There have been a lot of changes occurring in the negotiation process of buying out the automobile manufacturer ‘Saab’. Saab has been the premium choice of people for generations. Many well-known and big companies are approaching the Chinese manufacturers for the same reason. Earlier Koenigsegg was interested in buying it out but now going by the reports coming from Sweden; around three independent groups have shown ample interest in acquiring Saab.

Saab is manufactured by the Chinese automaker Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation. With the venture turning out to be successful, the automakers would have become a minority investor in Koenigsegg. But as the company backed out, the Chinese automakers approached General Motors at the earliest. But as per recent reports, two more independent American investment groups, namely, billionaire investor Ira Rennert’s Renco and Wyoming-based Merbanco are also interested in procuring the brand for themselves. These are the latest brand names in the market showing interest in acquiring Saab.

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The Volvo C30 is a small car produced by Volvo cars, a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company. The C30 is a three door car that has two doors for the driver and passenger respectively and a door that opens upwards across the full width at the back end (hatchback). It has a combination of being powered by straight-4 and straight-5 engines. The car uses the same platform as a previous version namely the Ford C1 (or Volvo P1) platform.

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Cadillac has been waiting a long time to introduce their CTS Coupe in the market. It was approximately two years back that the concept was first introduced and it was supposed to be launched this year itself. Yet, the launch got delayed because of the restructuring done by GM in the month of May earlier this year. In the coming month, the CTS Coupe will be revealed in the Los Angeles Auto Show, though officially it wasn’t scheduled for now.

The wheelbase of the new CTS Coupe is similar to that of the wheelbase of Cadillac’s sedan. The overall height and length of the Coupe is just around two inches less than its sedan models. It abandons the typically prevalent B-pillar styling of the coupes. The door handles of the coupe are also dissimilar to the door handles that were used in manufacturing the Chevrolet’s Corvette. GM is certainly marking distinct changes in its own productions. (more…)

The German manufacturers have been constantly in the news for their innovative technologies that they have been adding in the Mercedes Benz S-Class models since the beginning. At the Los Angeles Auto Show 2009, the tradition will continue to be seen. Last year in the month of December, a new technology called Splitview technology had been installed in the S-Class Benz models. This time it is the turn of the US market, where the sedan is about to be launched next month itself.

Mercedes Benz and Bosch had developed the Splitview technology mutually. The technology enables the dual usage of the center-mounted LCD screen that is installed in the S-Class. It lets both the driver and the front seat passenger to watch two different things of their choice at the same time. While the driver can access the navigation system to find the way, on the same screen the passenger can side-by-side watch a DVD too.

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The list of sports car increased with the release of the Nissan GT-R. Created by Nissan, the model falls among many other impressive sports cars. The successor of Nissan Skyline GT-R, Nissan GT-R is the latest creation of Nissan Motors. On 6th December 2007, this was released in Japan and almost after 6 months that was in July 2008, Nissan GT-R was seen hitting the roads of the United States. The rest of the world got to experience the joy of the Nissan GT-R after almost a year in March of 2009.

Nissan GT-R is all set to compete with the major players of its category. Nissan GT-R reflects a very stylish look. The designing part shows the importance given to both the functional and instrumental aspect. The simple and clear instruments are placed in such a way that they are easily accessible for the driver. There is a tachometer installed that displays the gearshift position. The best part of the Nissan GT-R is that it gives detailed information regarding the driving and manual behavior. Powered by a 3.8-liter twin turbo V6 engine, Nissan GT-R gives out 473 horsepower along with 434 ft-lb of torque. (more…)

Chevrolet has been thinking of launching the micro car, ‘Spark’ in the US market for sometime now. They have been deciding on this issue since a long time. Now, they have finally decided to launch the micro car in the US market most probably in the year 2011. The Spark model by Chevrolet will fulfill the role of the A-segment car by entering the US market. Till now, it had been holding its position in the B-segment only with its Chevrolet Aveo model in the United States. This will certainly raise the bar by one level.

It would be the first A-segment car launched by Chevrolet in the US. Chevy had been saying in the past that it had not introduced any such A-segment car earlier in the US, as the market was changing from time-to-time and this had diverted the interest of the Americans from this particular segment. So, any such move earlier would have proved futile. Just like Chevrolet, many other automakers had raised the same doubt for this particular question in the past. (more…)

In the U.S., car maker Toyota has now decided to either replace or fix the accelerator pedals in approximately 4 million Toyota and Lexus models. This has happened as a result of the biggest recall by Toyota Corporation that includes around 3.8 million vehicles. These 3.8 million vehicles were installed with a loose floormat that caused unintended acceleration as the accelerator got pushed down.

The report for this decision has been announced by Kyodo news. The report also includes news that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is also looking forward to providing a more permanent and durable solution to this problem. They are almost done with the thinking process of the solution and it will soon be worked upon. (more…)

The Center for Auto Safety requested the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to begin a probe in the Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV models dated 1993 up to the year 2004 on Friday. The investigation would involve around hundreds of thousands of Cherokee SUVs.

This was followed by the recall of Toyota’s 3.8 million vehicles after one of them had met with a fiery crash killing four people on the spot in southern California of the USA.

The plastic fuel tank installed in the SUV is considered quite harmful and hazardous for both the vehicle and the passengers. (more…)

Volkswagen has been long planning to establish itself as the best automotive manufacturer by surpass all other manufacturers. The company aims to become the world’s largest automaker by the year 2018. It has put its first step in the direction by officially surpassing Toyota Motor Corporation worldwide this year in terms of the units produced in 2009 by the corporation.

Toyota has produced a total of 4.0 million units so far, whereas Volkswagen has manufactured full 4.4. million of units till date. These figures are based on the data released in the three quarterly reports of the company. The reason for this can be attributed to the scrappage schemes that were implemented by the government and were quite successful as well and went along quite well with the Volkswagen models. Moreover, Toyota had reduced its production in the first six months of the year, which proved to be a benefit for the German manufacturers. (more…)

Since long, Rolls-Royce has been widely known for the ultimate luxury cars that it produces rather than its hybrid cars. But it seems now that the British automaker is readying itself to launch a hybrid version of its latest Ghost sedan. Its new “smaller” car of standardized version is set to be launched by the end of next year or by the beginning of 2011.

The Ghost was unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September. The Ghost sedan by Rolls-Royce is largely based on the BMW-7 series. It comes with a 6.2 Liter V12 engine that delivers 563 horsepower’s of energy. It has an eight speed automatic ZF gearbox that makes the controlling task much easier for the driver. The car is aimed at delivering extraordinary performances. (more…)