TOKYO – Japan's elderly are living longer, while its young people are unwilling to start a family.
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Filed under: Truck, China, Etc., Work, Ford, Humor, Design/Style, Diesel
The Ford F-150 has just picked up a doppelganger in China. According to CarNewsChina, Jianghuai Auto Corporation has just unveiled its new 4R3 pickup, and sure enough, the vehicle looks to be a near carbon copy of America’s best-selling truck. JAC reportedly wants to provide buyers in China, Africa and South America with a larger, inexpensive work vehicle. While the appearances of the Ford F-Series and 4R3 visuals differ ever so slightly, the similarities far outweigh the incongruities. According to CNC, JAC is a fairly small automaker in the People’s Republic that specializes in rebodied Hyundai cars, SUVs and pickups.
Word has it the 4R3 will be powered by a 2.8-liter diesel four-cylinder engine generating just 108 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. There’s no word on cost at this point. The JAC 4R3 is set to debut at the Beijing Motor Show in April, though there’s no telling how long the vehicle will be on the market before the company gets a call from the lawyers in Dearborn. Head over to CarNewsChina.com for a better look at the F-150 twin.
Chinese carmaker blatantly copies Ford F-150 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Performance, SUV, Crossover, Lamborghini, Rumormill, Luxury
It was hinted not long ago that Lamborghini would be bringing a couple of brand new baubles to the Geneva Motor Show. Speculation was that one would certainly be the Aventador Roadster, but the other was more difficult to predict – the standard cries being a production version of the Sesto Elemento, a new sedan or a crossover. Well, we still can’t be sure what else is coming to Geneva, but if the magazine scan at the Teamspeed forum can be believed – it comes from Italian mag Quattroroute – a new crossover will be heading our way shortly after the Switzerland expo.
According to the article, Lamborghini will be getting an SUV based on the Audi Q7 platform (just like sister-brand Bentley is expected to do), and it will be revealed at the Beijing Auto Show in April. The ostensible codename is LB 736, and while the official engine spec hasn’t been nailed down just yet, we hear it’ll be a V10 or electrically assisted V8 with somewhere around 700 horsepower.
The body is reportedly standard Lamborghini-issue aluminum and carbon fiber, with aims of a curb weight under 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds), and the completed project will go on sale in 2015. There’s a suggestion that it might also come to Geneva instead of Beijing, but since the image is a Photoshop – and, frankly, most of this is speculation – don’t be suprised if what we see now is not exactly what we ultimately get… whenever it debuts.
Lamborghini’s next model to be “LB 736″ SUV instead of Estoque? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Aftermarket, Coupe, Performance, MISC
When McLaren released the MP4-12C, there were some questions about the distinctiveness of its styling, but not about whether the engineers at Woking had extracted every bit of performance they could from its 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine. John Hennessey and company, however, think they can do better. That’s why Hennessey Performance Engineering has targeted the 12C for its latest tuning package.
Traditionally, Hennessey usually starts by bolting on a pair of turbos to whatever car it can get its hands on. But McLaren has already done that, so Hennessey has fitted new ones, and along with it, upgraded the intercooler, intake, exhaust, electronic control modules and transmission. It’s also fitted a CarbonAero body kit, new wheels with Michelin Pilot Super Sport rubber and a redone interior swathed in carbon, leather and Alcantara.
The result is 800 horsepower, up from 592 stock. What Hennessey hasn’t touched, however, are the MP4-12C’s suspension and brakes, which the Texas-based tuner didn’t feel it could improve upon. Whether the rest is advisable is up for debate, but that’s never stopped the Texas tuner before, so check out the details in the press release after the jump and the renderings for a closer look at what to expect should any McLaren owners inexplicably feel their 12C is just too slow.
Continue reading Hennessey dreams of tuning McLaren MP4-12C into twin-turbo HPE800
Hennessey dreams of tuning McLaren MP4-12C into twin-turbo HPE800 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Government/Legal, Saab, Earnings/Financials
Saab North America acknowledged that the chances were exceptionally slim, but it hoped to avoid bankruptcy long enough to give another company a chance to buy it. Shortly after Saab NA appointed a third-party administrator, McTevia & Associates, it was decided there was no way to save the company short of liquidation, and on January 23, the administrator announced plans to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
But Saab NA was beat to the filing by a group of 162 out of the 188 Saab dealers, who filed for involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware. The dealers said last week they were going to file for Chapter 7, but instead chose Chapter 11 because of its lower costs and in case China’s Youngman or Turkey’s Brightwell Holding’s bid for Saab NA’s parent succeeds and they want to restart operations here. The document was filed in Delaware because the dealer body feels they’ll get better hearing “further away from Detroit.” Dealers also wanted the force of court orders to back up any decisions made, not that of a third-party administrator.
Underneath all the legal machinations, though, if estimates from Saab NA dealer attorney Leonard Bellavia are accurate, then the parties could emerge without getting financially kneecapped. When McTevia announced its plan to file, Bellavia suggested that Saab NA’s liabilities were $10.5 million and assets at between $75 million and $125 million. With no more parts on the way and 2,400 cars on lots, McTevia had earlier said that the parts distribution business is “the only meaningful asset.”
Dealers trying to push Saab NA into bankruptcy originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TOKYO – Honda Motor Co is planning to unveil its first seven-seater small business jet in 2013 and is expecting to grab at least a quarter of the world market share of the sector.
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Daily Champion (Lagos)-Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Zakari Mohammed, has alleged a high level plot by suspected beneficiaries of the ill-administered petroleum subsidy removal to scuttle the fundamental objectives of the on-going probe by the House Ad-hoc Committee on subsidy regime.
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Daily Champion (Lagos)-A new regime of interest rate lending for Money Deposit Banks in Nigeria is expected to emerge today as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) rounds off its maiden meeting for this year in Abuja.
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SANAA – Yemeni information minister Ali al-Amrani escaped an assassination bid in Sanaa Tuesday by unidentified assailants who opened fire from a car, an aide said.
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OSISA (Johannesburg)-On January 10th, the activities of two of the world’s largest mining companies – Brazil’s Vale and Anglo-Australian multinational Rio Tinto – hit the headlines in Mozambique for all the wrong reasons.
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