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News 24 Aug, 2012

The Nissan Micra Elle offers more kit, new colours and a panoramic roof

Pictures 24 Aug, 2012

News 24 Aug, 2012

Savings on premiums for cars fitted with emergency braking tech

Despite what it termed 'an increasingly challenging economic environment', the Skoda brand increased its deliveries to customers by 6% year on year to 72,600 in July.

Dutch sports car maker Spyker said it had agreed to a request by GM to extend the deadline for responding to its $3 billion dollar lawsuit. Spyker is suing GM on behalf of its former subsidiary, Saab, accusing the U.S.

Dutch sports car maker Spyker said it had agreed to a request by GM to extend the deadline for responding to its $3 billion dollar lawsuit. Spyker is suing GM on behalf of its former subsidiary, Saab, accusing the U.S.

According to a report carried by Dow Jones, the president of Volvo Cars' Brazilian operations has spoken of plans for a production plant in the country. Volvo Cars has, however, told just-auto that no decision has been taken.

Powered by Chrysler's 3.6-liter V-6 engine and a new eight-speed automatic transmission, and thanks to more than a dozen improvements to reduce drag, the 2013 Ram 1500 has a fuel economy rating of 18 city/25 highway.

Three decades after China implemented rules requiring foreign automakers to form joint ventures with domestic manufacturers to build cars in the country, the strategy appears to be failing in one of its key goals.

The next-generation Chevrolet Cruze, due in autumn 2014 as a 2015 model, will be the first model to use a new General Motors global platform that eventually could underpin nearly 2.

Three-time WTCC world champion Yvan Muller will be taking part in his third rallye de France this year, on a MINI John Cooper Works WRC prepared by team Prodrive.

The Frenchman drove a Citroën Xsara in 2010 and a Peugeot 207 S2000 last year. Back at the wheel of a WRC car, he aims for a top 10 result on his home soil in 2012.

Prodrive is the team that used to run the MINI's WRC program, back in 2011 with selected races for Dani Sordo.

This season, the british squad lost MINI's backing but still runs a John Cooper Works for Sordo on some events. Yvan Muller will join the Spaniard in rallye de France Alsace.

From GMM

Toto Wolff has admitted Williams is facing a dilemma over its driver lineup for 2013.

The famous British team's shareholder and new executive director told Brazil's Totalrace he would "rather have three cars" to accommodate Pastor Maldonado, Bruno Senna and reserve driver Valtteri Bottas on the grid next season.

Finn Bottas, who is managed by Austrian Wolff, is hotly tipped to replace Brazilian Senna in 2013.

"Valtteri has been doing free practice but racing is something completely different," Wolff is quoted as saying.

"He is a great talent and we want to keep him, but there is also an economic side," he said, undoubtedly referring to the reportedly EUR 30-plus million and EUR 10 million brought to Williams by Maldonado and Senna respectively.

Money aside, Wolff said Barcelona winner Maldonado, and Senna, also bring "speed and intelligence" to Williams.

"I would rather have three cars next year," he smiled.

Wolff defended Senna, who has had a difficult 2012 but finished a strong seventh in Hungary last month.

"I am impressed with Bruno," he said.

"He is not only an intelligent and sensitive driver, he also learns quickly. Our concern is to support him in the best way possible, knowing that he has lacked some practice on the Fridays.

"He has had good moments and days when things have not worked, but in Hungary everything worked very well and I hope it was the beginning of many good weekends from now on," said Wolff.

Recently, I was asked to write a news piece on the latest Google self-driving car. If you haven't heard about it, basically it's a Prius (and now there's a Lexus RX 450h on their "fleet" too) that can drive itself using a system of cameras and lasers and sensors. You get in, program your destination and it does the rest.

It sounds absolutely horrible.

In the Google blog I used to write the news piece, a few sentences stood out to me. One in particular being: "One day we hope this capability will enable people to be more productive in their cars."

Photo: Google

Be more productive? Wait, I thought paying attention to the road and ensuring I don't cause any accidents and maintain the speed limit while I make my way to work was just about enough. Now you want me to be more productive?

