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VW Group has narrowed its global sales gap with market leader Toyota as the world's two largest automakers enter the fourth quarter in a tight race for the industry's top spot. VW Group trailed Toyota by 72,000 vehicles after nine months.

VW Group has narrowed its global sales gap with market leader Toyota as the world's two largest automakers enter the fourth quarter in a tight race for the industry's top spot. VW Group trailed Toyota by 72,000 vehicles after nine months.

Fiat Chrysler aims to boost sales in Latin America by 44 percent over five years but a recent big drop in volume and weakening outlook in Brazil, the region's biggest economy, threaten to spoil its ambitions.

A monthly sales forecast developed by JD Power and LMC Automotive points to continued growth in the US light vehicle market in October.

News 29 Oct, 2014

Extra power and race-inspired styling for new US-only special edition Audi R8 Competition

European automotive supplier body, CLEPA, says drivers will still have to retain an element of responsibility, despite the rapid advances in autonomous potential.

Newly-installed European automotive supplier body, CLEPA CEO, Paul Schockmel, says he will be examining the organisation's structure to ensure it is functioning in the most efficient way possible.

News 29 Oct, 2014

Only £7.5bn of £30.7bn raised in 2012 was spent on roads - concern at big shortfall

News 29 Oct, 2014

Weight loss key for new car, set to debut in 2015

News 29 Oct, 2014

The will-they, won’t-they saga surrounding the new Skoda Roomster is settled

VW Group's joint venture with FAW Group will recall 270,635 Audi A4s in China due to an airbag software issue, the country's quality watchdog said on Wednesday. The recall involves 4,692 imported A4 allroad variants and 265,943 China-made A4Ls.

VW Group's joint venture with FAW Group will recall 270,635 Audi A4s in China due to an airbag software issue, the country's quality watchdog said on Wednesday. The recall involves 4,692 imported A4 allroad variants and 265,943 China-made A4Ls.

Takata knew at least as early as 2001 of manufacturing defects that could lead its airbags to explode, U.S. drivers claimed in lawsuits.

Safety technology supplier TRW, which counts on Europe for more than 40 percent of its sales, said that its third-quarter revenue dropped 1 percent to $4.16 billion from a year earlier, while net income fell 4 percent.

Mazda will join Europe's hot subcompact SUV segment early next year with the CX-3, a company spokesman said. Mazda will sell more than 25,000 CX-3s in Europe next year, analysts at IHS Automotive predict.

From GMM

As F1's two backmarker teams collapse, 2016 newcomer Haas' plans continue to take shape.

The teams that were ultimately known as Caterham, Marussia and HRT are all now gone, but Nascar team co-owner Gene Haas is determined not to make the same mistakes as his North Carolina based Haas F1 Team takes its next bold steps.

"They wound up making a lot of mistakes," the Californian told CNN. "Inevitably they didn't have the resources, or the cars weren't properly put together, because they rushed things."

Rushing is something Haas is not doing, having turned down the chance to debut in 2015. The year after, the team will debut with Ferrari support and power.

"We'd be very proud to be a Ferrari 'B' team because that would certainly teach us how to run in formula one," said Haas, 61, whose successful machine tool company is already an on-car Ferrari sponsor.

HAAS brand on the Ferrari F14 T. (Photo: WRi2)

Haas has now announced that it has signed up Adam Jacobs, who managed the Budweiser sponsorships in Nascar, to be chief marketing officer.

"It's a great opportunity to develop and launch a global brand in an organisation led by someone as driven and accomplished as Gene Haas," said Jacobs.

Haas, meanwhile, says he has no regrets about starting a team just as some sections of the media are declaring that F1 is on the brink of a financial crisis.

"It was insane the number of people coming by saying 'Great to know you, great to know you're involved in formula one'," he told USA Today, recalling a recent visit to a Chicago trade show.

"Everybody sees we're aligning ourselves with (the) ultimate motor sports project."

Gene has declared that his ideal 2016 driver lineup would be an experienced F1 driver alongside an American.

"Even in the Nascar garage," the co-owner of the Stewart-Haas team smiled, "most of the drivers now are shaking my hand. I think they're interested."

Nonetheless, he also understands the scepticism, particularly with F1's three newest teams all now out of business, and the last attempt by an American team - USF1 - having never even turned a wheel.

"There's good reason to doubt it -- it's a big undertaking," said Haas.

