Shocker! Chrysler Bringing Home More Bacon than Fiat...

Two years ago, Chrysler was saved from oblivion when the federal government provided a $15 billion bailout and orchestrated a rescue plan that gave the Fiat Group the management control of the company.

Last week, the Italian automaker raised its share in Chrysler beyond 50% for the first time, to 53.5%.So Fiat saved Chrysler in 2009, right? Well, yes, but 2011 is another story altogether.

You see, Chrysler’s US sales increased by 21% in the first six months of the year, whereas Fiat’s European deliveries dropped 12.7% in the same period. But that's only half the story. With the exception of the Maserati and Ferrari brands, the Chrysler Group will contribute to the alliance €155 million for June alone, while Fiat €175 million for the past three months.

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Fisker Claims Multi-Speed Gearbox Would Give Karma “Veyron Speed”

Fisker’s environment-friendly hybrid sports sedan, the Karma, can hardly be called a slouch but if someone were to tell you that it could reach “Bugatti Veyron levels of performance” you'd probably look at them a little askance. But that's exactly what Henrik Fisker recently supported during an interview with British weekly magazine Autocar.

More specifically, the founder of the company said that the development of a reliable multi-speed gearbox could offer electric-powered vehicles a huge boost in performance.

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Life After Death: Automakers Find New Uses for Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Batteries

Hybrids and electric vehicles are more environment-friendly than conventionally powered models. However, one question many eco-conscious consumers bring up is what happens to the batteries at the end of their life cycle in the vehicles.

GM and Nissan estimate that batteries in their Volt and LEAF models respectively will have approximately 70% of their “life” remaining after a decade on the road. So, far from being useless, they can be utilized as back-up power sources for home use.

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Report: GM to Launch Key Fuel Efficient Cars and Trucks in the Next 18 Months

USA’s biggest car manufacturer, General Motors, is scheduling a series of new vehicle launches for its four brands in the next 18 months. And the dominant theme here, both in passenger cars and trucks, will be improved economy figures as GM prepares its vehicle lineup to meet the more stringent fuel-efficiency standards.

For example, the Detroit automaker plans to introduce 8-speed auto transmissions and downsized turbocharged engines in its new pickups, and also intends to fit more models with the eAssist light-hybrid technology.

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Fraudsters Claiming Luxury and Exotic Cars as Farm-Use Vehicles to Save on Insurance!

If you’ve ever owned a car that’s even slightly upmarket or exotic, you’ll know that insurance premiums can be a real headache. However, some owners are combating this by claiming that their vehicles – among them Porsches, Mercedes-Benzes, Audis and BMWs – are for…farm-use.

In other words, the insurance companies are being led to believe that these high priced luxury and exotic models are being used to haul bales of hay and the like and rarely leave their owner’s properties. In turn, these owners are paying as much as 20% less on their insurance premiums.

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Toyota’s Passenger Car Sales in Japan Down 43 Percent in the First Half of 2011

The two natural disasters that hit Japan on March 11, the 8.9 offshore earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami that devastated the country and took many human lives, has also hit hard production and sales of Japanese car manufacturers.

Toyota said on Monday that its domestic passenger car production for the first half of 2011 dropped by 38% to 947,090 units and its overseas production by 11.7% to 1,923,408 units compared to the same period in 2010 units due to the lack of parts.

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New Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback Launched in the UK

Chevrolet found the perfect opportunity at the Donington race of the WTCC (World Touring Car Championship) to launch the hatchback version of the Cruze in Britain. While Yvan Muller was winning both rounds of the race in the Cruze WTCC, further advancing his lead on the championship, journalists were able to use the country roads around Donington to get their first taste of Chevy’s new hatchback. Read more »

Ford Ditches CD Players on its New European Models

As digital music sales rise, compact discs seem to be heading the way of the cassette –for those of you old enough to remember them, that is. For example, in the UK digital sales account for 98% percent of the market. That’s evolution: just as the cassette made the 8-track player obsolete and then gave its place to CD-players, now purely digital content is making CD players a thing of the past. Read more »

Report: Red Bull Mulling to Build Road Cars with the Help of Infiniti

Enzo Ferrari didn’t initially intend to manufacture road cars when he started his Scuderia Ferrari team in 1928. It wasn’t until almost two decades later, in 1947, that the first road car bearing the prancing horse, the V12 125S, was produced mainly to finance his team’s racing activities.

Ferrucio Lamborghini founded Lamborghini Trattori in 1948, a successful manufacturer of tractors and other agricultural equipment. In 1959, he opened an oil heater factory, and later started producing air conditioning equipment. Naturally, he became very wealthy.

