- US: Orange County DA sues GM – Just-auto: The Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) Tony Rackauckas has filed a civil lawsuit against General Motors “for endangering motorists and the public by intentionally concealing serious safety defects in GM vehicles to avoid the cost of a recall or replacing defective parts”.
- US: GM recalls another 8.45m cars – Just-auto: General Motors has announced another six recalls – mostly ignition switch-related – totalling 8.45m 1997 to 2014 vehicles, of which 7.6m are in the United States.
- Nissan Motor logs 48% sales growth – Via Google News: The Indian subsidiary of Japanese automobile firm Nissan Motor Company last month … The company also sells Micra another small car.
- Toyota says June China auto sales down 7.6 per cent YoY – Via Google News: Toyota Motor Corp and its two Chinese joint ventures sold about 71,000 vehicles in China in June, down 7.6 per cent from a year earlier, the …
- Autonomous cars are the answer: Ghosn – Via Google News: The president and CEO of the Renault Nissan Alliance has spelled out his vision for the future of the car and its place in society – and self-driving cars …
- Chrysler to sell Mitsubishi-supplied small cars in Mexico – Automotive News: Mitsubishi Motors will supply Chrysler with a Thailand-built compact sedan for sale in Mexico starting in November. The car will be based on the Mitsubishi Attrage, the sedan version of the Mirage hatchback sold in the United States.
- GM’s recall crisis expands at a vast scale – Via Google News: The faulty switch can suddenly shut down power in a moving car, disabling … The three fatalities in the newly recalled cars occurred in two accidents …
- Chrysler expands ignition-switch recall by 695,957 minivans, crossovers – Automotive News: Chrysler Group has expanded a recall over ignition-switch issues, similar to those that prompted the General Motors recall crisis, by nearly 700,000 vehicles following an investigation by safety regulators.
- GM’s ignition-switch crisis deepens; death toll rises to 16 – Reuters: General Motors Co’s ongoing safety crisis over deadly ignition switches deepened on Monday with the recall of 8.23 million mostly older cars linked by the U.S. automaker to three deaths.
- VW taps Schüller for top U.S. quality post – Automotive News: Volkswagen Group of America named Stefan Schüller quality chief for VW and Audi in the United States. He replaces Marc Trahan, who is retiring after 35 years with the company, as VW group mounts an aggressive localization push.
- Tesla promises realistic pricing for new BMW 3-series rival – Autocar: New Model E from Tesla will look to take on the BMW 3-series and Audi A4, and is scheduled to go on sale in 2016Telsa’s upcoming compact electric saloon will be “realistically” priced against rivals such as the Audi A4 and BMW 3-series, according to Chris Porritt, the company’s vice-president of engineering. Porritt, a Brit who left Aston Martin last year to join Tesla, told Autocar that the price of batteries was the key calculation when engineering the model, which is expected in late 2016.…
- Faulty Air Bags From Takata Sold to Subaru and Mitsubishi – NY Times: An air bag inflator that has been linked to millions of recalled vehicles and two deaths was also sold to the two Japanese automakers, Takata says.
- Check before you buy: Some 60000 cars with unfixed recalls for sale in Maryland – Via Google News: “We’re likely looking at a record year for car recalls and that’s alarming in itself, but the more alarming thing is how many of those recalled cars don’t …
- GM widens recall by another 8.2m cars – FT: Mounting recall numbers raise questions about whether GM will be able to restrict payouts from a new victims fund to people affected by the previously-announced problems
- GM victims fund to have wide eligibility – Reuters: The compensation fund for victims of General Motors Co’s defective ignition switch will be open to a broad range of people, with family members of those who died as a result eligible for at least $1 million, the attorney in charge of the fund said on Monday.
- Feds Investigating Nissan Versas, Dodge Rams – thedetroitbureau.com: Federal safety regulators continue to pressure automakers as they announced two separate investigations involving more than 600,000 Nissan Versas and Dodge Rams. The Versas are being investigated for unintended acceleration issues while the Rams for rear axle problems
- GM recalls 8.4 million more vehicles in North America – Washington Post: General Motors recalled an additional 8.4 million vehicles in North America in Monday, bringing its total for the year to more than 28 million as it copes with a mounting safety crisis. The vast majority of the vehicles recalled on Monday, 8.2 million, were pulled because of ignition defects linked to inadvertent key rotation. Recalled vehicles with these types of defects include the Chevrolet Malibu, Impala and Monte Carlo; the Oldsmobile Intrigue and Alero; the Pontiac Grand Am and Grand Prix; and the…
- Six New Recalls at GM – All-Time Record for US Industry – thedetroitbureau.com: Hours after the details of a new compensation program was announced for victims of an ignition switch defect, General Motors has revealed it will stage another six separate recalls covering 7.6 million vehicles sold in the U.S. GM has recalled nearly 26 million vehicles this year.
