Author: autoevolution

Honda’s British division has announced the appointment of David Hodgetts to the Managing Director position, taking control of the company’s sales operation for Cars, Motorcycles and Power Products. Hodgetts will take up his new role from April 1, 2010.

Hodgetts comes from the company’s Swindon car plant where he has 20 years experience, with most achievements earned in his current role as Director of Planning and Administration.

He played an important role in guiding Honda’s plant through… (read more)

Reigning Formula One champion Jenson Button insisted that winning a second consecutive world title this year doesn’t depend entirely of him, but will most likely be the result of team work. In other words, if he’ll get the proper help from his new team (including Lewis Hamilton, at some point), the 30-year old Brit sees himself as a title contender this season.

A few days after reckoning that Ferrari seems like the team to beat in 2010, Button told the Spanish newspaper Marca that it takes an… (read more)

Scheduled to be presented at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show next month, the new versions of Nissan Pathfinder and Navara have surfaced on the web today, showing little exterior changes but bringing, according to the little information available, several changes to the mechanics.

According to Autoblog.it, the biggest news comes in the form of the 3.0l V6 dCi engine, developing 238 hp and 55 Nm of torque. The engine, a joint effort of Nissan and Renault, will also be used on the Infiniti EX and FX … (read more)

The upcoming Volvo Ocean Race, due to start from Alicante in Spain in the autumn of 2011, will make its first stop in Cape Town. The South African port will host the stopover for the eighth time. The rest of the course will be revealed before the end of March, the Swedish carmaker says.

Leg one at 6,500 nautical miles is one of the longest in the race and historically the team that wins this leg has gone on to claim the winner’s trophy. 

"We have received port bids from many different… (read more)

BMW has chosen a new ambassador who will represent the brand in Australia, in the person of master chef George Calombaris.

Recently, Calombarid took some his chef suit off and jumped straight into an M3 cabrio, enjoying the M Power experience. The chef, 31 years old, has a vast awards portfolio. In 2004, the Global Food and Wine Magazine chose him as one of the Top 40 Chefs of Influence in the World and in 2008 he won the Chef of the Year title, awarded by The Age’s Good Food Guide.

Follow… (read more)

Former road-racing motorcycle champion Casey Stoner admitted that Valentino Rossi again looks like the rider to beat in the 2010 MotoGP championship, following the first test action at Sepang earlier this month.

The Ducati racer, ranked 4th overall in the 2009 classification due to a 3-race missing period last season, finished both days of testing at Sepang behind Rossi, but ahead of Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.

With Lorenzo likely to miss the rest of the off-season te… (read more)

Bentley’s first ever dedicated Boutique will open at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show next month, allowing visitors to choose from a selection of Bentley branded merchandise from the Bentley Collection, together with a limited edition range of new products designed exclusively for the 2010 show.

The branded merchandise is themed around A Celebration of Color. The manufacturer worked with Robert Ettinger of London to produce a Limited Edition range of small leather goods comprising luggage tags, key … (read more)

If there were a book on how to poorly manage a disastrous situation, then it may as well have been called "Toyota Recall"… In the latest piece of news pushing Toyota even more towards the bottom of both the stock exchange and public perception, a document which was made public on Sunday and apparently belongs to Toyota says the Japanese carmaker saved some $100 million by convincing US regulators to put an end to the 2007 accelerator investigation and agree to a cheap fix for the pro… (read more)

Fiat’s Chief Executive Officer, Sergio Marchionne, earned $6.5 million in 2009 (4.8 million euro), a figure which can be translated into a 41 percent increase, as Bloomberg reports, citing data from the automaker’s annual report.

Marchionne, now 57 years old, achieved the figure by receiving additional payments over his 3.05 million euro salary. According to the official papers, last year he received a 1.35 million euro bonus and extra fees worth 387,400 euro. Marchionne’s salary reached 3.4… (read more)

Virgin Racing did not walk away from the Jerez testing last week with too many positive signs of improvement for the season opening round Bahrain Grand Prix, as a hydraulic problem prevented their VR-01 from making the necessary track outings last week. What’s even worse, it seems the aforementioned issues will oblige the team to scrap their aerodynamic package for the Bahrain race and focus on the reliability of the car instead.

