Auto News 5

From press release

Shell has welcomed 1981 world champion Ari Vatanen to the Wales Rally GB, Britain's round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), taking place this weekend (November 14-16 2014).

Hyundai Shell World Rally Team driver Thierry Neuville, together with his team-mate Nicolas Gilsoul and their Hyundai i20 WRC, joined with their illustrious predecessors for a unique photo opportunity before this year's Wales Rally GB got underway.

Finnish ace Vatanen has been reunited with his British co-driver Terry Harryman to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their victory on British soil in the iconic Peugeot 205 T16. In 1984 Vatanen's Peugeot team enjoyed a Technical Partnership with Shell to develop the small but mighty 205 T16 into the defining car of its era, winning both the Drivers' and Manufacturers' championships in 1985 and 1986.

In 2014 Shell has returned to the forefront of international rallying as Title Sponsor and Technical Partner of the Hyundai Shell World Rally Team, its Hyundai i20 WRC cars using Shell Helix Ultra motor oil and featuring Shell Helix branding. Wales Rally GB marks the end of the partnership's first season, which has seen the team amass four podium finishes so far - including a stunning 1-2 result at the Rally Germany in August.

As well as celebrating Shell's long history of technical partnership with some of the world's most successful competition teams, Ari Vatanen's presence on the 2014 Wales Rally GB will see his career celebrated as the first official ‘Rally Legend' of the event - what will become an annual award to the sport's greatest veterans.

“It goes without saying that it is an honour to be the first person to be selected as ‘Rally Legend',” Vatanen said. “It proves that the links I have with this event and this country are reciprocal. I have always been made to feel at home by British fans and I hope when we competed I always put on a good show.”

A recall of Ford Ranger pickup trucks in the United States was expanded to include more flawed Takata airbags after a fatal accident in Malaysia exposed a defect that wasn't previously known.

VIA Motors, a fledgling retrofitter whose chairman is veteran auto executive Bob Lutz, says it has received EPA certification for a plug-in hybrid van. The company equips vans and trucks with plug-in hybrid powertrains and sells them to fleet buyers.

Hertz said today it will revise financial statements from 2011 through 2013 and continue a review that has found $87 million of errors so far.

Cadillac has chosen a space in New York for its new global headquarters, after coming under fire in September for its plan to move away from General Motors' Detroit headquarters, real estate companies for the automaker said Thursday.

Two more executives from Japanese auto suppliers have been indicted as part of the Justice Department's long-running investigation into price-fixing in the auto parts industry, the government said today.

Hyundai Motor America marketing chief Steve Shannon, the General Motors veteran who joined Hyundai in 2011 to help the Korean brand continue its ascendance in the United States market, has parted ways with the company.

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The Volkswagen Group sold 8.24m vehicles in January-October 2014, up 5% year on year and a new record.

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