BMW plans to build a small X range, below the X1, and based on the 2-Series Active Tourer.

BMW Group plans a small crossover to rival Audi’s forthcoming Q1, a German magazine reported.

According to auto motor und sport, the model, currently dubbed Urban Cross, will be based on the platform underpinning the 2-series Active Tourer minivan and will use front-wheel-drive technology from the group’s Mini brand.

A BMW spokesman told Automotive News Europe that the report was “pure speculation,” and the group would not comment on speculation.

BMW’s smallest crossover will sit below the X1, but its design would differ from that found on the automaker's current X lineup, the magazine said. The entry-level model will have a coupe-like shape and its cool and aggressive styling will help attract customers, the report added, citing company sources.

The roughly 4000mm long SUV is expected to have about 330 liters of luggage space, the same as the Mini Paceman, auto motor und sport said.

Pricing will likely begin about 25,000 euros in Germany when sales begin in 2017, the report said.

Audi has said it will begin building the Q1 at its factory in Ingolstadt, Germany, next year.

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GERMAN MAGAZINE REPORT HERE

Porsche to seriously consider a Seventh model range between 911 and 918.

Porsche is finalizing plans to add a new model to meet rising demand for sporty luxury vehicles.

"In the not-too-distant future, we will present a seventh model line” that would hit the market by 2020, Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller said Friday at the automaker’s annual press conference. “There are already promising plans, but no board decision yet.”

The Volkswagen Group unit is considering an electric car to comply with environmental regulations and counter the rise of Tesla. In January a German automotive magazine reported that Porsche would sell its long-planned Pajun sedan only as an electric car to compete with vehicles such as the Tesla Model S.

In addition, Porsche previously said it might expand the Panamera model line with a smaller version or a more spacious shooting brake variant.

Porsche is also considering a new sports car between the 911, which starts at 90,417 euros in Germany, and the 768,026 euro 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid supercar. The new sports car model would be designed to challenge Ferrari.

Porsche plans to sell more than 200,000 vehicles for the first time this year, driven by demand for the 59,715 euro Macan compact SUV, which it introduced last April.

The planned model line expansion comes as demand for luxury cars continues to rise. Last year Porsche, its sister brands Audi and Bentley, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and BMW Group all reported new sales records.

Porsche's deliveries rose 17 percent to 189,849 cars in 2014 and surged 34 percent in February to 14,836 cars.

Demand for luxury autos is forecast to rise further this year because of growth in China and the U.S.

The profit margin for the Stuttgart-based carmaker narrowed to 15.8 percent last year from 18 percent in 2013 because of investments to add the Macan and to revamp its best-seller, the Cayenne SUV. Even so, Porsche's return on sales remained one of the highest among global automakers.

Smartphone on wheels

Porsche will focus its development efforts on engines and handling rather than push for the latest advances in in-car Internet and automated driving.

The brand’s customers “don’t want a smartphone on four wheels or the biggest touchscreen in the center console,” said Mueller. “At Porsche there’s no room for window dressing.”

Profits from Porsche and Audi are vital to finance the global expansion plan of parent VW Group, which aims to pass Toyota Motor Corp. to become the world's top-selling automaker by 2018.

Porsche forecast 2015 revenue will continue to rise on the back of higher sales volumes, however, rising costs for developing new models and expanding manufacturing capacity are poised to weigh on earnings.

"Repeating the result at the level of the previous year represents an ambitious aim," Porsche Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke said. "Nevertheless, we shall adhere to our strategic returns target of 15 percent.

The automaker's current model lines are the 911, Boxster/Cayman, 918 Spyder, Panamera, Cayenne and Macan.

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Honda to produce TV advertisements to ensure that the Takata Airbag issues are fully sorted.

American Honda on Monday will launch an ad campaign urging owners to fix vehicles recalled for Takata airbag inflators at risk of exploding during a crash. Full-page ads will run in more than 120 newspapers, and 30-second radio spots will air in more than 110 regional markets, the automaker said.

Honda will also serve customized ads to Facebook users who own recalled Honda and Acura vehicles under the campaign. Honda spokesman Chris Martin said the automaker provided data identifying owners of the recalled vehicles to be cross-referenced with Facebook data about its users to target the ads to affected owners using Facebook’s ad-targeting service.

The ad blitz comes amid mounting scrutiny from U.S. auto safety regulators on the speed of repairs being made on the roughly 17 million vehicles in made by 10 automakers that have been recalled in the United States for suspect Takata airbags since 2008. Some 25 million vehicles have been recalled globally over that period, Reuters estimates.

Exploding Takata airbag inflators have been linked to at least six deaths and dozens of injuries, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has warned that it may use its regulatory power to order that the recalls be sped up by boosting the supply of replacement parts.

