Auto News 5

The good news is that the plant will tool up to make a new V6 from late 2015. The bad news is that, in the meantime, around 560 workers at General Motors' Romulus Engine Plant will be laid off temporarily.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR GRAHAM KOZAK: The first thing you're going to notice about our 2013 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Moab Edition is the color.

Car production in Poland -- where Fiat, GM and VW Group have plants -- fell 7 percent in May, industry monitor SAMAR said. The group added that weak European demand and a run of public holidays had reversed a rise in the previous month.

There may be more car collections hidden in Southern California garages, hangars and warehouses than anywhere else in the world, and Aaron Weiss knows almost all of the collectors.

May and June are the bidding season for commercial fleet operators who purchase pickups by the dozen and sometimes hundreds.

For 17 years, automakers have complied with every request for a recall, no matter how costly, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And then last week, in a startling decision, Chrysler Group said no.

They're coming from investment banking and the beverage industry, real estate and manufacturing. What do they have in common? After making their money in other industries, they're now snapping up or jockeying to buy U.S. auto dealerships.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally has repeated as highest-paid CEO at publicly traded North America-based automotive companies. Mulally took home $68,443,381 in 2012, up slightly from the $68,247,702 he made in 2011.

It feels like the good old days for the Detroit 3, with big pickups flying off dealership lots and plants running full out to fill orders for large, profitable models.

Hyundai and Kia just turned in another lackluster sales report.

Jose Munoz, who most recently dazzled Nissan leaders by pushing the company's Mexican subsidiary into market dominance, became senior vice president of sales and marketing for Nissan and Infiniti brands over North and South America and the Caribbean...

Mazda is pointing to its May sales rebound as a sign that its U.S. turnaround, three years in the making, is finally under way.

Automakers are expected to build more than 16 million light vehicles in North America this year, the region's highest output since 2002. Two major forecasters, LMC Automotive and IHS Automotive, predict that production will rise from last year's 15.

MW's redesigned X5 crossover, coming in the fourth quarter, is slightly longer than the current model, gets a new front end and will be available with several new safety and communications features.

Automotive News Europe salutes the winners of the 2013 Rising Stars awards. Every day until June 12 one of the 18 winners will be featured. Today's Rising Star is Jay Ward, Ford of Europe's director of product communications.

BMW, VW and Volvo have been recognized as the top-ranking automakers based on their openness to supplier innovation in the 2013 European Supplier Choice Survey.

Chevrolet -- General Motors' best-selling brand globally -- is falling further behind rivals in Europe as the region's buyers turn their backs on the marque's aging product lineup.

Nissan Europe has named Jean-Pierre Diernaz as its first director of electric vehicles for the region, where sales of the automaker's Leaf EV have not met expectations.

The latest recalls by Jeep in Canada have nothing to do with Chrysler declining an NHTSA request to recall 2.7 million Jeeps in the U.S.

On 45,387 Compass and Patriot SUVs from 2010-2012, a software error in the occupant restrain control (ORC) module could delay or prevent side curtain airbag and seatbelt pretensioner deployment in slower-developing rollover events. Since this situation could increase the risk of personal injury in a crash, Jeep dealers will reprogram the module.

Meanwhile, the power steering return line on 18,407 Wranglers from 2012-2013 may wear against the automatic transmission oil cooler line, causing a transmission fluid leak. This would result in a loss of transmission fluid, potentially causing damage to the transmission and resulting in a loss of propulsion. Here, dealers will either add a protective sleeve or replace the transmission line.

Source: Transport Canada

From GMM

Red Bull pulled Sebastian Vettel back into line with three simple words on the very last lap of the Canadian grand prix.

The reigning world champion is famous for not only wanting to win races, but also secure the fastest lap of the grand prix.

So, at the start of his final tour of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve en route to victory on Sunday, Vettel began his quest with the fastest - or 'purple' - first sector of the entire race.

"I wasn't surprised," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport, "but I told his race engineer to bring him under control."

Photo: Red Bull Racing

In the past, engineer Guillaume 'Rocky' Roquelin's instructions to Vettel about giving up the pointless quest for fastest laps have gone mostly unheeded.

So 'Rocky' tried a different strategy in Canada. Three words: "Monaco, 1988, Senna".

Like many in F1, Vettel knows well the tale of how legend Ayrton Senna threw away certain victory at Monaco 25 years ago when he lost focus and crashed.

Sebastian Vettel, duly backing off for a safer cruise to the chequered flag, replied to his engineer: "Ok, ok -- I'm just kidding."

Perhaps the 25-year-old thought in that moment about the state of the world championship, where in his quest for an ultra-rare fourth consecutive drivers' title he stood to push his points lead to Fernando Alonso out to 36 points.

Ferrari's Alonso, however, said afterwards that he's not panicking yet.

Asked what points deficit will make him worry, the Spaniard answered on Sunday: "I think (when) we are 80 or 85 points behind. (That) will be a very critical situation, which is (a points gap of) more than three races."