Negotiations participated in by representatives associated with China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group’s impending purchase of Volvo are off to a good start. Zhejiang Geely has informed unions that it intends to keep Volvo production in Europe. Last Thursday, union leaders at the Ford Motor Co. unit held their first talks with Geely. Continued after the [...] Read Full Story

Volkswagen AG is set to purchase the Karmann factory in Germany and will set up a new car manufacturing unit there that will begin production in 2011. VW will buy the land, machinery and equipment formerly belonging to the Karmann holding company in Osnabrueck in VW’s home state of Lower Saxony. VW expects to create more [...] Read Full Story

To cut costs, supercar maker Spyker is shifting its manufacturing base from Zeewolde in Holland to Coventry and aims to complete the relocation by the end of the year. Spyker has 135 employees in Holland but the company claims that only 45 jobs will be affected. While engineering, corporate staff functions, sales, after-sales, marketing and [...] Read Full Story

A hybrid Bmw 1-Series prototype is currently being tested according to Autocar. The only way to identify the car’s powertrain is to check out the ‘Hybrid Test Vehicle’ stickers found on the rear windows and rear bumper. The hybrid arrangement on the hybrid Bmw 1-Series prototype is essentially a scaled-down version of the system on the [...] Read Full Story

At the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz will be debuting the 563-horsepower Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG supercar, the fuel-sipping E350 BlueTEC and the fuel-cell-powered F-Cell in North American soil. The displays will be open to the public from December 4 to 13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. In addition, Mercedes-Benz will launch its first [...] Read Full Story

Blackbird Guitars’ brings to us the limited-edition Ferrari-branded “Rider,” which gets inspiration from the technology, style, and spirit of the supercar manufacturer. The ultra-rare Ferrari Blackbird guitars that were sold at Ferrari Stores worldwide bear the signatures of F1 drivers Philipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. Continued after the jump! With a Ferrari [...] Read Full Story

Due to tougher criteria, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s top safety picks for this year are far fewer, from 94 last year to 27 this year. And for the first time in three years, there is not one Toyota Motor Corp. vehicle on this list. Ford Motor Co. leads with six 2010-model top safety [...] Read Full Story

If you’ve been complaining about the difficulty in getting out of a low-slung sportscar, then you’ll be glad to know that Ferrari has invented a new kind of door that improves passenger and driver access to its cars. A patent application has been filed for a door that includes part of the front wing [...] Read Full Story

The Volvo C30 1.6D DRIVe already has a following due to its eco-friendly technologies like stop/start with a brake-energy recovery system and a fuel consumption of 3.9 liters per 100km. But Heico Sportiv wanted to prove that those who like the car for these qualities can also experience the pleasure of driving. More details after [...] Read Full Story

As General Motors Co. seeks to reduce production by 20%-25% across Europe, it will be presenting a new viability plan for Opel this December, GM Europe boss Nick Reilly announced. As part of GM’s 3.3 billion euro ($4.9 billion) restructuring plan, it aims to lower its production to slightly less than the capacity of three [...] Read Full Story