With North American auto sales expected to reach 15-year lows by the end of the year and further declines expected as customers hold on to their cars amid a weakening economy, record fuel prices and rising car prices, some states in the U.S. and Canada are investigating plans to boost sales by giving incentives to customers to trade in their older vehicles.
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Tough new CAFE standards in the U.S. had a lukewarm reception when they were announced in April, with most carmakers reluctantly stating they would rise to the challenge. BMW has now come out against the current program, asking the government to develop an alternative system of requirements, because it will not be able to comply with the CAFE standards as they stand.
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Following the news that Ford has been in talks with a number of firms from China and Russia about a possible sale of its Volvo subsidiary comes new reports claiming that Renault was one of the initial carmakers interested in acquiring the Swedish label. An inside source close to the negotiations has revealed that Ford and Renault had conducted exploratory talks last year but stopped talking after neither party could come to an agreement over pricing.
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BMW has given us the first real hint of the new headlight and grille design for its next-generation 7-series saloon with the unveiling of this new teaser at a recent Golf tournament. The new image confirms that the same LED elements and angel-eye design from the striking CS concept car has been faithfully transferred to the next 7 as well as the original concept car’s oversized grille and eyelids.
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Rampant speculation about the short-term future of Chrysler has been circulating the web for the past week or more, with pundits and analysts alternately claiming bankruptcy or sale equally likely. Chrysler has officially denied all claims of an impending bankruptcy, but it has decided to reduce its total U.S. output for the year, including possibly idling its St. Louis plant.
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Thirty years ago BMW’s M1 was built explicitly for Group 4 homologation purposes, in part to allow the car to compete in the BMW M1 Procar series, which proved to be a surprise success. The one-make series was one of the first of its kind, and now BMW is bringing it back as part of the company’s 30th anniversary celebrations. For two race days in July at Hockenheim, the M1 Procar series will race again.
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While Honda’s sales in the U.S. are actually increasing, and Toyota and Nissan are losing only single-digits of production, Mitsubishi has decided to cut production and jobs in the face of decreased demand and poor market conditions.
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Tesla announced today plans for its second model, a new hybrid sedan to be called the Model S. It will be manufactured at a new plant in California, though Tesla did not disclose its location. Neither did the company state a start date for production, but rumors suggest it will begin around 2010. Previous reports claimed the new plant would be built in New Mexico but California’s sales tax exemption on the purchase of manufacturing equipment and grants for training its new employees managed to persuade Tesla managers into choosing it as the best location for the new plant.
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Rating vehicles on a scale of 1 to 10, the new labels will take into account the particulate and greenhouse gas emissions and assign a corresponding score, to be displayed on the window. The higher the number, the better, with the cleanest vehicles on the road rating a 10. The state will also launch a website called DriveClean to help educate buyers about emissions levels for various cars.
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Two of Audi’s R8 sports cars have been handed over to the German Motorsport Association at the Norisring Speed Weekend event. One will be used as the official safety car for the DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) race series, while the other, specially prepped by Audi’s in-house tuners at quattro GmbH will be used as a racing taxi.
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Early this year, Audi revealed pictures and statistics for its monstrous 580hp (432kW) twin-turbo V10-powered RS6 Avant, but there has still been no official release of the RS6 sedan. These spy photos show that Audi will be tweaking the tail lights slightly, though the rest of the RS6 formula appears unchanged.
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Update: VW has confirmed this teaser is not an official release.

More speculation that a performance ‘R’ variant of the new Volkswagen Scirocco coupe is in the works has arrived in the form a new teaser that’s purportedly the real deal. Like the current Golf-based R32 and Passat-based R36, the R-type Scirocco will be a more powerful and better equipped version of the standard coupe and will likely feature its own unique powertrain.
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Kia will launch its first ever coupe model next year with the launch of the next-generation Spectra (Cerato range). The new model, which is expected to draw heavy influences from the recently revealed Koup Concept (pictured), will replace the current Spectra and could even adopt a new name.
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Updated with new photos
Aston Martin teased us with a V12-powered concept version of its Vantage coupe late last year, which officials claimed was built only as a styling and engineering exercise to promote the opening of a new dedicated design center, however in the months since the unveiling a number of Vantage prototypes have been spotted on German streets and on the Nurburgring. These latest spy shots shows what appears to be a regular V8 Vantage, but the tell tale sign of a big rear-diffuser reveals the massive power underneath the prototype’s bonnet.
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Update: Bugatti promised to build only 300 examples of its Veyron supercar in total but this number also included a number of special edition models such as the recently revealed Sang Noir and its Pur Sang forerunner. While the unpainted Pur Sang was limited to just five units, up to 15 examples of the all-black Sang Noir will be built to appease Bugatti’s American customers who missed out on their chance to bid on the Pur Sang model during its European launch last year.
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