Google helps Calif. drivers shop for auto insurance

Google is helping California drivers shop for car insurance as part of a new service that could foreshadow the Internet company’s latest attempt to shake up a long-established industry.

The feature unveiled Thursday compares auto insurance quotes from up to 14 carriers that are participating in the comparisons. The policies can then be bought online or through an agent. Google will receive a cut from the insurance sales. The Mountain View, California, company says the size of the commissions won’t influence how it ranks the price quotes.

Google Inc. plans to provide car insurance quotes in other states and sign up more carriers, too. The list of initial participants in California includes MetLife, Mercury Insurance and 21st Century Insurance. Some of the largest auto insurance providers, including Farmers, State Farm, Allstate, Progressive and Geico, haven’t joined Google’s service.

Ford GT super car to cost $400,000 late next year

The Ford GT super car will cost about $400,000 when it goes on sale in the second half of 2016.

And the automaker will only make about 250 a year, Dave Pericak, director of Ford Performance, confirmed at the Geneva auto show.

Pericak said the mid-engine two-seater will cost about the same as a $400,000 Lamborghini Aventador.

Ford showed the Ford GT concept at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and announced it would go into production next year.

Since then, the automaker has said the car, which has a carbon fiber body, will be made in Canada by private coachbuilder Multimatic in Markham, Ontario, near Toronto. The car will be almost hand-built, Pericak said.

The Ford GT has a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 that will generate at least 600 horsepower. It is designed to be a halo vehicle to showcase Ford’s performance and technological prowess.

U.S. airlines: Gulf carriers received illegal subsidies

America’s largest three airlines came together Thursday to release a report claiming that three fast-growing Persian Gulf carriers have received $42 billion in illegal subsidies from their governments over the past decade.

Officials from United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines said they have gathered evidence during a two-year investigation to document that Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates have received $42 billion “in quantifiable subsidies and other unfair benefits from their respective governments since 2004.”

The Gulf carriers, each known for luxurious service and regularly voted by consumers as among the best airlines in the world, have denied receiving inappropriate government subsidies.

The claim of illegal subsidies has been an ongoing issue that U.S. airlines have been pushing, but they escalated the fight Thursday, showing their work publicly by releasing specifics from their joint investigation into subsidies

—From news service reports

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