- BMW to reveal Mexico factory plans this week: official – Reuters: Germany’s BMW AG will unveil this week plans to build a new factory in Mexico, a government official said, as the company seeks to meet growing demand for premium cars.
- GM fund would pay out millions to victims – FT: Unexpectedly wide compensation plan over ignition switch failures takes no account of whether victims’ negligence contributed to crashes
- Denso exec pleads guilty to instrument panel price-fixing – Automotive News: An executive at Denso has agreed to plead guilty to fixing the prices of automobile instrument panel clusters and to serve a prison sentence, the U.S. Justice Department said today.
- US: New Leaf battery pack? That’ll be $5,500 plus fitting – Just-auto: Nissan’s US unit has announced a replacement lithium-ion battery pack for the Leaf will cost US$5,499 (after a $1,000 credit for trading in the old pack, which is required), plus installation fees and tax. The installation is estimated at roughly three hours of labour, Green Car Reports said.
- BMW plans for Mexico factory to be unveiled Thursday, government official says – Automotive News: BMW AG’s plans to build a new factory in Mexico will be revealed on Thursday, a government official said today.
- US: GM compensation fund wide, open about a year – Just-auto: The compensation fund for victims of General Motors’ defective ignition switch will be open to a broad range of people and should finish its work by the end of the second quarter of next year, the US lawyer in charge of the fund told a news agency on Monday (30 June).
- GM Receives Pivotal Feinberg Report; Injury Compensation Program Limitless – Wards: Although author Kenneth Feinberg declines to weigh in on the number of death claims expected, the protocol addresses several other key items of speculation since the depth of the defect emerged earlier this year.
- US [updated 1/7]: GM consultant details ignition switch compensation offer – Just-auto: General Motors has offered at least US$1m to families of those who died as a result of defective ignition switches in its cars.
- No Cap to GM Victims’ Compensation Fund – Anyone Injured, Killed Eligible – thedetroitbureau.com: There will be no limit to the amount of money available for a new victims’ compensation program set up to cover those injured or killed due to crashes caused by the faulty ignition switches in General Motors vehicles, announced Kenneth Feinberg, the program’s czar. Payments could go into the millions.
- Feinberg details eligibility for GM ignition-switch compensation – Automotive News: Attorney Ken Feinberg’s plan for compensating victims of GM’s ignition-switch defect will include a broader set of criteria than GM has used to determine which crashes are linked to the faulty part, which means the company’s estimate of 54 related…
- UK: Volkswagen XL1 arrives at supercar prices – Just-auto: The price of a new Volkswagen will come close to hitting six figures for the first time when deliveries of the energy efficient XL1 start.
- New open-top electric sports car launched in the Netherlands – Autocar: Carice cars reveals the Mk1, a retro-styled all-electric model which has gone on sale for £21kCarice cars has joined the likes of Vencer and Spyker as the Netherlands’ newest niche car manufacturer.
- US: Ahead of compensation fund details, GM announces four more recalls – Just-auto: General Motors has announced another four recalls covering 428,211 vehicles in the United States plus some in Canada. This takes the automaker’s total number of recalls for 2014 to date to 48.
- CHINA: Beijing plans big EV charging network – Just-auto: Beijing’s municipal authority plans to build 10,000 public charging stations for electric vehicles by 2017.
- UK: “No plans to sell GT or MG5” – MG – Just-auto: A spokesperson for MG Motor UK has told just-auto that despite revealing a forthcoming sedan to selected media in England last week, there are no plans to sell the car here.
- Until Macans arrive, buyers offered short leases on other Porsches – Automotive News: U.S. buyers of the new Porsche Macan, which went on sale in May, face a wait of more than six months for delivery. So the company is trying to keep potential Macan buyers happy by putting them in other Porsches during the wait.