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Porsche launched a rugged revamp of its Cayenne SUV at the Paris motor show on Thursday. It's called the Cayenne S Transsyberia, a go-harder model celebrating the company's win in the gruelling Rally of Transsyberia, a 7300km trek from Moscow to Ulan Bator in Mongolia. The new road-going model gets a hefty visual makeover and more power from its 4.8-litre V8 engine. Porsche has dominated the event, taking the top three places in 2007 and the top six places this year.
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Detroit's Big Three carmakers face a cash crisis that threatens their solvency before an expected recovery in 2010, US analysts suggest. The near-freeze of credit caused by Wall Street's meltdown is making it even harder for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler LLC to find new sources of money to borrow. Standard and Poors assessed the Big Three's cash on hand and negotiable assets at June 30 as: GM US$21 billion ($31 billion), Ford US$26.6 billion, Chrysler LLC US$11.7 billion. Twelve months earlier, GM had US$27.2 billion, Ford US$37.4 billion, and Chrysler US$10.6 billion.
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Toyota plans to show a compressed-natural-gas Camry Hybrid concept at the Los Angeles motor show next month. The new concept marks a return to the natural-gas competition for Toyota, which sold a CNG-powered four-cylinder Camry to fleet customers in California in 1999. That experiment was discontinued after a year.
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Nearly 1200 new drivers in Britain lose their licence every month _ but almost half don't bother to retake their test, a study shows. Novice drivers only have to clock up six penalty points in the first two years to be stripped of their licence under the country's New Drivers Act. Since the law was introduced at the end of 1997, 154,489 motorists have been caught out. But figures show that only 82,339 went on to retake their test after having it removed leaving 72,150 still without a licence and presumably driving illegally. To get back behind the wheel, the new drivers must retake the entire test, including sitting the theory exam. And even if they pass again, the points stay on their licence. They also face a insurance premium hike of around 25 per cent.
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Volkswagen's new commercial ute might find its way to New Zealand. The carmaker expects annual sales of the workhorse to top 100,000 units when it rolls off the production line in Argentina next year. "We are the first European volume manufacturer to enter the globally growing segment of one-tonne pick-ups," said VW commercial vehicle head Stephan Schaller. The model, developed completely from scratch and not based on any other group platform, says VW, will compete against Nissan's Navara and Toyota's Hilux mainly in South America and other emerging markets, although it will also be sold in Europe. To the end of August, VW posted a 30 per cent sales rise in commercial vehicles in eastern Europe and a 25 per cent hike in South America. Western Europe was up 3.2 per cent.
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Mercedes-Benz says its new S400 hybrid will be the greenest luxury saloon on the planet when it goes on sale in Europe next year. The S400 Hybrid is based on the existing S350 sedan. Its lithium-ion batteries are teamed with a 3.5-litre petrol V6 engine producing around 210kW. The electrics add another 15kW and an extra 160Nm of torque at zero revs. The standard seven-speed automatic has been modified for hybrid operation, and stop/start functionality is hardwired in the new hybrid's electronics. Energy is captured for battery charging through regenerative braking.
alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz
