Takata President Steps Down

Takata President Steps Down
Mercedes Developing Electric Vehicle Platform
McLaren P1 Looks Exquisite in Gulf Oil Livery
Ford ProCal Won’t Void Your EcoBoost Warranty
Cadillac CT6 to Get Aluminum Body: Report
Gasoline Spending to hit 11-Year Low in 2015

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Takata Corp. announced today that Stefan Stocker is stepping down from his position as the company's president.

The announcement follows recalls that are the result of defective airbag inflators that Takata supplied to several major automakers. So far there are five deaths officially associated with the defect, all in Honda vehicles. The defective inflators are at the root of 24 million recalled vehicles worldwide in 2014 including approximately 17 million in the U.S. The faulty airbags can explode with too much force and send shards of metal into the cabin. Stocker became the comapny's first foreign president in June, 2013 shortly after joining the company. He will remain with the company as a board member.

CEO Shigehisa Takada, 48, will become the company's president and will take a 50 percent pay but for four months, the company said in a statement. He will also continue to serve as the CEO ad chairman of the company. Stocker and three other executives will also take pay cuts for four months.

[Source: Automotive News]

Mercedes Developing Electric Vehicle Platform

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Mercedes-Benz is in the early stages of developing a new platform that will be able to underpin a range of electric vehicles.

The modular architecture will be able to serve as the basis for vehicles spanning a wide range of wheelbases, focusing on saving weight to compensate for having heavy electric powertrain components according to a report by AutoBild. For now, the "Ecoluxe" platform is supposedly slated to underpin four body styles.

EVs based on the Ecoluxe architecture will power their rear wheels and will use four-wheel starring for improved handling. The report claims that the first model will have the equivalent of 544 or 604 hp in the base and S models respectively.

The battery pack will be located under the passenger compartment and will be able to hold enough power to carry the car for at least 279 miles.

Mercedes is expected to release the first Ecoluxe-based vehicle in either 2019 or 2020 in Europe with a North American launch shortly thereafter if the rumored project makes it that far.

Discuss this story at our Mercedes forum

[Source: AutoBild]

McLaren P1 Looks Exquisite in Gulf Oil Livery

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Call us bias, but this might be the best looking factory McLaren P1 yet.

Commissioned by a businessman from McLaren Special Operations (MSO), this custom McLaren P1 features the iconic Gull Oil racing livery with its baby blue and orange two-tone shade. Contrasted with the black paint on the doors, front bumper and side air ducts, it's a three-tone P1 that not only looks classy, but race-ready. The British automaker also did a fantastic job keeping the orange highlights as accents, found on the brake calipers and lower valences.

Inside, small hints of orange and blue are found throughout without either of the colors being overpowering in the otherwise black cabin. Who says that money can't buy taste?

Discuss this story at our luxury lifestyle forum

Ford ProCal Won’t Void Your EcoBoost Warranty

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One of the benefits of having a turbocharged powertrain is all its untapped performance, and Ford is looking to put that into the hands of the owners.

Now that the American automaker is equipping nearly all its models with an EcoBoost engine, including its all-new Mustang, enthusiasts will be happy to hear that the company will back its Ford Racing ProCal tuner with a warranty. That is, with the Ford Racing ProCal, owners will be able to increase performance by remapping the ECU without concern of voiding the warranty or worse, blowing up the engine. With a retail price of $595, the Ford Racing calibrations aren't as extreme as what you can potentially get out of the car, but they are also safe and guaranteed.

For example, the Ford Focus ST can see its torque increased by 90 lb-ft using the ProCal. The company hasn't shared possible increases in performance when used with its Fiesta ST and Mustang EcoBoost engines, but expect similar gains as the ProCal likely adds more fuel and additional boost from the turbocharged engine.

So why wouldn't the vehicles simply come from the factory with the added performance? Think emissions and fuel economy.

[Source: Car and Driver]

Discuss this story at our Ford forum

Cadillac CT6 to Get Aluminum Body: Report

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Cadillac's upcoming large rear-wheel drive sedan will be light for it's size, but the company hasn't explained exactly how it plans to get there.

A new report from Automobile suggests that Cadillac will give the CT6 a body made of aluminum to save weight rather than the composite structure made of high-strength steel, aluminum, and steel stampings and castings. According to the report, the CT6 will actually have a curb weight similar to the Alpha-based CTS, sitting somewhere in the range of 3,700 to 4,100 lbs.

The report also suggests that the CT6, which is expected to debut later next year, will be powered by Cadillac's upcoming engine family that will include four- six- and eight-cylinder configurations.

Cadillac announce earlier this year that it will migrate to a sequential alpha-numeric naming structure for its vehicles that will eventually re-name all of its cars by number to denote their place within the lineup. The all-new CT6 will be the first of those to adopt the new structure, but that name leaves space for more models above it because Cadillac currently has everything from CT2 to CT8 trademarked.

[Source: Automobile]

Discuss this story at our Cadillac CT6 forum

Gasoline Spending to hit 11-Year Low in 2015

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The average U.S. household is expected to spend less than $2,000 on gas next year.

As fuel prices continue to drop around the country, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released a report showing that the average U.S. household will spend about $550 less on gasoline next year compared to 2014. Annual motor fuel expenditures are expected to drop to their lowest level in 11 years and it will be the first time since 2009 that average annual spending will be below $2,000.

EIA forecasts that the average household gasoline costs will be $1,962 next year after prices for U.S. gasoline has dropped for 11 weeks in a row to an average of $2.55 per gallon as of December 15. Increases in average fuel economy of vehicles being sold is also contributing to lower expected fuel expenditures. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that the production-weighted fuel economy of cars has increased from 23.1 mpg for model year 2005 cars to almost 28 mpg for model year 2014. In addition, fuel economy for trucks has also increased 19 percent, from 16.9 mpg to 20.1 mpg.

Car Reviews

Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Takata President Steps Down

Takata President Steps Down

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