Marine Compass With Light on 2040-parts.com

GM, Ford and Chrysler sales advance on crossover, small-car demand

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler posted higher July sales, helped by demand for crossovers as well as small, fuel-efficient vehicles. GM said today its sales rose 8 percent last month from a year ago, with passenger car demand rising 8 percent and crossover sales increasing 20 percent. At Ford, sales rose 6 percent, with car demand advancing 3 percent and light truck sales up 12 percent.

Daimler-Renault alliance to delay new Smart and Twingo models, report says

Renault SA and Daimler AG, who are sharing technology to build the new Smart ForTwo and Renault Twingo cars, will delay the introduction of the models by a year, according to a French newspaper. The cars will now come to market in 2014 instead of 2013, La Tribune said, citing industry sources. The next ForTwo and the third-generation Twingo will be built on Renault's A platform, with ForTwo production continuing at Smart's plant in Hambach, France, and Twingo output at Renault's Novo Mesto factory in Slovenia.

A look at Volvo future products

Volvo wants to derive economies of scale from a new front-wheel-drive architecture called SPA, for Scalable Platform Architecture. The redesigned XC90 crossover due in 2014 will be the first to use the architecture. SPA was designed for a new family of four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines that Volvo will begin using on existing models next fall.