China's Ferrari-Lamborghini-Audi-Inspired S11 Coupe Rumored to Debut as a JAC Model in Beijing

If you're experiencing a little bit of déjà vu after looking at these photos, no need to worry because chances are you remember our post on the red Tong Jian S11 coupe from the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show.

The news coming in from several automotive websites in China is that Jianghuai Automobile, more commonly known as JAC Motors, will present the S11 under its own nameplate at this month's 2012 Auto China Show in Beijing.

The same sources show a set of allegedly scoop photos of the S11 in a yellow exterior finish that they claim to be the JAC model, even though the car does not sport any of the brand's badges.

If true, then JAC Motors, which recently made headlines in the States for cloning the Ford F-150 pickup truck, may have come sealed some sort of deal with Tong Jian to build the coupe – that or it just "borrowed" the design…

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Several BMW Models and Rolls Royce Ghost Recalled for Circuit Board that Poses a Fire Risk

With an MSRP of around $250,000, the most affordable model in Rolls-Royce's lineup, the Ghost, costs about four times as much as the top (non-M) BMW 5-Series in the States, the 550i (MSRP: $62,000).

Still, that doesn’t mean you won't find common parts in these two models, and not only, as the BMW Group's latest recall proves.

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Renault's Quirky Pure-Electric Twizy Goes on Sale in the UK

Renault has never been the one to shy away from eccentric creations (remember the Avantime?) but the new Twizy certainly takes quirkiness one-step further as it looks like the odd pairing of a golf kart with a motorcycle offering seating for two in a tandem layout while riding on four wheels.

Revealed as a concept for the first time at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, Renault surprised us a year later with the presentation of the production model in Paris. Now, the Twizy is available in European showrooms including Britain where it went on sale today.

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Ferrari Enzo Replacement Rumored to get 920HP V12 Hybrid Powerplant

Like many other carmakers, Ferrari doesn't disclose a lot of details about its upcoming production models, something that leaves plenty of room for speculation and rumors, the latest coming from Motor Trend magazine.

The publication reports that the Ferrari Enzo's replacement will be shown to select customers at a private event this fall before it makes its official world premiere next year, most likely at the 2013 Geneva Salon in March.

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Volkswagen Sweepstakes Offers Winner the Chance to Drive the Golf R at the 'Ring

The Volkswagen brand is lifting the stakes with a freshly launched competition to mark the arrival of its new 2012 Golf R hot hatch in the United States.

Named the “Golf R Ultimate Fan Experience” Sweepstakes, the contest will offer one lucky winner an all-expenses paid trip for two in Germany this September.

The week-long trip will include, among other things, a tour of VW's headquarters in Wolfsburg but more importantly, the unique opportunity to drive the Golf R at the Nürburgring racetrack.

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Volvo Cars Celebrates 85th Birthday with the Same Car in the Same Place

On April 14, 1927, at 10 am, Volvo sales manager Hilmer Johansson was photographed while he was driving the Swedish company's first mass-produced automobile, the ÖV4, through the factory gates in Lundby in Göteborg.

To celebrate the 85th anniversary of this event, Stefan Jacoby, President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation, and Olof Persson, President and CEO of the Volvo Group, which sold the company's automotive business to Ford in 1999 before it landed in the hands of China's Geely in 2009, were photographed passing through the same gates in the same historic model.

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Mercedes-Benz to Present its First Furniture Collection in Milan, Sales Start Later this Year

Mercedes-Benz wants to bring the classic styling elements of its automobile range into your house through its first ever furniture collection that will be revealed in a world premiere at the 'Salone Internazionale del Mobile', which takes place in Milan, Italy, from April 17 to 22.

The signature lineup was created in collaboration with the Formitalia Luxury Group, one of Italy's leading manufacturers of designer furniture, and will be marketed under the Mercedes-Benz Style label.

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Lamborghini CEO Says SUV Could Launch in 2017 if it Receives the Green Light from the VW Group

There's no end to the news surrounding Lamborghini's upcoming SUV project, which will be previewed through a thinly disguised concept model at the 2012 Auto China Show in Beijing on April 23 to test the waters in the same way that Bentley did with the EXP 9 SUV study in Geneva this past March.

According to a report in the German business daily Handelsblatt, Lamborghini Boss Stephan Winkelmann believes that the SUV is a crucial model for the brand that has been losing money since 2009, and that VW will most likely give the green light, in which case, it could launch onto the market in 2017.

"We definitely need a third line in the mid- and long term," said Winkelmann. "An SUV would be the first Lamborghini for everyday use, not just for the race track or weekends. We would have the opportunity to win new customers. It usually takes 48 months until an all-new vehicle arrives at dealers, so the new Lamborghini would not be available to buy before 2017."

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2013 Scion FR-S Rolls on to the Dyno to Prove its Worth

Toyota, Subaru and Scion all tell us that their co-developed trio of rear-wheel drive sports coupes, namely the 86/GT86, BRZ and FR-S, are powered by the same 2.0-liter flat-four that produces 200 horsepower and 151 lb-ft (205Nm) at the flywheel.

As is common these days with any newly launched model, independent testers, in this case, the folks over at Edmund's Insideline, strapped the North American market 2013 Scion FR-S on the dyno to see what kind of numbers it would produce.

