Carlos Tavares has been appointed Renault’s new Chief Operating Officer. As of July 1, Tavares will oversee Renault’s growth strategy focused on developing electric vehicles and new markets. He has replaced Patrick Pelata, who resigned in April following a case of alleged industrial espionage which turned into a fraud investigation. Carlos Tavares, 53, a Portugues...
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Formula One Driver Lewis Hamilton, who finished sixth in the chaotic Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday has apologized to the FIA Stewards for his controversial remarks. After being punished three times in two days, Lewis criticized the stewards in a BBC interview. He also made a reference to Ali G, the comedy character created by...
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Toyota is taking product development authority away from Japanese bosses and putting it in the hands of North American executives as part of a larger change aimed at fixing quality control issues that hurt the automaker’s reputation last year. Until now, vehicles produced and designed and developed in North America had to be approved by...
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Volkswagen wants to produce the Tiguan SUV model in North America in an effort to slash production costs on the compact crossover. VW is already producing the Jetta and Passat in North America and is considering moving production of the Tiguan, according to a report by WirtschaftsWocke magazine. Presently, the Tiguan model is only produced...
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Hyundai officially announced that its has sold 5 million vehicles in Europe since it first began retail operations in 1977. The first Hyundai Pony was imported to Europe in 1977 and the five millionth vehicle was in i30, which was launched in 2007 and has sold just over 320,000 units throughout Europe. Hyundai has managed...
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The United States Department of Transportation has proposed a plan to require all light-duty vehicles to be equipped with data-recording black boxes. The 197-page proposed document was released yesterday by the White House. NHTSA is also considering the meausure for heavy-duty trucks. The electronic data recorders(EDR) are equipped to many vehicles already. GM began using...
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The Romanian racing company Dacia famous for winter racing has joined Renaultsport, and a number of independent firms to build the Dacia Duster. The “No Limit” race car driven by Jean-Phillipe Dayraut was built for the Unlimited class at Pikes Peak. In this class, there are essentially no restrictions placed on a car’s specifications. In...
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Mercedes-Benz has successful shed the gas-guzzler label on two models for the 2012 model year. The 2011 U.S fuel-economy guide showed 12 Mercedes models were subject to the “gas guzzler tax”. That has now dropped to 10. Models expected to escape the tax for 2012 are the CLS550 and CLS63 AMG. Both are redesigned and...
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If American licensed drivers were required to retake the driver’s test today, one in five would not pass, according to results of the 2011 GMAC Insurance National Driver’s Test. 18 percent of the country’s total licensed motorists lack knowledge of some basic rules of the road. Motorists were asked what to do when approaching a...
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General Motors has recently revealed plans of a shift in production for the next-generation Chevrolet Impala. The new Impala will soon be produced in the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, rather than the Oshawa, Canada facility that currently builds the car. The next Impala will be based on Cadillac’s upcoming XTS sedan meaning the Impala will grow in...
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The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety today announced the all-new 2011 Lexus CT200h hybrid earned a “Top Safety Pick” award. The Lexus earned the award through enduring front, side, rollover, and rear impact evaluations and its standard electronic stability control. High-strength steel components are carefully located in the body structure to help ensure strength in key...
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An Ogilvy Cape Town South African Volkswagen Golf R advertisement is encouraging the reader to ingest the advertisement(see picture above). The “Eat the road. Seriously, eat it” ad is made of “glutinous rice flour, water, salt, propylene glycol, FD&C colour and glycerin.” The idea behind this ad is giving people a test drive in their mouth. This takes...
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A trusted Infiniti insider has confirmed the automaker has no plans to introduce the M25 into the U.S market. The M25 was to use the 2.5-liter VQ25VHR engine aimed to compete with the BMW 528i. The M25 has worked well in Japan (where cars are taxed based on displacement) and would have been a cheaper...
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Bad news for Mazda rotary engine enthusiasts – the company has no plans to build the RX-9 hybrid sports car, contrary to recent rumors. Even worse, minimal sales of the RX8 may jeopardize the Mazda rotary engine all together. Production of the Mazda RX-8 is drawing to a close, with U.S sales of just 291...
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Volvo has announced plans to develop and test a new flywheel kinetic energy recovery system. Volvo says the KERS system (or FKERS as Volvo calls it) is “a light, cheap and very eco-efficient solution that makes a four-cylinder engine feel like a six at the same time as fuel consumption drops with up to 20 percent.”...
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Aston Martin is reportedly working on a Rapide S, which will be much faster than the current Rapide, via a heart transplant involving the DBS’s 510-hp engine. The current Rapide is by no means a slow car. Powered by a 6.0-liter V12 engine producing 470-hp and 443 lb-ft of torque, the Rapide is capable of...
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Mazda announced today they have reached a production milestone of three million Mazda3 units as of April 26, 2011. The car is built in three factories (Japan, China, Thailand) and sold in roughly 90 countries and regions. In North America alone, over 1.1 million Mazda3s have been sold, becoming the fastest-selling model in Mazda’s...
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Toyota will be adding a function to its onboard navigation systems that gives on-screen and voice alerts to wrong way drivers. The system was developed with Aisin AW Co., Ltd. and Denso Corporation and the function will monitor the vehicle’s direction. This system will work on highways and selected toll roads, including tollgates, service area...
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North American Honda production will return to normal in August, earlier than expected, the company announced in a statement today. The Japanese automaker has accelerated their recovery following the March 11th earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Every Honda model will resume regualar production in August, except the 2012 Civic. The company expects full production...
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Saab will finally gain some stability, as the company will resume production tomorrow at its Trollhattan, Sweden, assembly plant. The facility has been idle for about six weeks. Saab’s owner, Dutch automaker Spyker, has been unable to secure the much-needed financing to pay off its suppliers, but the automaker says it has reached agreements that...
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Nissan has had a successful year with the Nissan Juke, Cube, Leaf and Infiniti M37/56 on the list of 2011 top safety picks. Today, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety awarded the 2011 Nissan Juke a “Top Safety Pick” rating. The Juke earned this award by earning a “good” rating in front, rear and side...
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There have been rumors that Audi could make the jump into Formula 1, however the automaker is adamant that it won’t be the company to do so. According to the company’s motorsport boss, F1 bears “no relevance to the road”. Audi predominently races Le Mans Prototypes, like the R18 TDI. Audi points out that Le...
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Hyundai–Kia will outsell Toyota and Honda in May sales, according to TrueCar. TrueCar expects Hyundai-Kia to sell 115,434 units in May. This number represents an increase of 43.4 percent over May 2010 making the Korean group a 10.9 percent market share putting it number three behind Ford and GM. Hyundai-Kia has gathered a momentum caused...
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The 2012 Hyundai Genesis sedan has officially been launched and priced at $34,200. The 2012 Genesis which debuted at the 2011 Chicago Auto Show, received minor changes to the interior and exterior, but the big change is the engine. For $34,200, the base Genesis is available with a direct-injected 3.8-liter V6, rated at 333-hp and 291...
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