Auto News 5

Fiat has suspended with "immediate effect" its activities with Iran as pressure ramps up on all western automakers to drop shipments to Tehran.

New Ford Focus ST starts from £21,995 and goes on sale on 1 June

Lotus Group chief executive Dany Bahar has been suspended by the new Malaysian owners of Group Lotus.

Peugeot says the launch of its 301 compact sedan will usher in a new car-naming system intended to avoid confusion between different generations and variants of the same model.

Fiat has added another piece to Alfa Romeo's lineup for the sporty Italian brand's return to the United States: a rear-wheel-drive roadster co-developed with Mazda Motor Corp.

Buick, the storied General Motors brand that had been staging a strong comeback since barely surviving GM's 2009 restructuring, has hit a pothole.

In 2014, Chrysler Group will drop the Jeep Compass and replace the Chrysler Town and Country minivan with a crossover, Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has revealed.

Chrysler is mum on whether it will offer a fuel-saving diesel engine in the 2013 Ram 1500, scheduled for showrooms this fall. But a spy photographer snapped a white Ram 1500 pickup in the Detroit area with a tantalizing clue.

The Nissan Altima sedan was already striking gold with consumers as it crept up the U.S. sales charts over the past two years. For 2013, Nissan Motor Co. has created a redesigned fifth-generation Altima.

General Motors is counting on the Cadillac XTS to do the job of two sedans -- and then some.

A disconnect is emerging between the White House and the auto industry over the short-term future of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

Ford Motor Co. executives underestimated the strength of the U.S. market in the first quarter and found themselves short of cars. That's why Ford dropped 1.4 points of U.S. market share, says Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas.

Tony Fiori used to drive 130 miles to an auction when he wanted to wholesale used vehicles. Now the auction comes to him. Vista Honda in Ventura, Calif.

I don't need to look at a calendar to know when Spring officially arrives. My neighbour's daughter does that for me. She likes her music at a volume that would shame a 60s rock star! In spring when windows open up, it becomes a problem, particularly when she rolls through at 3 am.

Perhaps we should get together and suggest that she stay at the party until 6 am, and then I wouldn't need an alarm clock, but then her parents might object.

I struck up a conversation with her a few days ago and she didn't really think that her music was that loud. Remembering back to the days when I wanted killer audio systems in my cars, I could see her point, except that if I had woken my parents or the neighbours up, there would have been swift and imaginative retribution.

After this conversation, I wondered about hearing loss from all the modern sources of noise and that seems to be a growth industry of all its own. Like everything else in life, if taken to excess, noise can cause problems and it doesn't matter what the source is. Everything from tractors, to having the car windows down can, over time, cause hearing loss. Loss in hearing from “music sources” such as car stereos, iPods and other sources showed that there could be as much as a 15 db hearing loss in teens that continually used such devices.

One of the biggest scams perpetrated on consumers is the “clean sound” that new stereo equipment produces. Sales representatives try to tell you that it is the dirty or background noise that causes problems. Once you bite on this hook, you have just changed from a stereophile to a stereofool. It is and always has been the volume that causes the hearing loss. All “clean” or “dirty” noise does is change which part of your hearing range goes first.

Just about every major medical group has done studies and all of them show the same results. Continued exposure to sound at high levels (the actual number of decibels measured did vary) showed a significant hearing loss (10 db or more). The loss was progressive in that it accelerated (when compared to a control group) as the subjects got older.

Protecting your hearing isn't that difficult to do. When driving, roll windows up and enjoy the quietness of modern interiors and then add a reasonable amount volume to enjoy your music. Use noise cancelling ear buds or headphones to help keep outside noise from interfering when using your personal listening devices.

Remember if you don't turn the volume down, Mother Nature will do it for you!

Photo: Matthieu Lambert

From GMM

There was an element of publicity in Sahara Force India's decision to sit out a practice session in Bahrain last month, Bernie Ecclestone has charged.

The F1 chief executive had already denied the Silverstone based team was deliberately ignored by F1's television cameras in qualifying, a day after Force India skipped practice due to security fears.

"The protesters weren't there to attack anybody," Ecclestone told F1 business journalist Christian Sylt over lunch in London recently. "They were going to use the event to demonstrate and get their word out."

Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg. (Photo: Sahara Force India)

He revealed that, when Sahara Force India expressed fears about travelling in Bahrain at night, he offered to accompany the team members without security personnel.

"We will drop you and I will come back alone in the car again with no escort," Ecclestone said, recalling his conversation with the Silverstone based team.

In contrast, he said he "wouldn't have wanted to go into those streets when we had the problems in London" last year.

"Force India wanted people to write about them," the 81-year-old charged.

There was probably never was a question of if Kasey Kahne would win a race driving for Hendrick Motorsports. It was a question of when which was answered in the Charlotte 600.

Kahne had won two poles, but, seemed to have the worst luck of his Hendrick Teammates. He seemed to have a black cloud over him, but, changed his luck in the 12th race of the season.

That ended with a convincing 4.295 second win over the Toyotas of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. The 600-mile race was completed in three hours, 51 minutes and 17 seconds — a record for the longest event on the Sprint Cup schedule. The previous record was 3 hours, 56 minutes, 55 seconds in 1995.

Hendrick Motorsports pit crew at work. (Photo: NASCAR)

“We're gaining. We're making big strides," said Kahne, who jumped to 15th in the standings after leading the final 44-laps in the 400-lap race. "I have the greatest teammates to work with, which is something that I've really looked forward to coming to Hendrick Motorsports. Tonight we finally put it together.”

It was Kahne's fourth victory at the 1.5-mile oval and his third in the Charlotte 600. And it was the third straight week that a Hendrick car was in Victory Lane in a Sprint Cup race.