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Lexus Delivers Europe's First LFA with a Nürburgring Package to a UK Customer

More than a year after Lexus officially presented the LFA Nürburgring Edition at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, the first example of the Japanese supercar arrived in Europe and was delivered this week to an unnamed customer in Britain. This is one of only 50 LFA Nürburgring Edition models that will be sold worldwide.

The Nürburgring Edition model is finished in an orange exterior hue with a black interior, but that's not what makes it special.

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GM to Kill Chevrolet Avalanche, Presents One Last Special Edition Named Black Diamond

The Chevrolet Avalanche will soon go the way of the dodo bird as General Motors has decided it's time to end the model series, which was presented back in 2001 and was redesigned in 2007.

To mark the end of production, Chevrolet has introduced a special edition named the 2013 Avalanche Black Diamond, while also offering additional features on the rest of the lineup.

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Lexus Takes a Page from Apple to Create its own 'Genius Bar' of Tech Specialists

If it works for Apple, then maybe it can work for Lexus. We're talking about Apple's so-called 'Genius Bar', which is a communal-style help desk located inside the company’s retail stores.

For those of you wondering why car dealership customers would need a technical support station, all you have to do is look at the increasing number of electronic gizmos found in modern day vehicles, especially in the luxury car segment.

According to Forbes, Lexus will create its own version of Apple's 'Genius Bar' at its U.S. showrooms and for this reason, many of the company's 230 dealers in the country will increase the number of people who work in their sales department by as much as 20 percent.

Vincent Salisbury, training manager at the company’s Lexus College brand-education enterprise, told the magazine that some 2,400 people will pass through two-and-a-half-day training sessions in California by June for this matter.

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Chevrolet Collector Wants to Add a Guinness World Records Title to his Collection

Some people collect stamps, others collect coins but for Charlie Mallon it's all about Chevrolet memorabilia.

The 54-year-old auto dealership consultant has been amassing Chevrolet items for the past 40 years with his collection including signs, racing flags, coffee table books, soda cans, hats, belts, shirts, playing cards, drinking glasses, posters, tractor trailers, a biplane and miniature cars – lots of them, 2,181 different pieces to be precise.

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Maserati to Build Alfa Romeo 4C at its Modena Plant, will Introduce Three new Models

It's that time of year that the Fiat Group reveals its plans for the near future and on Thursday, the Italian automaker announced that Maserati will expand its product offering and significantly increase volumes over the next two years with the presentation of three new models in three different market segments.

The Italian company did not provide additional information, but we already know that the three new Maserati models planned for production are the Kubang luxury SUV that was previewed in showcar trim at the 2011 Frankfurt motor show, a mid-size sports sedan to compete with the BMW 6-Series Gran Coupe and Mercedes CLS, and the next generation of the large Quattroporte sedan.

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New Volvo V40 Hatchback Starts from £19,745 in Britain

A little over a month after its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show, Volvo of Britain has released detailed pricing on the brand's new premium five-door hatch, the V40.

On-the-road prices range from £19,745 for the base 115hp diesel to £26,795 for a fully equipped SE LUX model with a 177hp diesel. Volvo said that customers can place their orders now, though the first cars won't be arriving in the UK before September.

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Wiper Problem Leads to the Recall of 50,001 Buick Enclave, Chevy Traverse and GMC Acadia SUVs

General Motors has issued a new recall that affects certain 2011-2012 model year Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia crossovers registered in 28 cold-weather states and Washington, D.C over a problem with the windshield wipers. Read more »

Report Says U.S. Automobile Sector Contributed $135 Billion in Taxes in 2010

It’s no secret that the motor vehicle sector is the largest manufacturing industry in the United States, but how big is it in terms of state and federal tax revenues?

This is a question the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), a nonprofit research organization based in Michigan, set to find out on behalf of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which funded the study.

The report concluded that in 2010, the production, sales and service, and use of the automobile in the United States was responsible for generating at least $91.5 billion in state government tax revenue (13 percent of the total) and at least $43 billion to federal government tax revenues.

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Porsche Buys Nardò Technical Center and High Speed Ring in Italy

The famed Nardò Technical Center with its high-speed ring in southern Italy will soon have a new owner as the Porsche Engineering Group announced that it would take over the facility from its current landlord Prototipo SpA in May.

The automotive proving ground that can be seen from space covers an area of more than 700 hectares and comprises a 6.2-kilometer (3.9 miles) long handling circuit, a 12.5-kilometer (7.8 miles) long oval circuit and facilities for simulating different road surfaces and changeable weather condition.

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GM Says Explosion at Tech Facility Injures Five, One Seriously, was Related to Prototype Battery Testing

The explosion that occurred on Wednesday morning at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, near Detroit, and which we first told you about earlier today, resulted in the injury of five employees, one of which seriously, according to an official statement from the company.

"We are aware of five employees being evaluated on scene by medical personal and only one employee is being further treated," said GM.

A company official told the Detroit News that the employee who was seriously injured and hospitalized is expected to make a full recovery and that the injuries are non-life threatening.

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Saab Offers Evaluated by Administrators, All Bidders Want to Restart Production

Reports of Saab’s death may or may not have been greatly exaggerated. The saga has been dragging on for over a year and whilst the Swedish carmaker filed for bankruptcy last December, it’s far from over.

According to Automotive News, the deadline set by the administrators who handle Saab’s bankruptcy expired on Monday, April 9. Hans Bergqvist, one of the administrators who evaluated the offers, reportedly told the Swedish press that all bidders want to restart production – though, like the rest of his colleagues, he wouldn’t disclose their identity.

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