"Lots of people before us have failed. It's a natural scepticism. That's just a natural human trait not to believe it until you see it."

From GMM

F1 legend Alain Prost doubts struggling engine supplier Renault can catch dominant Mercedes in 2015.

Having faltered at the start of the new turbo V6 era, Renault - whose prominent F1 partner is the outgoing world champion team Red Bull - can upgrade its 2014 engine to the tune of 48 per cent under the existing 'freeze' regulations.

But Mercedes' rivals are arguing for the 'freeze' to be further relaxed.

"It will be hard for them (Renault) to catch up with Mercedes," quadruple world champion Prost, a Renault ambassador, told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

"But it also depends on whether there is a change in the development timetable (the engine freeze) by the FIA.

"A total freeze as it is now is synonymous with stagnation," Prost argued. "But just opening up everything is too expensive. A good compromise is needed.

"We should not make a final judgement about Renault until next year," he added.

Renault Sport F1. (Photo: WRi2)

At the same time, Prost thinks it is understandable that Renault fell behind Mercedes just as the rules changed so dramatically, given Red Bull's run of title domination at the end of the V8 era.

"It was almost inevitable that Mercedes would start with an advantage," he said.

"Last season I was saying that it would be hard to beat them as they started developing much earlier.

"Renault was always defending a world title in the last years," Prost explained, "while Mercedes was able to concentrate fully on the new project."

From GMM

It is perhaps the burning question in F1 at present -- what is Fernando Alonso going to do next?

Hopeful rookie Carlos Sainz Jr, a fellow Spaniard, summed up the mood of the entire paddock when he told AS newspaper on Wednesday: "I have no idea."

In fact, some F1 protagonists believe they know what is going to happen.

Italy's specialist La Gazzetta dello Sport declared on Wednesday that new Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne will travel to Austin this weekend for a double announcement -- Alonso's exit and the arrival of Sebastian Vettel.

That may be the case, but the inner workings of Alonso's apparently inevitable departure from the Maranello team are probably more complicated.

Fernando Alonso, out of Ferrari? (Photo: WRi2)

Michael Schmidt, the highly respected correspondent for Auto Motor und Sport, thinks he knows the answer, having written it down in two recent articles.

The crux of the matter is that with German Vettel having apparently already signed for 2015, Ferrari also has valid contracts for next season with Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso.

It is the manner in which Alonso's contract is terminated that is apparently the cause of the current and mysterious delay.

If the 33-year-old is the one who pulls the plug, he can walk off to McLaren-Honda, another team, or a sabbatical.

But if Ferrari is the one that legally calls off the deal, the Italian team will have to compensate Alonso to the tune of tens of millions of euros -- just as it had to do at the end of 2009 when Raikkonen was farewelled ahead of time.

"Rumours have it that the Spaniard has a choice: either drive (in 2015) or take the severance," said Schmidt.

"But Ferrari does not want this. Why pay someone who himself wanted to leave the team? He will not drive, because they already have two drivers in Vettel and Raikkonen.

"Mediation talks have brought no breakthrough until now. Both parties want to avoid going to court and instead find a noiseless compromise."

Former owner of Caterham thinks there'll never be room for small teams in Formula 1.

Speaking on Sky Sports News, Tony Fernandes said unless there's a reduction in spending throughout the grid, there'll never be room for small teams like Caterham in F1.

"People can blame whoever, but the big teams are as much at fault as anyone. The gap has become way too big and it's money. And so I thought, ‘Well, I can't compete'. But I can compete at QPR; I can compete at Air Asia," he said.

Both Caterham and Marussia entered in F1 in 2010, having been told they could compete with a budget cap. The deal broke down and it's now a total about 500 jobs under threat as the two teams went in administration.

"Rather than continue something where I thought, one, I wasn't able to give it as much time as possible, two, I thought we were on a beating to none anyway, you've got to be brave and say ‘Look, we screwed up. You can't compete; you thought you could and time to leave'," Tony Fernandes said.

"The sport has to examine itself as well. Ultimately we couldn't carry on and we would have eventually gone into administration anyway or closed down the team."

Photo: Caterham F1 Team

Administrators might look for a new buyer and the businessman adds: "There are people who want to go racing, for different reasons and Caterham has everything there to do it. There may even be teams within F1 who want a second team - a Red Bull/Toro Rosso situation.

"So we'll give it maximum support but it's not something I want to get involved in anymore. You've got to immerse yourself in it. Racing's over for me."