Porsche 911 996 Boxster 986 Bracket Mount For Cd Changer Cdc-3 on 2040-parts.com

Akio Toyoda named Toyota president amid global crisis

Akio Toyoda, scion of Toyota Motor Corp.'s founding family and now its next president, will bring a U.S. perspective to the automaker as it battles falling sales and an unprecedented financial crisis. Toyoda, 52, will succeed current President Katsuaki Watanabe in June, the company said Tuesday, ending weeks of speculation.

Nissan showcases crashproof cars and an eco pedal

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 06 August 2008 09:17 Nissan has unveiled a brace of new technologies to make driving in the 21st century cleaner and greener – but they also signal a further erosion of driver independence, ceding more control from man to microchip. How so? Well, the new systems announced today mark a step towards the driverless car: one is part of a project that hopes to eliminate accidents altogether while the other pushes against the accelerator to encourage a lighter right foot.

BMW Concept5 X5 eDrive revealed. It’s a plug-in Hybrid X5

The BMW Concept5 X5 eDrive (pictured) will debut at Frankfurt The arrival of the BMW Concept X5 eDrive ahead of its debut at Frankfurt next month doesn’t preview and immediate addition to the X5 range of a plug-in hybrid, but it does show what will be on offer in a year or two. Just like yesterday’s Mercedes S500 plug-in hybrid, the X5 eDrive is another example of how car makers have developed their way round CO2 taxation levels by throwing electric motors at ICE engines to create a car that offers impressive emissions and economy on official tests. In the case of the X5 eDrive that means a four-cylinder twin power ICE engine (BMW aren’t saying, but we’re assuming its a petrol engine), a 94bhp electric motor and a lithium-ion battery under the boot all working together to produce an X5 that is capable (at least in official tests, which is all that matters) of 74.3mpg and emissions under 90g/km.