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F1: 2011 German GP Race Results

Last Sunday, after the finish of the German Grand Prix there was a McLaren, a Ferrari and a Red Bull on the podium. No surprise there. So what else is new? Red Bull and McLaren obviously have the best cars from the start of the season, winning all the races except the previous one. Especially Sebastian Vettel has such a big points lead, that he looks to have this year’s driver’s title in his pocket even with half the season remaining. Read more »

The Hackable Car, or Why Technology is Making Our Cars More Vulnerable to Attack

The modern automobile is a microcosm for our networked society. Everything from the brakes to the dual-zone climate control and from the windscreen wipers to the CD player is connected through a Controller-Area-Network (CAN) bus.

Like the nerves in our bodies, this network passes information from one component to another. It allows the anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control to work in unison, disconnects the cruise control when you step on the accelerator and allows the headlights to switch themselves on in low light conditions.

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Lexus Invites Magazines to Drive 2013 GS, will be Offered Only with V6 Engines, gets Netbook-Sized Screen

Following the announcement on the time and place of the premiere of the all-new 2013 Lexus GS 350 –that would be the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on August 18th for those of you that didn’t read our previous story- the Japanese company lifted the embargo on the first test drive of the car in the States.

Invitees include names like Car&Driver, Autoweek and Motor Trend. Naturally, the exterior of the pre-production test cars were bagged in plastic, but their interiors were largely free of camouflage (see links below for photos) revealing an edgier LF-A-esque design with lots of stitched leather on the dashboard and a gigantic 12.3-inch information screen above the center console.

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Video: GM Adopts 3D Rapid Prototyping to Reduce Development Time and Costs

GM’s Design Center is adopting the use of three-dimensional rapid prototyping in order to reduce the time and money required in developing expensive parts of prototypes.

The 3D technology will replace much of the work done on clay modeling and molding while developing a prototype. Moreover, designers from various GM design studios from around the world will be able to see their creations come to life much faster thanks to the digital manufacturing capabilities.

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NHTSA Investigates Lotus Elise Oil-Cooler Ruptures

The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is investigating oil-cooler leaks on 4,400 Lotus Elise sports cars from the 2005-2006 model years. The safety agency instigated the search after 33 owners complained that their cars’ oil-cooler ruptured, spraying oil on the wheels and /or the engine bay. Read more »

California Drops $5,000 Rebate on Electric Cars

Electric car buyers in California will have to reach deeper in their pockets as the state has run out of the $5,000 rebates it was handing out to customers interested in vehicles like the Nissan LEAF and the Tesla Roadster. The generous rebate was given on top of the $7,500 tax credit offered by the government.

As for the 500 owners of electric cars that are currently on the waiting list to receive the rebate, California’s Air Resources Board said it will consider providing them with a $2,500 discount. Not what they signed up for, but still better than nothing.

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Luc Donckerwolke to Head VW Group’s Advance Design Division

It’s time to move on for automotive designer Luc Donckerwolke who will leave his position as Director of Design at Seat to become the VW Group’s Head of Advanced Design starting on August 1, 2011. In his new role, Donckerwolke will report directly to Design Chief, Walter de Silva. The 46-year-old Belgian designer will be replaced at Seat by Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos. Read more »

Update: Saab Subsidiary Resolves Bankruptcy Threat

This just in; only a few hours after it was made known that one of Saab’s suppliers submitted a bankruptcy petition against the automaker’s affiliate company Saab Automobile Tools, the Swedish firm issued a short statement saying that it has resolved the issue with Swepart verktyg AB.

Follow the jump to read the official statement from Saab's parent company Swedish Automobile N.V., formerly known as Spyker Cars N.V.

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GM Confirms Chevrolet Cruze Diesel for the USA, Sales Start in 2013

We’d heard rumors that a diesel-powered version of the Chevrolet Cruze was being readied for the U.S., but now it’s official as General Motors announced today that the diesel variant will be added to the compact model’s North American lineup in calendar year 2013. Read more »

Ford’s Transit Connect Joins the NYC Taxi Fleet

The New York Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLS) has given the green light for the Ford Transit Connect to be added to the 13,000-strong fleet of the Big Apple’s taxis.

NYC is not the only city in the USA where the Transit Connect has been approved for cab use. The approval in New York comes less than a month after the CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) version of the Ford minivan was approved by the California Air Resources Board for use in the State of California.

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More Troubles: Supplier Files for Bankruptcy of Saab’s Tool Division

New troubles are brewing for the never-ending roller-coaster that is Saab. On Friday, one of Saab’s many unpaid suppliers, SwePart Verktyg AB, lost its patience and applied for the Swedish automaker’s Saab Tools subsidiary to be declared bankrupt.

This is the first time that one of Saab’s suppliers has made such a move. The Swedish automaker’s parent company, Netherlands-based Swedish Automobile (SWAN), issued a short statement saying that it will try to resolve the problem as soon as possible:

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