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News 29 Dec, 2014

MG GTS due in the UK for 2016 but sale kick off in China early in 2015

Stefan Stocker, the Takata president who was brought in to inject more transparency and openness into the family-controlled auto supplier, is out after less than two years at the company.

Nearly all Saab dealers reached a dead end after the Swedish brand's bankruptcy in 2011. But not Park Ave Saab in Maywood, N.J.

Interior designers are working to concentrate more of a vehicle's critical information directly in front of the driver and away from center-stack display screens.

December was once a sleepy month for auto sales but now it's one of the top-selling periods, year after year, as consumers and many of the industry's marketing minds have embraced the notion of cars as holiday gifts.

Plummeting gasoline prices have shaken up some of the mathematical calculations that made diesel an attractive alternative fuel for efficiency-minded drivers.

After being held up since this summer by a lawsuit involving the manufacturer's right of first refusal, the sale of the five-store Long Island Automotive Group finally closed this month.

The U.S. auto industry returned to full-fledged prosperity in 2014, racking up prerecession sales accompanied by rising transaction prices. But the year was punctuated by grim news, as two lethal product defects were linked to dozens of deaths.

Ford is rolling out a new set of commercials with actor Matthew McConaughey behind the wheel of a Lincoln as the luxury brand extends its most talked-about advertising campaign in years.

Germany's premium automakers aim to show that they still have a leading edge in autonomous driving and car connectivity technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Adapted from GMM

The former F1 driver and IndyCar champion gives his impression on the current top Formula 1 drivers.

Discussing with the Ferrari insider Leo Turrini's Quotidiano blog, Alex Zanardi comments: "In my opinion, Hamilton is the best of anyone who drives a car at the moment. Perhaps the only one who comes close to him in absolute terms is Alonso."

As for Sebastian Vettel, the now former four-time world champion and Ferrari's new driver, Zanardi is less convinced.

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari. (Photo: Ferrari)

"I think Vettel is a great driver," he said, "but maybe not at the level of Hamilton or Alonso. However, we are talking about a very, very competitive driver who is going to Maranello with the right spirit.

"Apart from the car, which of course is important, it will be interesting to see how Vettel and Raikkonen will go in 2015 in reaction to their latest experiences.

"In 2014, Seb was beaten by Ricciardo, and it was the same with Kimi compared with Fernando. How will the new Ferrari couple do with a car that we are told will not be on top?

"It will be very interesting to see their performance," Alex Zanardi concluded.

Maurizio Arrivabene and Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari. (Photo: WRi2)

From GMM

Korea has been removed from the latest 2015 calendar issued by F1's governing body.

Insiders were initially stunned early in December when next year's schedule featured an unprecedented 21 grand prix dates and the return of a race in unpopular South Korea.

Korean organisers played down the inclusion and even Bernie Ecclestone admitted it was unlikely, as experts explained it was probably a mere 'trick' to trigger a loophole in the long-life engine use rules for 2015.

But at the latest Strategy Group meeting, the engine rule loophole was closed, and in the hours before Christmas the FIA issued a definitive 2015 calendar on which Korea does not feature.

However, the final 2015 calendar does declare that next year's world championship will be played out over "21 competitions", even though only 20 races are subsequently listed.

From GMM

On the one-year anniversary of his skiing crash, Michael Schumacher's inner circle has hit back at the latest claims about the seven time world champion.

Former F1 driver Philippe Streiff, who was paralysed in a 1989 crash, told Le Parisien newspaper on Sunday that while the great German is still not able to speak, he is "starting to recognise those close to him".

As for Schumacher's future, Streiff added that "long term, he could hope one day to walk with crutches".

Streiff said he had heard the news from Schumacher's wife Corinna and the FIA-linked doctor Gerard Saillant.

But speaking to the French-language news agency AFP, Saillant hit back at Streiff's claims.

"For a year, I have had no verbal, written or physical contact with Philippe Streiff," he said through a FIA spokesman.

And Schumacher's manager Sabine Kehm was quoted by the German newspaper Bild as also rejecting the report based on Streiff's comments.

"I can only wonder about these statements of Philippe Streiff," she said. "He certainly has no contact with Professor Saillant or with Corinna. Between Mr Streiff and Michael, there has also never been a friendship," added Kehm.

