Auto News 5

Honda signaled a growing rift in its more than 50-year relationship with airbag maker Takata, as the automaker struggles to contain a crisis that's killed five motorists in its cars.

Autoliv announced it would supply replacement airbag inflators for Honda Motor to use in the United States airbag recall.

Chrysler said it will expand its recall of about 149,000 pickup trucks to include passenger-side airbag inflators made by supplier Takata, but hours after the company made the announcement, the nation's top vehicle safety agency called the expansion...

News 4 Dec, 2014

Predicted sales for 2014 make it best year of registrations since 2004

Ford Sollers, a joint venture between Ford and JSC Sollers in Russia, has started production of the EcoSport compact SUV at its modernised plant at Naberezhnie Chelny in the Republic of Tatarstan.

News 4 Dec, 2014

New Volvo XC90 is the safest Volvo ever but how does it cope with being crashed into a ditch?

UK car registrations rose 8 percent last month, driven by cheap credit deals and an economic recovery. The result takes sales in 2014 to just over 2.3 million, the highest level for any year since 2007.

News 4 Dec, 2014

Ultra-rare 250 GTO, worth tens of millions of pounds, was crashed and has been brought back to life by Ferrari Classiche

New car registrations in the United Kingdom grew for the 33rd consecutive month in November, up 8% year on year to 172,327 units.

News 4 Dec, 2014

007 is getting some new wheels but what will the next James Bond car be? Watch the live video stream to find out.

VW named Thomas Schmall as the new core brand board member responsible for components #8211; a key post that carries with it the potential for political friction with the carmaker's powerful German unions over a shakeup of parts production.

VW Group will give more power to brand managers and regional bosses, its labor leader said, as the company looks to address poor performance in markets such as the U.S. and Brazil.

VW Group will give more power to brand managers and regional bosses, its labor leader said, as the company looks to address poor performance in markets such as the United States and Brazil.

Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn expects growth in Europe, China and the U.S. next year and is bullish about plans to diversify beyond electric cars into plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.

Lincoln will bring concert-quality sound to its vehicles through a new collaboration announced today with Revel, a manufacturer of audiophile speaker systems.

Tesla Motors drivers were more likely than Porsche owners -- or anyone else -- to say they would buy their cars again in this year's edition of the closely watched Consumer Reports buyer survey.

Ford will build the Fiesta subcompact in Russia next year as it scrambles to replace sales lost by collapsing demand for its Focus compact. The Fiesta will be produced alongside the EcoSport small SUV at Ford's third joint venture plant in Russia.

From GMM

Sebastian Vettel says he never lost respect for Daniel Ricciardo throughout the 2014 season.

As it turned out, this year was the German's last campaign with Red Bull, where he earlier won four consecutive drivers' titles with Mark Webber as his teammate.

"The fact that I never had the best relationship with Mark is well known," Vettel, who has now switched to Ferrari, told the Swiss newspaper Sonntagsblick.

Sebastian Vettel, last appearance with Red Bull in Abu Dhabi. (Photo: WRi2)

But for 2014, Webber was replaced with another Australian, Daniel Ricciardo, who won three races versus the number 1-wearing Vettel's zero.

"First of all," 27-year-old Vettel said, "Daniel is of a different generation. He only knows this new formula one.

"But we worked with respect. I've known him for many years and there was no problem. That he ended up with more points bothers me of course but that's not a reason to not like him," Vettel added.

Now, Sebastian Vettel said his new goal is to become Ferrari's "tenth world champion".

But he admitted it might take some time: "We have not set any timetables, as that rarely works in formula one."

A McLaren team board meeting held Thursday at Woking, UK did not manage to solve the issue of the team's driver line-up for 2015.

It is no longer a secret that two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso will join McLaren-Honda in 2015.

The British team has to decide if it's going to keep newcomer Kevin Magnussen or veteran and former World Champion Jenson Button.

November 18, McLaren issued a press release that read: ”We have decided to defer our final deliberations relating to our 2015 driver line-up until a date no earlier than Monday December 1st”.

A McLaren spokesman told Autosport's Jonathan Noble that no agreement was reached on what it would do with its drivers in 2015.

"Today's board meeting has now concluded, and no decision has been taken with regard to our 2015 driver line-up,” simply said the McLaren spokesperson.

From GMM

A former long-serving McLaren driver and a team insider have criticised the British outfit for its handling of the 2015 driver lineup deliberations.

While it is now clear Fernando Alonso is definitely headed to the team, the announcement has been delayed while McLaren considers keeping either Jenson Button or Kevin Magnussen as the Spaniard's first Honda-powered teammate.

If Button is ousted, the 2009 world champion's long and illustrious F1 career will have ended without an appropriate farewell.

And a decision against Dane Magnussen, despite his solid debut in 2014, could end the 22-year-old rookie's grand prix career after just a single season.

McLaren supremo Ron Dennis acknowledged the dilemma at the Abu Dhabi finale recently.

"Everyone feels - understandably - that we are not being too fair to Kevin and Jenson," he told Britain's Sky.

"But they are contracted to the end of the year and the only pressure we have is from the fans and the media and they are going to be the first ones that jump on us if we make the wrong decisions for the future," Ron Dennis added.

Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button, McLaren. (Photo: WRi2)

Former long-time McLaren driver David Coulthard said he thinks the delayed decision is tied up with a "behind-the-scenes shareholding wrangling".

But he also thinks the team has mismanaged the driver choice process this year.

"McLaren are in a public sport and the heroes of the sport are the drivers," David Coulthard told the Daily Mail. "With that in mind I can't help but think it hasn't been McLaren's best year of PR."

He said one of the biggest issues is that Button has been potentially denied the opportunity to properly farewell the sport he served for 15 years.

"Did he deserve to be treated with a little bit more respect given his time in the sport? Yes, I certainly think that is a valid argument," said Coulthard.

Jenson Button, 34, told his almost 2 million Twitter followers this week that he still "can't answer your questions about my future just yet. Hopefully soon."

Britain's Daily Express newspaper said the situation is being felt throughout the McLaren team.

It quoted a team insider as saying: "Ron has lost a lot of respect over his dithering on the driver lineup."