What happened to down time? What happened to enjoying the open road? What happened to not working all the time? Maybe I like to drive because not only is it fun but it also gives me a chance to shut down, disconnect; to not answer my phone, or emails, or texts. It lets me forget everything and everyone for a second and just focus on me and the car I'm driving.

But wait, Google also said in their blog that "[w]ith each breakthrough [they] feel more optimistic about delivering this technology to people and dramatically improving their driving experience."

Sorry to say Google, but you're not improving it, you're taking it away completely.

This technology doesn't fascinate me, it scares me. Are we really going to turn into the drone-like characters in the Wall-E movie (don't lie, you know what I'm talking about)? Tasks like driving connect us to the world around us and other people. Whether in a good or bad way, it's called interaction. Take that away and what's left? We already disconnect via emails and texts (no one picks up the phone to call anymore), at least let us keep driving.

Will I ever get into a self-driving car and let it whisk me away to my destination? I'd like to say, no. If only on principle. Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to keep driving my cars all on my lonesome, just like I keep a hand-written journal.

"Technology is at its best when it makes people's lives better," but not when it makes them numb. Think about that for a moment, Google.

The Lotus F1 team ranks currently third in the constructors' standings and intends to fight hard against McLaren and Ferrari to at least maintain this place at season's end.

The Lotus E20s of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean will sport several updated in the next two Grands Prix, one of them being the infamous double DRS.

“We used the summer shutdown to perform a comprehensive maintenance and upgrade programme at the factory,” said Eric Boullier in a Lotus press release.

Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus (Photo: Glenn Dunbar/LAT Photographic

“This involved the upgrading of a number of production machines and was no small investment. We've also made more investments in our wind tunnel and a new gearbox dyno facility is being built. These are all substantial developments to improve our performance potential and position ourselves as one of the very best teams in this highly competitive sport,” Boullier added.

“If we can produce just a slightly better performance for the rest of the season then we will be in a position to fight for the win,” he said.

“The team is impatient to be back at the track and racing the E20, but we have certainly welcomed the extra days of manufacturing since Hungary for the new parts we've been creating,” said Lotus F1 Team Technical Director James Allison.

“We'll have quite a lot of different bits. A big focus has been getting ready for Monza which is immediately after Spa and requires a unique downforce package. It's only one race but it requires a whole new set of wings and a disproportionate amount of work. We've also been focusing on ensuring that we have the capability to run the new device in Spa (the double DRS, or DDRS) should we be confident enough to do so,” he explained.

“It frequently rains at Spa, so we have to be prepared for that possibility. We've had various wet experiences so far this season, with the inclement weather coming mainly in qualifying. At Silverstone we were okay in wet conditions, but in Germany we struggled to get the wet tire into its temperature operating window.

“Should we have the same situation at Spa, the nature of the corners and the loadings on the tires should be sufficient to generate enough heat in the rubber, so we're not unduly concerned,” the engineer indicated.

If you missed the first auction cause you were took busy rocking out, fear not: "Melvan" (featuring the artwork of Kurt Cobain) will be back on the eBay auction block.

In March, "Melvan" went up for auction and hit a grand told of $99,999.99 but the final bid didn't hit the reserve so the sale never went through. And while the shaggin' wagon got a lot of attention, it wasn't all positive. There was speculation as to the authenticity of the artwork on the "Melvan."

The van's current owner, Ben Berg (bassist in Weird Beast) acquired written statements from Matt Lukin and Steve Shillinger to authenticate the artwork. Those familiar with grunge history will recognize both names and know that Cobain doodled on the van while he was a Melvin roadie.

Bidding on the eBay listing for "Melvan" and the iconic KISS artwork by Mr Cobain will be closed shortly after 3 p.m. PDT this Sunday.

Source: RollingStone

Kurt Cobain Melvan minivan 1972 Dodge Sportsman Royal (Photomontage: Auto123.com)

British Mercedes-Benz driver Jamie Green produced a last-minute effort to set the fastest time around the 4.3km circuit of Zandvoort in the first free practice session of the DTM race held in the Netherlands.

His Mercedes teammate Spaniard Roberto Merhi held the best time until Green managed to take the top spot. Merhi, a former Formula 3 driver and a rookie competitor in the DTM series, finished the day in second place.