As of late February, just under 2 million vehicles had been repaired by the 10 automakers affected by the Takata recalls, according to NHTSA. The pace of repairs has been hindered by limited supply of replacement inflators made by Takata, which in January ramped up production of the parts to 450,000 per month from 300,000 per month. Rival airbag suppliers are preparing to build replacement inflators of their own in the future.

Honda impact

American Honda has been the automaker most-affected by the Takata airbag recalls. Its single-largest Takata recall is a national campaign for driver-side Takata airbags covering 5.4 million vehicles, which began as a regional callback limited to areas of high humidity mostly around the Gulf of Mexico before being expanded nationwide in November under pressure from NHTSA.

Through the fourth quarter, 340,123 vehicles had been repaired, according to the most recent records available on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.

“The goals of this campaign are to save lives and prevent injuries,” John Mendel, executive vice president of the automobile division of American Honda, said in a statement. “These ads are a strong call to action from our company designed to break through the clutter, grab the attention of customers driving affected vehicles, and urge that they get required repairs as soon as possible.”

The newspaper ads say that Honda has a “national safety improvement campaign and recall underway to repair airbag inflators” and directs concerned owners to Honda and Acura websites and hotlines to see if their vehicle has been affected. It also says that owners will be given a loaner or rental car for free if their vehicle can’t be repaired right away.

Risks not mentioned

Takata is not mentioned by name in the ad, which does not describe the risks posed by Takata airbags that may rupture in a crash and spray occupants with shrapnel-like metal fragments.

The campaign follows additional efforts by Honda to reach out to owners about the recalls, including sending out “millions” of mailed recall notices required by federal law, plus extra efforts such as robo-calls, additional mailers and other resources. The company also is trying to find current vehicle owners when mailed notices are returned as undeliverable.

The campaign will first roll out in seven U.S. states and territories with high year-round humidity, a factor believed to contribute to the Takata ruptures, plus four more states later, Martin said. A national campaign is not planned, Martin said.

Warm weather states

Martin says Honda is concentrating its media buying in the areas where it believes drivers to be most at-risk and where most of the known ruptures have occurred to-date, particularly Florida.

With limited supplies, Honda has concentrated the flow of the replacement inflators to dealers in humid states that pose the greatest risk. Martin says a national ad campaign could overwhelm dealers in other states that have received fewer replacement parts.

“We are concerned about the cars in the areas of greatest need first,” he said, noting that recalled vehicles are being repaired at dealers nationwide.

REPORT HERE Ryan Beene

Pictures of the cars in this post are for illustrative purposes only, no inference is made or given, that the models illustrated are part of any airbag issues initiated by Honda and the NHTSA - clarification can be had by visiting your local Honda dealer, or the NHTSA website, where you will be able to gain a better idea if your car is in need of further, or initial work.

USA - General Motors to recall 64,000 Chevy Volts to prevent a Carbon Monoxide Build up.

General Motors is recalling about 64,000 Chevrolet Volts from the 2011-13 model years for a software update to limit how long the car can be left idling, a move to prevent carbon monoxide buildup when a driver forgets to shut off the vehicle.

GM said in a statement to Automotive News that it is aware of two injuries related to the issue, both from carbon monoxide exposure. The problem can occur if a driver inadvertently leaves the plug-in hybrid running while it's in electric mode, which eventually will drain the battery and cause the gasoline engine to turn on.

"If the gas engine runs for a long period of time within an enclosed space, such as a garage, carbon monoxide could build up," GM said.

The Volt emits a warning chime to alert a driver who has exited the car that the vehicle hasn't been turned off. The software fix will limit the time that an idle Volt can be left in the "on" position.

Trax, Encore recalls

Separately, GM told dealers today to halt deliveries of the 2015 Chevrolet Trax and Buick Encore small crossovers for a pending safety recall to fix a potential loss of electric power steering. A GM spokesman said about 2,300 of the crossovers are subject to the stop-delivery order.

In some of the crossovers, the steering column assembly housing may touch against the power steering printed circuit board, GM said in a memo to dealers.

"This contact could eventually cause enough wear on the power steering printed circuit board to cause a sudden loss of power steering assist," making it more difficult to steer and increasing the risk of a crash, the memo says.

GM said it is working with the supplier to get the parts needed to fix the defect. It said dealers will be asked to inspect and possibly replace the steering column assembly.

The steering defect is similar to a problem that prompted Toyota on Wednesday to recall 110,000 Camry sedans and Highlander crossovers.

GM has notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of both the Volt and the Buick and Trax recalls, GM told dealers in separate memos issued today and Wednesday. The agency hadn’t posted either recall notice to its website as of Thursday afternoon.

GM has asked dealers to stop selling new or used Volts from those model years until the software is updated. (There are still several hundred unsold '13 Volts on dealer lots.)

