Dnj Engine Components Mg3179a Plenum Gasket on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes to build C-class in Alabama

Mercedes-Benz will add production of C-class sedans to its plant near Tuscaloosa, Ala., starting in 2014. Daimler AG Chairman Dieter Zetsche, who participated in the creation of the Alabama plant project as a fast-rising executive in 1993, said in a statement released Wednesday from Stuttgart that the U.S. operation will take over about one-fifth of the model’s global production.

GM's Tom Peters on breaking Corvette design tradition [w/Video]

GM design director of performance vehicles and full-size trucks Tom Peters has defended his decision to break from Corvette tradition by abandoning round rear lamps for the 2014 Stingray in an Autoweek video. The rear lamp design of the new model has been criticized as being "too Camaro" by some, to which Peters challenges them to park one alongside the other before he highlights just how different they are. Functionality also played a key role in the rear lamps' redesign, he explains, such as rear aerodynamic considerations, new LED technology previously unused in Corvette design, and depth of sculpture opportunities.

New 2013 Nissan Note gets more appealing

The new Nissan Note has turned in to a Ford Fiesta basher as Nissan turn the Note from a boring little MPV in to a convincing small hatch. We did think the Invitation would be watered down to produce a slightly titivated new Note for production, but much of the style has found its way through in to the new Note – which we first saw in the JDM Nissan Note last summer – and the Note now looks set to take on proper compact hatches like the Ford Fiesta. The nose of the new Note is now more convincing – with new headlights and grill – and the doors get a great big feature crease that looks like a giant smoothing iron has stamped its mark, although Nissan say it’s a ‘Squash Line’  whose ‘angles were inspired by the flight of a fast moving squash ball travelling around a court’.