Green set a time of 1m33.427 in his Mercedes AMG C-Coupe.

Jamie Green (Photo: DTM)

Canadian Bruno Spengler, the winner of the last race held at the Nurburging last Sunday, finished third in his BMW M3 DTM.

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard produced a strong run and ranked fourth in his Mercedes, ahead of another Canadian, Robert Wickens, fifth in his C-Coupe.

Audi drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Edoardo Mortara finished 6th and 7th, respectively. Susie Wolff also produced a strong performance, taking 8th overall in front of Ralf Schumacher.

Ralf caused a red flag when the rear wing of his Mercedes caught an air line as he exited his pit box and ripped it from its mounting; the result being injuries to three members of his pit crew, all of whom were taken to hospital for examination.

Point standings' leader Gary Paffett (Mercedes) was 10th.

There's a new ad that shows an attractive lady wearing nothing but red panties and an unbuttoned black jacket. She walks toward a Toyota Auris and as she turns around, we discover that it's actually Ukrainian transgender model Stav Straschko!

Perhaps what the Japanese automaker is trying to say is that ''hybrids'' can be sexy, too. Will there be other such surprises during the model's debut at the Paris Auto Show next month? Stay tuned.

Source: parismatch.com

Frenchman Sebastien Loeb finished the first day of Rally Germany on the top of the charts in his Citroen DS3 WRC.

Always at ease on tarmac, Loeb set a quick pace in the early stages and benefitted form Jari-Matti Latvala's poor performance in SS5 to finish day 1 made of six timed special stages with an advantage of 20.4 seconds over Petter Solberg.

Petter Solberg, Ford (Photo: Ford)

Only nine seconds separate the two Ford drivers, Solberg and Latvala, who's third, 29 seconds down to Loeb.

Young Thierry Neuville, driving for the Junior Citroen team, finished the day in fourth place, only five seconds down to Latvala.

Spaniard Dani Sordo had a strong run in the John Cooper Works MINI, taking fifth place in front of Loeb's teammate at Citroen, Mikko Hirvonen. Sordo suffered from small gearbox problems.

Action will resume tomorrow morning.

The all-new 2013 Chevrolet Sonic RS will make a lot of people happy with a base MSRP of $25,060 for the six-speed manual transmission and $26,410 for the optional six-speed autobox.

Available as a five-door hatchback only, the Sonic RS offers up to 1,351 litres of cargo space with the rear seat folded. This performance-oriented model also boasts a 1.4L turbocharged engine that produces 138 horsepower as well as the brand's MyLink infotainment system.

The 2013 Chevrolet Sonic RS will enter production this October in Orion, MI. It's the only subcompact car built on U.S. soil.

No word yet on when it will arrive in showrooms.

From GMM

Daniel Ricciardo has hinted Giorgio Ascanelli's successor at Toro Rosso could be announced imminently.

With technical director Ascanelli absent and officially on "holiday" during the most recent German and Hungarian grands prix, we reported on July 21 that his role could be permanently filled by former Sauber man and 40-year-old Briton James Key.

"(I don't know) Whether it's something that will get resolved over the break," Australian news agency AAP quotes Toro Rosso driver Ricciardo as saying.

Giorgio Ascanelli (Photo: Peter J Fox/Getty Images)

"Maybe it (Ascanelli's departure) came at a good time and some time off and everyone can rethink.

"Maybe it will be good and, come to Spa, maybe everything will be normal again -- or there could be some changes," added Ricciardo.

Writing in Germany's Speed Week, Peter Hesseler suggested Key could start his new job at Toro Rosso on 1 September.

Auto Motor und Sport suggests Ascanelli split with Toro Rosso following disagreements about team strategy and the development direction of the car.

After ousting its established drivers Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari last year, Toro Rosso has scored just 6 points so far in 2012 with newcomers Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

"Are the drivers too inexperienced, or is the car bad?" wondered Germany's Auto Motor und Sport. "The truth is probably somewhere in the middle."

Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko, the architect of Toro Rosso's new lineup, exonerated the drivers.

"If it rains, they are quick," said the Austrian. "This shows that they are on it.

"The engineers went in the wrong direction with the development of the exhaust," said Marko.