As for Streiff's comments suggesting Schumacher, 45, is making progress one year after his skiing accident, Sabine Kehm said: "We need a long time.

"It's going to be a long time and a hard fight. He is making progress appropriate to the severity of the situation," she told Reuters.

From GMM

Tony Fernandes' already bad 2014 turned black at the weekend.

This year, the Malaysian entrepreneur sold his ailing backmarker F1 team Caterham, his London football club Queens Park Rangers has disappointed, and now a flight operated by his airline AirAsia has gone missing en route to Singapore.

The flight had 155 passengers and 7 crew on board.

"My heart bleeds for all the relatives of my crew and our passengers. Nothing is more important to us," he wrote on Twitter.

The German newspaper Die Welt said 2014 was the "worst year of Fernandes' career".

From GMM

There are fears a third team could follow Caterham and Marussia out of F1 as the new year beckons.

Caterham, although still in administration, is hoping to race in 2015 but Marussia's assets and factory are being sold to pay back creditors.

F1 business journalist Christian Sylt wrote in the Telegraph that the team's engine and technology suppliers Ferrari and McLaren, for example, are owed $25 and $11 million respectively.

Sylt said administrator Geoff Rowley acknowledged that Marussia is unlikely to race in 2015.

Caterham and Marussia in Russia. (Photo: WRi2)

Now there are fears a third team could collapse, potentially reducing the 2015 grid to just 16 cars. Last year, 11 teams began the championship, filling a 22-car grid.

But the sport's rising costs are beginning to bite, and at the latest meeting of the Strategy Group, little was achieved in terms of any relief.

"Forget the festive spirit," a source told Times correspondent Kevin Eason. "We have people drinking in the last-chance saloon this Christmas and no one seems able or willing to do anything about it."

On the latest 2015 entry list, Lotus has been listed with a conditional asterisk alongside its name.

Bob Fernley, deputy boss at Sahara Force India, said he was warning a year ago that modest-budget backmarkers like Caterham and Marussia were at risk of collapse.

"(Now) we are talking about teams with budgets of $155 million plus and employing 350 people or more.

"We are about to start a new year with the same warning, but no one seems to grasp what is going on and how urgent things have become. They are like sailors rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic while the ship sinks," he added.

From GMM

Lewis Hamilton has taken home yet another plaudit after winning his second drivers' title in 2014.

A coveted award in Europe is the Polish press agency's Sportsman of the Year, in which 18 similar sports news services cast their votes.

In 2014, it is Mercedes driver and Briton Hamilton who secured the prize with 82 points, in front of German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer's 81 and tennis' Novak Djokovic coming in with 74 points.

In fourth place was Cristiano Ronaldo, with 72 points.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG. (Photo: WRi2)

Alex Zanardi, the former F1 driver who has inspired millions with his feats in the wake of his 2001 crash and injuries, said F1 crowned the deserving champion in 2014.

"I am not talking about the car, I'm talking about the driver," he told the Ferrari insider Leo Turrini's Quotidiano blog.

"In my opinion, Hamilton is the best of anyone who drives a car at the moment. Perhaps the only one who comes close to him in absolute terms is Alonso," said Zanardi.

Driven by surging Mexican factories, North American light-vehicle production in 2014 is headed for the second-highest level on record. Full-year 2014 output for the United States, Mexico and Canada will total 17.

Not everything went as planned in 2014. Here are some of the auto world's top blunders of the year, from our annual Lists of 10.

Piero Lardi Ferrari thinks his father Enzo would have approved Sergio Marchionne.

"I think so, yes," he replied when Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport asked if the two would have gone along well.

"(Marchionne) is a hard worker. He can identity problems and solve them quickly. The more I get to know him, the more I like," added Lardi Ferrari.

Piero Lardi Ferrari and Sergio Marchionne (Photo: WRI2)

Enzo's son also seems to approve the shake up at Maranello, which reminds him of the 1961 season.

"I think the changes going on right now are good," he says. "Formula One is in constant evolution, so you have to keep up.

"I've seen this kind of shake up before. I remember at the end of 1961, seven people lost their job. That's when Mauro Forghieri arrived."

And under his leadership, the Scuderia won four titles with John Surtees (1964), Niki Lauda (1975 and 1977) and Jody Scheckter (1979).