2010 - Nissan 370z on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The Carlos and Dieter Show promises more collaboration

Daimler and Renault-Nissan said Friday the automakers have expanded their four-year-old alliance to include putting a Renault diesel in the Mercedes C-Class, a Mercedes gasoline engine in an Infiniti and possibly will involve automated driving technologies in the near future. At a joint Paris Motor Show press conference dubbed 'The Carlos and Dieter Show' by European media, Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn and Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said the alliance between the automakers is running strong and will expand into any area that makes financial sense for both companies.
Ghosn and Zetsche said the alliance between the automakers is running strong and will expand into any area that makes financial sense for both companies.
Daimler and Renault-Nissan began their partnership in 2010 with plans to collaborate on three projects. They've since expanded that and are working on 12 projects together, including building a joint plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Renault-Nissan and Daimler are launching their first vehicles developed together from scratch: the Renault Twingo (which went on sale in September) and the new Smart Fortwo and Smart Forfour, which go on sale in November.

Pickup sales may hit 2M units for first time since 2007

Even as fuel prices creep back up, trucks are still a hot item among new-vehicle shoppers. To see how popular pickup trucks still are, you don't have to look any further than how much effort automakers put into the continual one-upmanship of their trucks. Backing this fact up, USA Today is reporting that the segment could top two million sales this year - a total not matched since 2007, though still far from the pre-recession, three-million-unit levels.
Through August, the Ford F-Series continues to be the segment leader with almost 500,000 units sold, but the Chevy Silverado (328,269), Ram 1500 (234,642), GMC Sierra (122,232) and Toyota Tacoma (110,293) are all seeing at least 20-percent sales increases, helping to account for around 1.44 million truck sales so far this year - not including possible outliers like the Suzuki Equator and Chevy Avalanche.
This year alone, General Motors has completely redesigned its fullsize trucks, Ram and Toyota have significantly updated their offerings, the next-gen Ford F-150 will be out next year and Nissan is promising an all-new Titan around the same time with an eventual Cummins diesel under the hood. It would seem, then, that truck sales are poised to continue their upward trend.

Airbag recall widens to include BMW, Chrysler, Ford and Toyota

The recall of faulty airbag inflators supplied by Takata has exploded today to grow to seven automakers. In most cases, only models in certain high-humidity regions were affected because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found in its investigation that moisture played a roll in determining whether there would be a problem. However, some companies opted for national campaigns. The exact number of affected models for these campaigns isn't yet known at this time.
BMW is recalling an undisclosed number of 325i, 325Xi, 330i and 330Xi models from the 2001 through 2005 model years and the 2001-2006 model year versions of the 325Ci and 330Ci for the driver side and passenger side inflators. Only vehicles currently registered in Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands are covered under this recall.
Neither Chrysler's filing with NHTSA nor its press release list the specific models affected, but a company spokesperson told Autoblog that at this time it only covers the driver and passenger side inflators for the 2006 Dodge Charger in Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands