Auto News 5

GM is recalling about 375,000 heavy-duty pickup trucks equipped with passenger-side airbag inflators made by Takata. And Subaru will expand a recall of Impreza compact cars with Takata airbags to about 80,000 from 20,000.

Harman Industrial Industries, a supplier of infotainment, audio and software services, said today it has completed the $156 million acquisition of Bang and Olufsen Automotive, a supplier of audio products to luxury automakers.

Elon Musk has been shut out of the Lone Star state again.

American Axle and Manufacturing is in talks with prospective manufacturing tenants to be located at its former manufacturing grounds near the company's Detroit headquarters.

Two car salesmen from neighboring dealerships in suburban Minneapolis teamed up Wednesday afternoon to save a life.

Daimler is chasing Tesla Motors in a push to sell batteries for storing energy generated in daylight hours from rooftop solar panels to homeowners and businesses.

Has Audi ever bettered the styling of the original AU314 TT? Certainly to many eyes, the second generation model was a disappointment, but the progressive tech and aggressive looks of the new model are a big step ahead, especially in TTS form.

Production of the redesigned, aluminum-bodied Ford F-150 has been slowed by a shortage of frames from a supplier's plant in Kentucky, according to workers and a UAW official.

Suzuki has opened its new Cikarang car assembly plant in the Greenland International Industrial Centre east of Jakarta.

Latest on GM's long-running 'ignition switch' recall/compensation saga: according to US media reports, bankruptcy judge Robert Gerber has put on hold dozens of lawsuits accusing the automaker of concealing the ignition switch defect while plaintiffs in those cases appeal his earlier ruling that found their cases barred.

News 29 May, 2015

The 2016 London Motor Show is set to be a motor show with a difference; held at iconic Battersea Park next year

Carmakers are moving quickly to follow Hyundai's lead in offer Google's Android Auto and Apple's CarPlay systems.

Harman says it has completed its acquisition of Bang & Olufsen's automotive audio business.

Hyundai is confident it will reach the 760,000 unit target set for 2015 US sales set back in January.

Opinion 29 May, 2015

Mike Rutherford is impressed by hugely profitable Toyota, with it small number of brands beating VW's wide range

Just when you thought things couldn't be any worse for the auto sector in Russia, up popped the AEB recently with its latest monthly instalment of doom that sets the situation in stark clarity, but will a stabilising rouble ride to the rescue?

Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann confirmed that CEO Sergio Marchionne sent an email to GM about a possible tie-up. Elkann said discussions had taken place with other players as well.

As those - all three of you - who honour me with your occasional presence on my self-curated 'just-auto' Facebook page may have guessed, when I'm not helping to cover the current cutting edge state of the autobiz, I like to wallow in a rose-tinted backview of the 1960s when British, Australian and Canadian cars dominated my import-restricted former colony, V8s were an attainable aspiration (one could put one in one's Cortina if one so wished), petrol was cheap (diesel for trucks only) and the Holy Grail for a Kiwi Kar Nut was the annual Earls Court show in London.

Ficosa is building a new integrated production centre in The Highlands Industrial Park in Cookeville (Tennessee).

Ford says it is opening its portfolio of electrified vehicle technology patents to competitive automakers in order to accelerate industry-wide research and development of electrified vehicles. They are available for a fee.