The latest news from SEMA councils and committees: SEMA has hired Jim Skelly as Council Relations Director. Skelly brings with him more than 15 years of experience at the NHRA, and he will serve as the staff liaison for the Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC) and the Light-Truck Accessory...

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. appointed W. Mark Schmitz to executive vice president and chief financial officer. Schmitz succeeds Richard Kramer, who was named to the additional post of president of Goodyear's North American Tire (NAT) business unit in March. Prior to joining Goodyear, Schmitz was...

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Dates and locations for several upcoming SEMA-sponsored shows and activities have been announced. Details are:

SEMA-member companies have posted several new listings for job opportunities at www.sema.org/classifieds. Working for a SEMA-member company has many advantages. In addition to working for a company that supports and contributes to the success of the overall industry, being employed by a SEMA-member...

CarGurus recently announced its mid-year top 10 most popular car models as voted by consumers on www.CarGurus.com. Based on the quantity and quality of ratings received by each car on the website, 2007 models were ranked by consumer popularity. Given the recent spikes in gas prices, CarGurus...

Forecasting the demand of specialty-equipment parts and accessories provides an invaluable tool for strategic market planners and helps answer one ongoing question: How will industry sales do in the coming months? To help answer this question, SEMA commissioned the market-research firm TechnoMetrica...

During Chrysler’s “What’s New” media preview last month, global product development chief Frank Klegon shook things up by announcing the automaker is exploring a four-cylinder diesel for North America, according to a recent article by Diesel Forecast. Klegon didn’t provide more details, dangling the...

Hybrid vehicles are on course to achieve record sales in 2007, increasing by 35% compared with 2006, according to the “J.D. Power and Associates 2007 U.S. Hybrid Vehicle Forecast Second Quarter Update.”

Volkswagen of America, Inc. has set a new record with its Touareg V10 TDI driven by Ryan Arciero at the 2007 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC) Race to the Clouds race—a 12.4-mile course. Arciero’s time of 13:17:70 was officially declared the new record holder for the alternative fuel...