Ford Focus St Engine Balance Shaft on 2040-parts.com

MINI Goodwood Price? A cool £41k

MINI Goodwood - more than twice the price of a Cooper S We did wonder, tongue in cheek, when BMW revealed they were making the MINI Roller – the MINI ‘Inspired by Goodwood’ – if we would see the first MINI with a list price of £50k. Of course, even BMW aren’t bold enough to make a production MINI – even one with Rolls Royce fairy dust sprinkled on at Goodwood – cost so much. But they’ve come damn close.

GM stops Chevy Volt production to trim inventory

General Motors will idle the Detroit-area assembly plant that builds the Chevrolet Volt for more than a month to curb rising inventories of the plug-in hybrid. On March 1, GM told 1,300 workers at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in Michigan that it will shut down production for five weeks, starting the week of March 19. GM plans to resume production on April 23, spokesman Chris Lee said.

Carlos Ghosn's automaker mantra: Go big or you'll go away

Size matters in auto company survival, Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn told an audience in Detroit on Tuesday. To cope with the escalating costs and scope of a global industry, successful automakers must complete a trifecta--be able to compete in every technology, every market and every segment, Ghosn said during a luncheon speech at the Detroit Economic Club “No 3 million-unit carmaker can make it,” Ghosn said, explaining why his Renault-Nissan alliance forged an alliance with Germany's Daimler AG. Competency in one or two of the three skills is not enough, and only very large companies can afford all three, he said.