05-12 Nissan Running Board Bracket Step Pad Bracket Right Oem 96176-ea500 on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes signs joint venture to build carbonfibre parts

Not to be outdone by BMW’s joint venture with the SGL Group to manufacturer commercially viable carbonfibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) for the electric Megacity Vehicle, Mercedes has announced a joint venture with Japanese company Toray Industries to manufacturer and market its on CFRP automotive parts. The deal was signed in Germany today, with Toray taking a 50.1% stake, Daimler holding 44.9% and the remaining 5% being taken by other shareholders. The two companies started working together in March 2010, and while Toray has been working on the materials and moulding processes, Merc has designed the automotive parts and the technologies to join the parts together.

2010 Kia Forte: More goodies for a lower price

The new Forte replaces the Kia Spectra compact sedan for 2010. Kia's biggest seller gets new skin and a wider, longer version of the Hyundai Elantra platform for the 2010 model year but falls short in simple things such as the workings of shifters and clutches. Still, it's only $14,390 to start, and that includes Bluetooth, an iPod jack and three months of Sirius satellite radio.

Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4: The Commercial

Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 takes on the landscape There was a time in the dim and distant past (well, the 1980s) when advertising cars was easy – you just made them look as dramatic as possible and hoped viewers would think that buying the car being advertised would imbue them with endless cool. But then the world was made to feel guilt by a new religion which was even better than the Catholic Church at making its followers feel bad for anything in life that feels good – the ‘Global Warming’ believers. These descendants of the ‘Hole in the Ozone Layer’ brigade and the ‘New Ice Age’ predictors’ have managed to frighten a big chunk of the West’s population in to believing they are somehow to blame for our climate change, and in doing so have terrified car makers in to making anything other than fluffy-bunny adverts.