Disc Brake Pad-organic Rear Acdelco Pro Durastop 17d323a on 2040-parts.com

VW to announce Italdesign takeover on Tuesday

Volkswagen will announce Tuesday that it will take a 90 percent stake in Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A, people familiar with the matter told Automotive News Europe. The Giugiaro family will retain 10 percent in the Italian design house that is famous for styling cars such as the first-generation VW Golf. VW plans to acquire control of Italdesign to help reach its goal of becoming the world's largest automaker by 2018 with sales of 10 million vehicles a year.

BMW i3 EV only scores 4 stars in Euro NCAP test

BMW i3 EV only scores 4 stars in Euro NCAP test The new BMW i3 is selling well and looks to be a good buy if you do lots of driving in congested urban environments. It offers a decent amount of proper BMW goodness and probably has enough range – even without the optional range-extender engine – to cover most urban drivers’ daily needs. But it seems there is one area the i3 doesn’t come up trumps and that’s for safety – in particular pedestrian safety – scoring a disappointing four stars in the latest round of Euro NCAP testing.

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.