The hydraulic problem encountered by the Virgin mechanics at Je… (read more)

Mitsubishi will attend the 2010 Geneva Motor Show to showcase the company’s latest contraption, the ASX crossover which is already on sale in Japan as RVR. The car is projected to go on sale this summer and will be powered by a 1.8-liter turbocharged direct-injection engine designed by MMC and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

The engine will be mated to a six-speed manual transmission, specifically optimized to return low emissions figures and improved fuel economy ratings.

The five-seater is … (read more)

German carmaker BMW announced today the presentation date for the remaining model in the new 5 Series range, the Touring, scheduled for April 9, during the 2010 Auto Mobil International (AMI) show in Leipzig. Of course, the PR department from BMW chose not to release any official photo of the new 5 Series Touring, nor details about it; they did however promised to do so soon, but probably not before the 2010 Geneva Auto Show is over.

Until then, we are only left with the rumors which surroun… (read more)

German consumers who are planning to buy the new Volkswagen Touareg can already place their orders at dealerships across the country, with prices to start at 50,700 Euros. In fact, prices are dependent on the version you choose, as the initial offer comprises three different configurations, as follows: the 3.6-liter V6 unit with Hybrid powertrain – 73,500 Euros, the 3.0-liter V6 TDI BlueMotion – 50,700 Euros and the 4.2-liter V8 TDI priced at 70,800 Euros.

The Hybrid Touareg has a combined fu… (read more)

When the president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) visited Indonesia last week, several publications in Europe and worldwide took this as a sign of Formula One maybe heading towards that country in the near future. As the sport is seeking expansion in several markets of the world – and being that Indonesia is the 4th most populous country in the world – this move would not surprise anyone.

The country has only one decent track hosting international races, namely the Sentul In… (read more)

The 2010 Geneva Auto Show next month will be the perfect venue for MINI to launch an world-first in-car entertainment solution. Dubbed MINI Connected, the technology makes use of a technology for integration of the Apple iPhone, that is unique to MINI. The new technology will be launched simultaneously with the MINI Countryman, as an optional specification.

MINI therefore becomes the world’s first carmaker to offer a newly developed USB interface which allows maximum integration of the iPhone… (read more)

The fact that Campos Grand Prix has underwent some major management changes during the past few days will reportedly not change Bruno Senna’s status within the team. The nephew of 3-time world champion Ayrton Senna has signed an initial one-year deal with the Spanish team ever since last year, but his presence in the 2010 F1 roster was uncertain due to his team’s unstable financial situation.

A couple of days ago, it was reported that Spanish billionaire Jose Ramon Carabante had taken over th… (read more)

Following several months of absence from the public eye, German carmaker’s BMW Megacity Vehicle is again under the spotlight. A report in German magazine Automobile Woche, cited by BMWblog, says the new car, created by the infamous Project i branch, will be built starting 2013 in BMW’s facility in Leipzig.

The vehicle, part of a new, third sub-brand owned by BMW (probably named i-Setta), will be offered by the carmaker with a choice of several engines, ranging from regular, yet small displace… (read more)

The Chinese market is posting a huge increase and carmakers building cars in the country have turned to all kind of measures supposed to help them keep up with demand. But General Motors is trying to go beyond adding new shifts or similar strategies and might build a new factory to support its impressive growth in China.

GM’s Chinese representatives have already confirmed that a new factory is now under consideration but refused to provide more details on the matter. All we know is that it co… (read more)

Chrysler Group LLC has recently reached an agreement with the shell company holding its old assets to buy the Sterling Heights, Michigan production site for $20 million, as Reuters reports, citing Bankruptcy Court documents.

Despite the union’s strong opposition, Chrysler had previously decided that it would shut the plant down by the end of the year, but it seems that the plan was scrapped. The new decision would keep the facility in Chrysler’s fold. It would also save 1,200 jobs at the plan… (read more)

Two seasons before the MotoGP will benefit from 1000cc power plants, the Moto 2 class will make its debut this year. Moto2, a new category that has been created to replace the 2-stroke 250cc class, will cover engines with intermediate displacement and was formed as a step-up to the MotoGP class.

The interesting part is that all machines will be equipped with Honda-made 4-stroke 600cc engines but with different rolling chassis. Tires will also be supplied by a single manufacturer, Dunlop, whi… (read more)