Car News

Back in May 2007, we brought you news of the Weber Sportscars 400km/h supercar concept. The odd-looking beast was an intriguing mix of carbon fiber, aluminum and horsepower - with statistics so impressive you could almost forgive the bizarre appearance. Now Weber has updated their challenger for...

When it debuted at the New York Auto Shot in March, the S5S Raptor bowled over crowds and press alike with its stunning design. At the time, execs at Saleen hinted that the car was more than just a pipe dream, but the latest word from the company's president makes it look like production is a...

Despite the massive losses of early 2008 at GM and Chrysler, other firms, like Maserati and Ferrari are doing quite well - as is Volkswagen. The Volkswagen group's Volkswagen brand generated a $718 million profit in the first quarter, despite essentially unchanged revenues compared to last year...

Honda's NSX replacement has had several false starts, with the company scrapping the car's design after the public's largely negative response to its Acura Advanced Sports Car Concept, shown at 2007's Detroit Auto Show. Beyond the styling difficulties, ensuring the car will compete successfully...

If GM has any hope of regaining its title of world’s biggest carmaker from Toyota its vehicles must not only sell well but they should also regain market share lost to rivals. Until recently, consumers rarely cross-shopped between GM and Toyota but as the quality and reliability of GM...

A man in California has devised an innovative method of generating ‘green’ power from passing trucks that drive up and down busy highways the world over. Inventor Terry Kenney came up with the idea of using the kinetic energy of a truck barreling down a highway to compress a tank of...

Since Chrysler is under private control it has no obligation to release financial results but according to its former parent company, Daimler AG, its result for the 2007 financial year could be a loss of more than $6.8 billion. Daimler indicated that Chrysler lost roughly that amount in the last...

GM today announced financial results for the first quarter of 2008, revealing a $3.3 billion loss over the period – down from a modest loss of just $42 million one year ago. Revenue for the first quarter was $42.7 billion, down slightly from $43.4 billion in the year-ago quarter. This was...

Magna International is a global auto parts supplier and independent vehicle manufacturer and now the company is considering launching its own branded car. Magna is planning to develop and launch its own plug-in hybrid vehicle and is predicting a prototype will be on the roads and testing as early...

Testing done recently in the UK shows that the cheap seats used in many small cars are compromising occupant safety by increasing the likelihood of whiplash. Unfortunately, the most likely vehicles to suffer accidents likely to cause whiplash - low-speed traffic collisions - are the vehicles...

ZF's latest entry into the ever-escalating automatic transmission wars, an eight-speed unit, has just been updated to include compatibility with stop-start technology. This will allow the close-geared system to shut the engine down when the vehicle comes to a stop, yet fire the engine back up and...

Hybrid, fuel-cell and all-electric vehicles are viewed by many as the future of the motoring world but there is a growing fear that the flow of electrical current from the motors that power such vehicles produces harmful magnetic fields, which some scientists associate with a number of health risks...

With the official start last month of the Automotive X Prize – a competition with a $10 million cash prize for the first team to build and successfully market a genuine 100mpg vehicle – more and more teams are starting to release details about their new ultra-efficient vehicles. Already...

Alfa Romeo’s stylish Brera convertible or ‘Spider’ is already one of the best looking droptops currently on sale but to give its profile a boost just in time for the northern summer UK dealers are now offering a Limited Edition model fitted with a number of new features as...

For many, the Gran Tursimo series (a racing simulator renowned for its lifelike graphics and accurate physic models) was their first introduction to Japan’s legendary supercar, the Nissan GT-R. Previous generations of the car were sold in limited numbers to only a handful of markets outside...

Update: Just yesterday we brought news of Pininfarina's fund-raising drive to get new capital investors, and today the company has made its announcement. Three additional major players in the auto industry will be taking a stake in the design firm, although exactly how much will be acquired by each...

Revealed at the 2008 Concorsa d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, the M1 Concept shows BMW can reinterpret its classics in a modern and daring way. The concept was created to mark the 30th anniversary of the original M1 supercar and was penned by the carmaker’s new design chief Adrian van Hooydonk...

Profit levels for most of the major carmakers were down this quarter, with many including BMW and Daimler seeing their profits fall by double digit figures. BMW announced today that its first-quarter profit fell 17% to $761 million, while Daimler’s profits dropped by a hefty 32 points to end...

Earlier this month the NHTSA revealed concerns about the safety of the new Smart ForTwo minicar after conducting a number of safety tests on it. The results showed that the ForTwo only had marginal passenger safety, and this was if the car was to be hit by a similar size vehicle – a near...

Antilock braking systems (ABS) have been around for almost a century - first appearing in the 1920s for the aviation industry after being pioneered by French automobile and aircraft company Voisin - but the technology has only been used in cars for the last 30 years. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class was...