The cars being recalled include 50,249 Volts in the U.S. and another 13,937 that are in Canada or that have been exported.

REPORT HERE Mike Colias

Auto Express captures Next Generation Renault Laguna, with a rendering on how it could look.

Spyshots confirm Laguna successor is under development, set to go head-to-head with the VW Passat

We brought you the news last month that Renault was working on a successor to the Laguna and these spy shots provide us with our first glimpse at the upcoming VW Passat rival. It will arrive later this year alongside Renault's new A-segment city car and pick-up - our rendering shows how the finished model could look.  

Renault has previously been indecisive about building a Laguna replacement due to the declining market for large 'three-box' family models, but these pictures confirm Renault is ploughing ahead with the project. The images indicate Renault will also attempt to move the saloon towards the more premium models in the class, with the Passat and Mazda 6 the main target. It features the same family face as the recently spied 2016 Megane, as well as a more sporting profile than before.

Whether   the  saloon  will  wear  the   Laguna   moniker  is  still  unknown,  with  Executive  Vice President at  Renault, Bruno  Ancelin, stating,  “there are  a lot of  possibilities,  but it  is  not  an obligation for us to use the same name in different countries.”

“There is a market for that [d-segment saloon] it’s the market of the Passat, it is the king of this market in Europe. [The market] is not positively evolving so of course the benefit today is more in favour of the D-segment crossover.”

Renault has confirmed the new saloon will be a global model but it is not yet know whether the UK will be a recipient of the Laguna replacement, with UK boss Ken Ramirez admitting ,“I have to say it’s not a priority. I don’t think you need to have a full range.”

REPORT HERE

Two Limited Edition Ram 1500's make a Buzz, but be quick, there is not many.

• Ram 1500 Ignition Orange Sport features unique interior colors, body-colored accents and limited edition bright orange paint, appreciated up close and at 10,000 feet
• Ram 1500 Black Sport takes design cues from popular Black Express package, offering customers a customized appearance including black 20” wheels and a sport hood
• New Ram 1500 Sport buzz models are limited production of 1,000 trucks each

The Ram Truck brand announced today that it will add two new Ram 1500 buzz models in Sport trim — the Ram 1500 Ignition Orange Sport and the Ram 1500 Black Sport.

“With a standard HEMI® V-8, the Sport model offers unique features for the customer who likes aggressive styling and great performance but still needs a truck,” said Bob Hegbloom – President and CEO, Ram Truck Brand. “Adding limited edition Ignition Orange and Black Sport models will give our buyers a custom appearance on an already eye-catching truck with all the capability our customers expect.”

The limited-edition trucks are available in Crew Cab 4x2 and 4x4. Among the standard features in the Sport trim, both trucks include a 395 horsepower HEMI V-8, 8-speed TorqueFlite transmission, 3.92 gear set, dual exhaust, vented sport hood and 20-inch wheels.

Interior treatments for the Ignition Orange Sport include body color accent stitching through the cabin, Sport embroidery on the seat backs, accent color Ram's head on the headrests and colored accent sport mesh on the seat inserts. Black Sport interior is as you expect, nearly all black with leather and Light Black chrome accents. Both trucks include the 8.4AN Uconnect system with navigation and standard rear view camera system.

Orders open this week for the two new buzz models and production starts in April. Pricing for the Ram 1500 Ignition Orange package and the Ram 1500 Black Sport package is $1,595. Starting price of a Ram 1500 Sport Crew Cab 4x2 is $41,020 not including $1,195 destination.

USA - Aventador gets its North American debut at the 2015 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance.

Automobili Lamborghini unveiled the Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce at the recent Geneva Motor Show and is hosting its North American debut at this weekend's 2015 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, on Saturday, March 14 at 5:30 pm on the Oceanside courtyard lawn of the Ritz Carlton, in front of Concours attendees and media.

Due in North American Lamborghini retailers this summer, the Superveloce is the new pinnacle of Lamborghini's flagship Aventador model range - a car created to enhance groundbreaking performance and unmatched design. Its engineers and designers sought to create the fastest and most emotional Lamborghini driving experience yet, thanks to increased engine output, reduced weight, increased aerodynamic performance and a track-focused aesthetic.

The result is pure, inspiring performance. The Aventador Superveloce launches from 0-62 mph in 2.8 seconds and reaches a top speed of more than 217 mph. This establishes the new Aventador Superveloce as the fastest and best-performing Lamborghini in history.

Every system in the car has been reconsidered to enable a new, elevated performance threshold. Engine output of the 6.5-liter V12 engine has been increased to 750 horsepower while weight has been decreased by 110 pounds. Weight savings comes from the removal of non-essential items as well as the lightening of remaining components. 

The infotainment, carpeting, soundproofing and front axle lifting system were all removed while lightweight carbon fiber is used in the production of most body elements and the single-piece racing seats.