Auto News 5

News 22 Jun, 2016

Aston Martin’s baby coupé is set for a refresh- and it’s been pictured out in the wild

Tesla's offer to buy SolarCity for as much as $2.86 billion in stock boggles the mind. There's basically two ways to look at why Musk is behind the deal.

Opinion 22 Jun, 2016

Does MINI's Vision Next 100 concept preview a truly compact MINI? Editor Graham Hope sincerely hopes so

An electronic ('intelligent' or 'active') suspension system can control the vertical movement of a vehicle's wheels relative to its chassis or body via an on-board system. Given that a conventional passive suspension system features a fixed damper setting, there has always been a compromise between comfort and handling performance. Yet electronically controlled suspension systems that continuously adjust the damper settings to suit the road conditions eliminate that trade-off, providing the driver with greater levels of comfort and control. This month's briefing reviews the market prospects for electronic suspension systems and some of the major players.

At its annual shareholder meeting, Volkswagen has vowed to shore up its internal systems and processes in order to prevent a repeat of the diesel emissions crisis amid rumbles of discontent from some shareholders.

News 22 Jun, 2016

The new Baleno was flanked by five star ratings for the latest models from Toyota, SEAT, VW and Alfa Romeo

PSA finalized a joint-venture production deal with state-owned Iran Khodro as it prepares its return to the Middle East's biggest auto market.

PSA said it had finalized a joint-venture production deal with state-owned Iran Khodro as it prepares its return to the Middle East's biggest auto market. The JV will begin buildling Peugeot models in the latter half of 2017.

As it slowly expands its new Vignale line to fill a premium slot once held by the Ghia nameplate, Ford has shown the production version of the Kuga SUV on sale in Europe later this year. Vignale versions of the Mondeo [Fusion] four-door sedan and wagon are already in showrooms while dealers are taking orders for plus the S-Max people carrier and five-door Mondeo hatchback. The Edge Vignale SUV arrives late in 2016.

The Prius has always been an engineering tour de force. What it hasn't ever been, is a genuinely economical model in all conditions and in all markets. Designed mainly for tax laws in Japan and car pool lanes in Northern California, for European buyers Toyota's eco image poster child has never lived up to the hype. Until now.

FCA US LLC will cease NAFTA market production of vehicles equipped with non desiccated ammonium nitrate Takata air bag inflators by next week while global production is expected to end by mid September, the automaker said this week.

The Daimler Group's car sharing unit, car2go, will open its 31st international location in Brussels in October 2016. What Daimler claims is "the world's largest free-floating car-sharer" starts business with 300 vehicles in an area covering around 50 square km in the city of Brussels.

News 22 Jun, 2016

The new pumped-up HPE800 Ford Mustang gets a supercharged 5.0L V8 with more than 800bhp to celebrate 25 years of Hennessey Performance.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) on Wednesday forecast a JPY145bn net loss for fiscal 2016 (to 31 March 2017) as a result of expected costs due to its wrongly stating fuel economy figures for a number of minicar car models sold in Japan. It had previously forecast a JPY726.6bn net profit.

Nissan is looking into whether Mitsubishi Motors may have faked fuel economy figures outside of Japan as part of Nissan's due diligence review of the company before finalizing its plan to buy a 34 percent stake for 237 billion yen ($2.28 billion).

Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller says the automaker has received regulatory approval for technical fixes on another 1 million diesel cars, mainly Golf models, and expects the number to keep growing.

Pierburg, a subsidiary of supplier, KSPG (a member of the Rheinmetall Group), has been awarded what it says are "major orders" worth EUR375m (US$423m) by an unnamed Chinese automotive group.

BAIC, Daimler's JV partner in China through the Beijing Benz joint venture, plans to produce own-brand vehicles in Mexico from 2017 as it looks to gain a firm foothold in the huge North American vehicle market.

News 22 Jun, 2016

The new Ford Focus RS could soon be getting even hotter, as possible RS500 prototype is spotted at the Nurburgring