Auto News 5

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

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."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has demanded that Takata produce documents and answer questions under oath about its use of ammonium nitrate as a propellant in its airbag inflators, according to documents posted on NHTSA's website...

Chrysler Group said it will expand its recall of about 149,000 pickup trucks in 12 states and territories to include passenger-side airbag inflators, made by supplier Takata, to address concerns about improper deployments.

Strong truck sales helped AutoNation to a 6 percent increase in new-vehicle sales in November.

Japanese supplier Takata acknowledged today that it still does not understand what is causing airbag explosions that have hurtled metal shards into vehicles even as it insisted that calls for a broader recall to remedy the problem were misguided.

Visteon has completed the sale of its interiors operations in India to Reydel Automotive Holdings.

Global sales at Ssangyong Motors slumped by 27.5% in November to 4,416 units as the strength of the won took its toll on exports.

Takata has declined to expand air bag recalls across the US - from only high humidity regions - as major customer Honda told a congressional hearing in Washington today (3 December) it would consider such a recall.

Honda North America today said it would expand its recall of potentially explosive driver-side airbag inflators nationwide in accordance with a request from federal regulators, even as the airbag manufacturer Takata continued to insist it's not...

European automotive supplier body, CLEPA, is cautiously welcoming a gradually improving economic landscape, but is mindful of remaining strong challenges remaining as the old Continent emerges from its worst recession in a generation.

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

Japan's powerful industry ministry has summoned Shigehisa Takada, chairman and CEO of Takata, to explain what the company is doing to resolve a crisis over potentially deadly airbags, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

News 3 Dec, 2014

Shock as depreciation-busting Ford also beats Audi A4 and VW Passat

News 3 Dec, 2014

Futuristic-looking personnel carrier concept built by Russian tractor firm ZIL, and reportedly commissioned for army use

News 3 Dec, 2014

Commons debate on parking at schools as ministers want parents to report selfish drivers

New vehicle sales in Taiwan fell by 2.2% to 33,947 units in November, compared with strong year-earlier data, according to data released by the industry.

As early as 2003, Takata ran an investigation into an airbag inflator that ruptured in a BMW, but concluded the problem was an anomaly, the company said on Tuesday, ahead of a second congressional hearing today on dangerous airbags it supplied.

Domestic sales by South Korea's five main automakers increased by 6.5% to 126,943 units in November, from 119,195 units a year earlier, according to data released individually by the vehicle manufacturers.

News 3 Dec, 2014

UK Autodrive consortium wins Government funding and will being testing on roads in Coventry and Milton Keynes