William Maley

There also the a new platform called MSB that Porsche and Bentley will use for their next-generation vehicles (Panamara and Continental)

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 23, 2013 When we last checked in on the Bentley SUV, it was reported that Volkswagen officials had given it the green light. Officially, Bentley said they were still waiting on a decision. Today, Bentley has finally ended the will they/won't they speculation by announcing the new SUV will go into production in 2016. The new SUV will will be the “most luxurious and most powerful SUV in the market,” according to the company in a press release. No concrete details were announced, but the rumorpile has reported the SUV will likely look different than the EXP 9 F Concept shown at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show and come with a variety of powertrains including a plug-in hybrid. The new SUV will be built in Crewe, England and create 1,000 jobs. Bentley will be investing £800 million (about $1.2 billion) to upgrade the facilities at Crewe and develop the new SUV and other vehicles. “The Volkswagen Group believes in the UK as a competitive location for industrial production. Bentley fans all around the world are looking forward to the brand’s first SUV. Together we will make this new Bentley another true Bentley – powerful, exclusive and successful,” said Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Volkswagen Group Source: Bentley William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. Press Release is on Page 2 GREEN LIGHT FOR BENTLEY SUV -Fourth model line to be built in Crewe -Sales will begin in 2016 -Over 1,000 UK jobs created -New model will be true to Bentley's brand hallmarks -Extremely positive customer response to an SUV by Bentley (Crewe, 23 July 2013). Bentley Motors today confirms that it will proceed with the development of the Bentley SUV, the company's fourth model line. The SUV will be made in Crewe and will go on sale in 2016. It will create over 1000 jobs in the UK. Over the next three years Bentley will invest more than £800 million in its headquarters at Crewe and the development of new models. UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who was present together with Dr Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Volkswagen Group for the announcement at Bentley headquarters in Crewe, said: "This £800 million investment and a thousand new jobs from Bentley is fantastic news for both Crewe and for the UK as a whole. It is another important milestone in strengthening our economy. "One sector that we know is sprinting ahead in the global race is our booming automotive industry. One vehicle rolls off a production line somewhere in the UK every 20 seconds and we have just launched the Government's Automotive Industrial Strategy to help continue this success for years to come. "I am delighted that Bentley will be building their new vehicle here, not only creating a thousand jobs, but safeguarding many more, as well as increasing training opportunities for highly skilled apprentices." Dr Winterkorn said: "The Volkswagen Group believes in the UK as a competitive location for industrial production. Bentley fans all around the world are looking forward to the brand's first SUV. Together we will make this new Bentley another true Bentley – powerful, exclusive and successful." Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "This is a welcome commitment to the UK from a major international car maker. Our automotive industrial strategy proves this government's commitment to working with world-class companies like Bentley to create jobs and promote exports. "Bentley was the first firm I visited as a government minister and serves as a real example of high value manufacturing. They export more than four out of every five cars they make in the UK to the rest of the world." Bentley's Chairman and Chief Executive, Dr Wolfgang Schreiber, added: "This is excellent news for Bentley and for the UK. Bentley is increasingly successful and this new fourth model line will leverage the success of the global SUV market. The support of everyone involved with the Company has been fundamental to this decision, which will ensure sustainable growth for the company." The SUV will be a thoroughbred Bentley true to the brand hallmarks of luxury, performance, quality and craftsmanship. The styling will set it apart from any other SUV on the road and will be true to the Bentley design DNA. It will be the most luxurious and most powerful SUV in the market. The response from customers to a Bentley SUV has been extremely positive in the last 16 months. View full article

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 23, 2013 We've been hearing for a time that Jaguar is planning to launch a new compact luxury sedan sedan and crossover. Now a new report from Reuters says those two vehicles are going to be part of a new entry-level lineup coming in 2015. Sources tell Reuters that with the recent successes of the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Freelander (LR2 as we know it), Jaguar would like to emulate it. "It's a logical idea to use the momentum from Land Rover and expand the Jaguar range. Jaguar is less than half the size of Land Rover so they need to do something, plus investors will like a move downscale," said IHS Automotive research director Christoph Stürmer. Source: Reuters William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. View full article

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 22, 2013 For the past year or so, we've been hearing murmurs on a new Lexus IS coupe since Lexus showed off the LF-CC concept at the Paris Motor Show. Now, the Lexus coupe is real and is coming to this year's Toyko Motor Show. A source tells Automotive News that Lexus will unveil the production coupe in November and it will wear the RC nameplate. The base RC will use a 3.5L V6 with 306 horsepower. Follow that will be the RC-F which is reported to pack a 460 horsepower V8 engine. The RC is expected to go on sale late next year. Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required) William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. View full article

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 22, 2013 A new report from Mustangs Daily states that Ford will be building 1,000 next-generation Mustangs with the designation of 2014 ½ to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the model. The 50th anniversary models will come with their own special VIN and build number. Those hoping for added performance will be sad since the report says the anniversary model won't see any upgrades to the standard 2015 Mustang. Source: Mustangs Daily William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. View full article

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 22, 2013 Electric automaker Tesla has been a tour-de-force over the past year. Sales of the Model S have exceeded expectations; profits are though the roof; the company has been implementing free charging stations across the U.S. for owners and other things. These success have caught the attention of General Motors. More specially, GM CEO Dan Akerson. According to Bloomberg, Akerson has created a small team to study Tesla and how it could affect the company. “He thinks Tesla could be a big disrupter if we’re not careful. History is littered with big companies that ignored innovation that was coming their way because you didn’t know where you could be disrupted,” said GM vice chairman, Steve Girsky. The formation of the group comes from Akerson's desire to change GM’s culture. He has refocused what is being spent of research and development, making the implementation much faster, and number of items to keep up and keep focus. “We had people with 20 and 30 patents. I was kind of a downer. I said, ‘How many have we commercialized? How many are in our cars?’ None,” Akerson recently told a crowd in Houston. Source: Bloomberg William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. View full article

