad behavior. Of course, the legality and feasibility of the government or an insurance company using a third-party app in such a way -- especially given the lack of safeguards against malicious use -- remain in question. 

 

If you've been away on a space station, here's an update: It hasn’t been the greatest of years for Toyota. With an abundance of recalls, continued claims of unintended acceleration and a congressional hearing, the Japanese automaker effectively saw its reputation for manufacturing vehicles that are economical, reliable and -- above all -- safe get tarnished. Most analysts believed it would be years before the company was able to come out from under its dark cloud, but a new study from Kelley Blue Book seems to indicate otherwise. Each quarter, KBB looks into which brands car shoppers consider first, and for the third quarter of 2010, Toyota managed to clamber its way back on top after falling to just the No. 2 spot for the first and second quarters. 

The Beatles are now on iTunes -- you may have seen or heard a commercial or two touting the new addition -- and John Lennon's 1972 Chrysler station wagon is now on the block, via Braswell Galleries.

According to the vehicle listing on its website, Lennon and Yoko Ono kept the Chrysler for personal use, especially for the drive between their New York City apartment and their Long Island estate -- a smart choice, considering that the vehicle's nondescript nature likely allowed them to travel incognito.

Check out the vehicle page for some interesting excerpts from Frederic Seaman's 1991 book, "The Last Days of John Lennon -- A Personal Memoir," that refer to the car.

[Source: Jalopnik.]
 

An "accident reconstructionist" hired by the legal team for a Colorado man charged with a hit-and-run felony, after allegedly striking a bicyclist in September, has blamed "new car smell" for causing the driver to doze off in his month-old Mercedes. According to The New York Times Green blog (via Wheels):

"[The team contends] that Mr. Erzinger suffered from sleep apnea and dozed off at the wheel before driving off the road and striking the cyclist.

'Harmful and noxious gases emitted from the upholstery can infiltrate the driver’s compartment and potentially alter the driver,' the investigator wrote.

 At least one study has found that fumes from new car interiors can pose a health hazard, particularly on a hot day when the windows are closed."

Well then: That takes care of the "hit" part. No report on what caused the "run." Perhaps heated seats cause restless leg syndrome?

 

 

When the first GPS navigation applications were released for smart phones, it looked as if traditional -- and expensive -- hardware-based systems such as TomTom and Garmin were not long for this world. Luckily for them, many of these companies had the foresight to adapt rather than fight, and with good results. According to Apple's year-end scorecard of iPhone-based nav apps, TomTom's U.S.A. application, at $49.99, is the highest-grossing of them all.

Apple has ranked its apps according to three categories: highest-grossing, best-selling and most popular free apps. As mentioned, TomTom took the top spot for highest grossing, followed by Navigon's MobileNavigator North America, ($59.99) both of which reportedly function very much like what you'd find on a dedicated GPS device.