German four-door coupes

In case you were living under a rock since the close of the 20th century, sleek coupes with four-doors are currently in vogue. All the head-turning attractions without the hassle, it seems that every respectable German carmaker must have one in their line-up. Arguably the latest and most hotly anticipated of these is the Audi A7 Sportback which is set to be unveiled in full production form next week in Munich. But at it is the way with the internet these days Carscoop.com has posted leaked official images of the said coupe. Click here to read more.

Sixth win for Lorenzo as Rossi finishes on the podium at Laguna Red Bull U.S Grand Prix, Sunday 25 July

Jorge Lorenzo’s Championship lead was stretched to 72 points at Laguna Seca as the Fiat Yamaha rider won the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix ahead of Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi, in a round nine race that saw Dani Pedrosa crash out while leading.A trademark lightning start from Pedrosa saw him lead into turn one of the first lap and the Spaniard appeared to be making a similar break for victory as he had done last time out at Sachsenring, as he set a fierce pace at the front of the race. Click here to read more.

Honda turns a green leaf for the future.

Honda’s president, Takanobu Ito, acknowledges the changing times and rise in environmental awareness in his company’s “Direction for the next 10 years” plan during his mid-year speech.Ito says that Honda should aim “to provide good products to our customers with speed, affordability and low CO2 emissions”.Honda would be focusing on three core areas to achieve this goal that is advancement of environmental technologies, strengthening of its manufacturing system and capability, and strengthening of its business operations in emerging nations. Click here to read more.

Nissan shows how to beat the Germans at advertising.

Marketing people in Malaysia would only dream of doing this. Some might say it is hitting a little below the belt, but the Europeans love to take a swing at one another when it comes to advertising.Nissan UK has launched a new ad campaign known as “How to beat the Germans” highlighting its superior (value-for-money) performance of its 370Z sports car and Porsche 911-slaying GT-R, and taking a swing at the stuffy German competitors. Click here to read more.

Chinese couple accused of stealing GM hybrid secrets

A Chinese migrant couple in America were charged of conspiring to steal General Motors’ hybrid technology and sell it to their Chinese competitor, Chery Automobile. Yu Qin, and his wife Shanshan Du were charged with unauthorised possession of trade secrets, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice. According to the US Attorney’s Office, Du passed secrets of GM’s hybrid technology to her husband for use in their company, Millennium Technology International Inc., while she was working at GM. Click here to read more.

Ford made $2.6billion in Q2 2010

The Ford Motor Company posted a second quarter 2010 net income of $2.6billion (RM8.3billion), an improvement of $3.5bilion (RM11.2billion) over the same period last year and up $932million (RM2.98billion) over its first quarter performance. Not surprisingly Ford reports that every one of its automotive business operations reported a profit for the quarter and showed improvement compared to last year. Click here to read more.

Fiat ditches its non-car business

FIAT has announced that it is splitting its automotive division from its industrial machine, marine and farm equipment business.Many other car companies have gone this way (Volvo for example) although Mercedes-Benz has proven it can be a profitable venture. Fiat has its own brand, Alfa-Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati under its automobile arm and the spin off unit that covers Iveco trucks, Case New Holland tractors will be dumped into a separate public company called Fiat Industrial. Click here to read more.

Silver is choice for most

Standox, one of the leading automotive paint suppliers has announced that one in four cars sold in the world is silver.This is followed by black (22 per cent) and white at 16 per cent. Grey takes fourth place with 13 per cent.Three fourths of all the cars in the world are achromatic while blue (at nine per cent) was the only chromatic color to make it into the international top five.Blue is followed closely by classic red at eight per cent.In the US and Japan, white is at the top f the list, followed by black and silver. Click here to read more.

ABS to go standard on European bikes

IT seems that the European Parliament at Brussels is planning to make ABS mandatory for all motorcycles sold in that continent.This will definitely bump up the price of the bikes to an extra £750 (RM3,700) each.Fortunately, market reports believe the 100bhp limit for bikes currently employed by France will not be extended to other EU countries.Instead, reports are saying that the French government might be asked to dispense with the restriction for harmonisation purposes.We are sure French bikers will be jumping for joy. Click here to read more.

VW - Even their vans look good

VOLKSWAGEN is really serious in its move to have the same corporate look on all of its products.The recent one to receive such treatment will be the  2011 Volkswagen Caddy, the commercial van line-up.This is the first appearance of the model after six-years of absence, and VW is offering four turbo-diesel engines to go with the line, each 13 per cent more efficient than their predecessors.The engine option starts from two 1.6: producing 75 or 102hp (both with start/stop technology) and two 2.0L engines, producing 110hp and 140hp. Click here to read more.