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 19, 2013 Welcome back to another edition of As The Alfa Romeo Turns. This time we have a new report from the UK's Car that says Alfa Romeo will be dumping all of their front-wheel drive models in 2015 and begin focusing on rear-wheel drive models. This decision comes from Fiat and Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne who wants to align the Italian brand as a direct competitor to the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Moving to rear-wheel drive would help out in this regard. "Sure, design is important, Italian flair is important, top-notch quality is important. But it is impossible to challenge Audi, BMW and Mercedes if you cannot match the Germans in terms of vehicle dynamics and driving pleasure," said a source. So what is the plan? Well, Alfa will be dropping their front-wheel drive models (MiTo and Giulietta). Alfa will also work closely with Maserati to develop new rear-drive modular platform that will underpin four new vehicles; two sedans and two SUVs. The first vehicle is the long-delayed Giulia. Originally conceived to use Fiat's CUSW platform and be a competitor to the 3-Series, the Giulia is expected to go with a rear-wheel platform. This has caused the Giulia to be delayed again to 2015. Next is the Alfetta which will take on the likes of the 5-Series and E-Class. This will arrive in 2016. The two SUVs are due in 2017 and 2018. One SUV will be about the size of the BMW X1 and the other will be around the size of the X3 and Audi Q5. Source: Car William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. View full article

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 19, 2013 According to a report from Reuters, General Motors has pushed back the launch timeframe of the next Chevrolet Cruze from 2014 to late 2015. Sources say the reasons for the push is for the company to squeeze out more sales out of the current model and to put more engineering changes into the model. We don't know much about the next-generation Cruze, besides that it will ride on GM's new D2XX platform. Our best guess as to why GM is pushing back the Cruze by about a year? They don't want another 2013 Malibu disaster. Source: Reuters William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. View full article

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 19, 2013 With the recent news of Ford shuttering its Australian operations, the question arose of what would happen with the Ford Performance Vehicle (FPV) division. That division which was founded in 2002 has created some of the fastest Ford vehicles down in Australia. Well it seems that FPV will be closing up shop. A source at Ford tells Drive.com.au that FPV will be shuttered when the final iteration of the Falcon is launched next year. No word on how many jobs will be lost. In 2012 when Ford got full ownership of FPV, the company removed 32 jobs and move the rest into Ford Australia's internal operations. "We are not in a position to comment on FPV and any future product plans at this point," said Ford Australia spokesman, Neil McDonald. After FPV is disbanded, Ford will still serve fans of Fast Ford by resurrecting the Falcon XR8 which will utilize the same supercharged V8 engine, Brembo brakes, and sports suspension found on the current FPV GT Falcon. After that, no one is really sure. McDonald told Drive that Ford's global vice president of sales and marketing, Jim Farley would be in Australia next month to outline some of the coming changes. Source: Drive.com.au William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. View full article

Whoops.. It's a Hyundai unit. I fixed it.

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 18, 2013 A proposed class-action lawsuit was filed against Ford on Monday that alleges MyFord Touch and MyLincoln Touch infotainment systems are defective. The suit was filed by the Center for Defensive Driving, a nonprofit educator in Torrance, California. The Center for Defensive Driving in their suit say that Ford knew about the defects, but didn't disclose the problems to potential customers. The Center for Defensive Driving leased a 2013 F-150 pickup with MyFord Touch and found that it suffered from numerous issues including a lockup and total system failure, periodic non-responsiveness to devices such as MP3 players, and periodic non-responsiveness to voice commands. Over the course of five months, the F-150′s MyFord Touch unit had failed or locked up no fewer than 27 times. Ford has been on the offensive with MyFord and MyLincoln Touch since its introduction. In 2011, Ford CEO Alan Mulally acknowledged problems with the system and said consumers would be happy with an update that would be coming out that year that would improve many functions. Since then, Ford has introduced a number of updates, several technical service bulletins, and extended the warranty for the system. The company has also seen its ratings in Consumer Reports and J.D. Power go down thanks to MyFord and MyLincoln Touch. "Ford needs to scrap it, not update it," said Center for Defensive Driving President Chris Knox. A Ford spokesperson declined to comment. Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required) William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. View full article

William Maley Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com July 18, 2013 "If you slash prices, they will come." Okay, maybe I sightly altered one of the famous quotes from Field of Dreams, but if you worked at Nissan, this quote would ring very true. Earlier this year, the company announced they would be cutting the price of Leaf by $6,000 and extending the range. This price cut is working as past few months have seen Leaf sales right around 2,000 unit mark. This has also prompted other EV manufacturers to either offer incentives or price drops. The price drop has also caused a problem for Nissan; the demand for Leafs is outstripping the supply. "We're going to be short on inventory all through the summer. It will be late fall before we can produce enough to satisfy everybody," said Erik Gottfried, Nissan's director of electric vehicle sales and marketing. This is mostly due to the slow ramp-up of Nissan's Smyrna, TN plant where the Leaf is built. The plant can produce 10,000 Leafs a month. But at the moment, the plant is no where near that point. Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required) William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster. View full article