First Drive: 2012 Audi A1 Sportback [w/video]

Filed under: Budget , Europe , Hatchback , Audi , First Drives , Luxury Do We Really Want Audi To Think This Small In America? Perhaps… It is perhaps with all the speed of a mighty iceberg, but increasingly, more and more North American buyers appear willing to think smaller when pondering their next auto purchase. The other shoe, which still has largely yet to drop, is for automakers to convince consumers of the merits of a luxury subcompact, paying a price premium for a longer list of creature comforts, options and badge appeal

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First Drive: 2012 Audi A1 Sportback [w/video]

Report: GM CEO stands up for Chevy Volt in D.C. hearing; Issa tells NHTSA: "I don’t believe you"

Filed under: Hybrid , Government/Legal , Safety , Hatchback , Chevrolet , Electric What a surprise. Today’s Congressional hearing over the Chevrolet Volt fire and the resulting investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration turned out to be contentious. The hearing took place in the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending. Just from the title of the event – “Volt Vehicle Fire: What did NHTSA Know and When Did They Know It?” – it was plain to see that chairman Darrell Issa was not looking to mess around

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Report: GM CEO stands up for Chevy Volt in D.C. hearing; Issa tells NHTSA: "I don’t believe you"

Report: Hiriko folding electric car headed for production

Filed under: Concept Cars , Coupe , Etc. , Europe , Technology , Design/Style , Electric One very unusual electric car has debuted in Brussels. The Hiriko EV uses a hub-mounted electric motor at each wheel, though that’s not the most interesting aspect of the vehicle.

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Report: Hiriko folding electric car headed for production

Report: Daimler planning to open new plant in North America

Filed under: China , Plants/Manufacturing , Mercedes-Benz , Nissan Size still matters, but the quest to be number one is also getting more headlines. Mercedes-Benz is the latest to stake its future on taking the top slot, with CEO Dieter Zetsche aiming to be the world’s largest premium maker by 2020. The specific number is 2.7 million vehicles sold that year, which represents an astronomical jump from 2011 sales of 1.26 million vehicles. To home in on that target, Mercedes intends to build factories in China and in North America – either Mexico or the U.S.

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Report: Daimler planning to open new plant in North America

Report: Saab Cars North American undergoing bankruptcy liquidation

Filed under: Saab , Earnings/Financials It’s a Saab story, we know, but this is – in all likelihood – the end of the road for Sweden’s “other” automaker. Sure, there are still talks of one foreign entity or another picking up where GM and Swedish Automobile (Swan)/ Spyker left off, but even if they do, they’ll have a heck of a lot of work on their hands. And that includes rebuilding its presence in North America.

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Report: Saab Cars North American undergoing bankruptcy liquidation

Report: Illegal Detroit scavengers use machines that help build city to tear it down

Filed under: Videos The two documentarians who made the Oscar-nominated Jesus Camp , Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, have turned their cameras on Detroit, feeling it “may well be a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the country.” In an excerpt of their new documentary , called Dismantling Detroit , Ewing and Grady look at a group of men who use American metal, in the form of vans and pickup trucks, to dismantle American metal, in the form of Detroit buildings. The point is to get to scrap metal, and scavenging trade that has led to issues like power outages when thieves cut telephone lines to get to the copper. The men in Dismantling are likewise said to be engaged in illegal activity, but the results of their activity seem to be no more than one less abandoned building on the block.

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Report: Illegal Detroit scavengers use machines that help build city to tear it down