Rectifier Assembly 1996 Suzuki Quadsport Lt80 S38 on 2040-parts.com

Maybach is dead - Zetsche closes Merc's upmarket wing

Daimler is to announce the closure of Maybach, marking the failure of its upmarket division resurrected to battle BMW's Rolls-Royce and VW's Bentley subsidiaries. Chief exec Dieter Zetsche will tomorrow (Saturday 26 November) announce he's lost patience with Maybach in an interview with a weekend newspaper in Germany. No more Maybachs will be developed and stocks will deplete by later in 2012.

Road drainage problems increasing

ROAD DRAINAGE during the mid-summer heatwave was no better than in the early-year floods, according to 40% of drivers. A further 9% said drainage in June was even worse than during the winter downpours, the AA/Populus survey of more than 18,000 AA members showed. Most dissatisfaction with the state of the roads in mid-summer was shown by drivers in Yorkshire and Humberside, with 46% of them reckoning drainage was no better than during the winter.

SEMA 2008 show report: Volkswagen Passat CC

By Ben Whitworth Motor Shows 07 November 2008 09:00 Volkswagen’s sobriety took a back seat at the SEMA show in Las Vegas this week – it pulled the covers off a pair of muscle-bound Passat CCs, a racy 295bhp Tiguan and a grunty diesel Jetta aimed at cajoling the American market into turning its back on gasoline. The unambiguously named Performance CC – designed by Volkswagen’s California-based design centre – gets a shot in the arm from a three-stage turbo boost to its 2.0-litre TSI engine. In Eco mode you get a modest 222bhp and 236 lb ft of torque, GT mode hikes those outputs to 252bhp and 268 lbs ft, while the Full Power stage unleashes 311bhp and 313 lb ft.