Vintage Appleton Lorraine Series 32 Spotlight on 2040-parts.com

Ram truck gets new V6, eight-speed transmission

The Ram pickup scheduled to be introduced in April will offer both the Pentastar 3.6-liter V6 and an eight-speed transmission, according to a Chrysler Group filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The voluntary annual filing--which appeared Tuesday on the automaker's corporate Web site, chryslergroupllc.com--laid out many new features of the upcoming version of the automaker's top-selling vehicle. The new eight-speed transmission "reduces fuel consumption by up to 12 percent over our current five-speed transmissions," such as the one now in the Ram, the filing said.

MINI’s Olympic Marketing Masterstroke

BMW has spent £40 million sponsoring the 2012 London Olympics, but it’s a small fleet of remote controlled MINI’s that provide the value. BMW has done all it can to promote its sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympics, and with a spend said to be in the region of £40 million, who can blame them? But it’s not just local shopkeepers and enthusiastic small businesses that are hamstrung by Olympic rules on advertising, the Olympic sponsors are too.

Fire sale continues: Ford cuts stake in Mazda

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 18 November 2008 16:09 Yesterday GM sold its stake in Suzuki; today Ford announced plans to slash its shareholding in Mazda. Previously the Blue Oval held a third of Mazda’s stock, but it has cut that to just 13%. Ford admitted the sale was purely to boost its balance sheet, as the Big Three continue to struggle with cashflow.