Hamlin said that his second place finish was “definitely a step in the right direction.”

Fourth place, Greg Biffle led a race-high 204 laps said, “Kasey got good as the night fell," Biffle said. "And we seemed to struggle a bit."

Kasey Kahne passes Greg Biffle. (Photo: NASCAR)

Five time champion, Jimmie Johnson, finished 11th after yet another pit stop incident. This time involving a fueler who didn't remove the fuel can, before his driver left the pits, with 50-laps to go.

Danica Patrick who missed the Indy500 for the first time since she arrived in 2005 said “"today was the first time I had that feeling like I wish I was there (Indy500) after finishing xx five laps down. Then she added some “memories came back.”

The race was typical of the 2012 season; it was free of the multicar pileups that often have marred the longest event on the Cup schedule. There were five cautions, but four were for debris and one was for a single-car crash in Turn

Hamlin opined “bottom line, I think everyone is so concerned with points nowadays, you know if you wreck and you finish in the 30s, you're going to take 10 races to get that back. I think everyone's just a little bit more patient on restarts, as crazy as that sounds. It's just not as wild on restarts as it used to be a couple years ago.”

From GMM

Yet another weekend has passed in which the pre-race favourite, Lotus, failed to deliver.

But Jaime Alguersuari thinks the Enstone based team remains poised to shine in the very near future.

"From my point of view, I still believe that they have the most competitive package, both mechanically and aerodynamically," said the former Toro Rosso driver.

"They have great traction and very little degradation of the rear tyres. It is unfortunate that here they were not able to get the most from it but you will see again in Canada they will again be the favourites," the Spaniard told the AS sports daily in Monaco.

Photo: Lotus F1 Team

Behind garage doors, however, confusion still reigns.

Red Bull became the sport's only multiple-race winner of the 2012 season so far with Mark Webber's Monaco breakthrough.

But team manager Jonathan Wheatley used the word "lottery" to explain how races are being won and lost.

"On Thursday we thought ninth or tenth would be our maximum," he is quoted by Der Spiegel. "Lotus with Romain Grosjean looked over a second quicker than the rest."

Flavio Briatore said teams will be needing to take a 'long game' approach to the championship, with championship leader Fernando Alonso the favourite in his view.

"If the lottery continues, it will be best to cope with it by having the most tickets in your pocket," the former Renault team boss told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "And that's Alonso."

The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today announced that the Government of Canada is continuing its commitment to advance clean vehicle technologies and work with the automotive industry to make safe, clean and innovative transportation options available to Canadians.

"Our government is pleased to launch the next phase of the ecoTECHNOLOGY for Vehicles Program," said Minister Lebel. "This program will assess the safety and environmental performance of new vehicle technologies to ensure that innovations can be introduced in Canada in a safe and timely manner."

Over the next several years, the automotive industry will introduce a range of innovations to improve vehicle safety and to meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations.

The ecoTECHNOLOGY for Vehicles Program is a five-year, $38-million program that will proactively test advanced vehicle technologies to develop safety and environmental regulations, as well as industry codes and standards. Test results will help align vehicle regulations in North America to reduce and prevent barriers to cross-border trade, lowering costs for business and consumers, and supporting jobs and economic growth.

The program builds upon a successful predecessor program with the same name, which focused on testing environmental technologies for passenger cars. The new ecoTECHNOLOGY for Vehicles Program will expand testing activities to include heavy-duty trucks and a broader range of technologies.

Funding for the program was provided in Budget 2011 as part of a suite of Clean Transportation Initiatives under the renewal of the Government of Canada's Clean Air Agenda.

The Clean Transportation Initiatives focus on aligning Canadian regulations with those in the United States and with international standards, improving the efficiency of the transportation system and advancing clean technologies.

These initiatives will help Canada achieve its economy-wide target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020.

For more information about the ecoTECHNOLOGY for Vehicles Program and test results from the predecessor program, please visit Transport Canada's website at www.tc.gc.ca/eTV.


_{As reported by the Goverment of Canada}

From GMM

Sebastian Vettel has denied reports he has signed a 'pre-contract' to move to Ferrari in 2014.

Two British Sunday newspapers reported the rumour just ahead of the Monaco grand prix.

"Maybe they needed to fill up some space in their newspapers," the reigning world champion, who remains under contract to Red Bull for the foreseeable future, told the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung in Monaco.

"I have signed nothing," the 24-year-old German insisted.

Red Bull's celebrations around Mark Webber. Only Sebastian Vettel was missing. (Photo: Red Bull Racing)

As for why he was the only missing team member when Red Bull celebrated Mark Webber's Monaco victory by leaping into Red Bull's harbour pool, Vettel answered: "I didn't want a swim.

"And I didn't have any spare clothes," he smiled wryly.

Sebastian Vettel finished fourth, losing his championship lead to Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

The Jeep Compass and Chrysler Town & Country will cease to exist in 2014, Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne announced. The Town & Country will actually be replaced by a smaller crossover-type vehicle.

The changes are part of a long effort by Marchionne to give each Chrysler Group brand a more distinct identity and save a considerable amount of money by eliminating product overlaps.

Photo: Chrysler

More than 90% of the automaker's dealerships now sell all four volume brands - Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram - making brand identity a crucial strategic element.

Under its sheetmetal, the Compass is basically identical to the Jeep Patriot, while the Town & Country is nothing more than a premium version of the Dodge Grand Caravan. The replacement crossover may retain the Town & Country name, however.

While Marchionne has axed a number of vehicles since taking over in 2009, he has also added three separate brands to the North American landscape including Ram, Fiat, and SRT.

In other news, the CEO reaffirmed that an electric version of the Fiat 500 subcompact is heading to our shores later this year even though Chrysler "will lose money on every car we make."


_{Source: Automotive News}