Ralliart Inc., a wholly owned Japanese subsidiary of Mitsubishi Motors Corp., informed global distributors last week that it would cease business operations March 31.

In the United States and Europe, Mitsubishi markets a Ralliart sports version of its Lancer, which has become a sporty halo car for the brand. That racing image has in turn influenced styling of other Mitsubishi vehicles, such as the Outlander crossover.

But Mitsubishi does not use Ralliart parts in the United States or distribute them to U.S. retailers.

“We still own the Ralliart name, and we still intend to brand our cars with it,” Maurice Durand, a spokesman for Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc., said.

Durand said the industry is still likely to see Ralliart jackets, caps and other merchandise branding in the future.

“The biggest change for us is that we won’t have to pay royalties to use the name anymore,” he said. Ralliart’s failure is a symptom of the Japanese tuner market, which has been in decline for several years. The company’s racing suspension parts and turbocharging kits proved to be too expensive when exported to markets such as the United States. Unfavorable exchange rates contributed to the parts’ competitive problems.

In a letter to Ralliart customers around the world that was posted on the company’s Web site, President Masao Taguchi said business conditions “surrounding our company radically became worse” after the economic crash of 2008.

sources from autonews com

The near-premium car lines from the two French brands are part of a trend by automakers to try to generate extra revenue and higher margins by offering upscale niche models using mass-market platforms.

The RCZ coupe (pictured), which goes on sale in June, is Peugeot’s first hors-série model. Based on the 308 compact hatchback, it will be built by contract manufacturer Magna Steyr in Austria.

PSA/Peugeot-Citroen’s brand boss Jean-Marc Gales said Peugeot will use the French words hors-série in all markets where it sells the model line without translation. Hors-série designates cars built out (hors) of mass production (série).

Gales noted that Volkswagen uses the German words Das Auto as a marketing slogan in European markets outside its home market of Germany.

He said there are three price points in the European market: low cost, mainstream and more distinctive. “PSA does not have low-cost models. We traditionally cover the mainstream area with the Citroen and Peugeot brands. The DS and hors-série car lines will expand our coverage into the more distinctive portion,” Gales told Automotive News Europe.

Peugeot will debut its second hors-série model next year. It will be a station wagon variant of the single model that will replace the 407 and 607. Likely to be called the 508, the replacement sedan will be unveiled at the Paris auto show in October.

Gales did not give any details of the third hors-série model due in 2012.

Citroen launched sales of its first DS model, the DS3, this month. The DS name harks back to Citroen’s first DS, which launched in 1955 and became a 20th century automotive icon.

The DS3 is a three-door, more upscale variant to the five-door C3 subcompact. The DS4, based on the new C4 compact car, is due in early 2011. At the Geneva auto show earlier this month, Citroen unveiled the three-door DS High Rider hybrid concept car, which heralds the forthcoming DS4.

A third DS model, which reports say will be a crossover based on the next C5 mid-sized model, is due in 2012.

source from europe.autonews.com

Using federal racketeering laws to amend the consumer class-action complaints, which have grown in number to more than 80 suits in at least 40 states, exposes Toyota to much greater potential liability.

Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, a commercial enterprise can be found liable for triple the damages for any harm caused by its fraudulent activities.

As a result, litigation that originally stood to reap more than $2 billion in damages for Toyota owners could end up costing the cash-rich Japanese automaker in excess of $10 billion, said Tim Howard, lead counsel for a team of law firms handling about half the cases.

Each of the revised lawsuits is “a much more robust and thorough complaint than the first rounds because of how the evidence has evolved since then,” Howard said.

A Toyota spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday. The automaker has declined to comment on pending litigation to date.

New evidence

The updated complaints draw on numerous documents and congressional testimony by Toyota executives to make the case that the company was aware of unintended acceleration problems in its vehicles for several years, even as it continued to promote defective cars as safe and reliable.

One suit in Florida cites a technical service bulletin it says the automaker issued in August 2002 “concerning an engine surge or acceleration problem with the new 2002 Camry, with the solution to recalibrate the Engine Control Module.”

Toyota has insisted that electronics have nothing to do with sudden, unintended acceleration in its vehicles, pointing instead to entrapment of the gas pedal by ill-fitting floor mats or sticky gas pedals themselves.

Those two problems were singled out for correction in recalls of more than 8 million Toyota vehicles to date, the largest such action ever taken by the automaker.

The consumer lawsuits assert that Toyota’s alleged concealment of defects in its vehicles while advertising them as safe constitutes criminal fraud and thus falls under the definition of “racketeering activity.”

Updated complaints

Howard said his consortium of law firms had updated existing consumer cases in eight states as of Tuesday, and filings were planned in at last 12 more by week’s end.

All those and others around the country are to be consolidated into a single class action in the next couple of months, following a hearing before a panel of judges set for next Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Diego.

Litigation against Toyota has mounted quickly in the weeks since the recalls began for a problem linked to more than 50 crash deaths in Toyota and Lexus vehicles under investigation over the past decade.

Lawsuits related to injuries and deaths are the most obvious cases being brought against Toyota, and a class-action suit was filed in Los Angeles last month on behalf of U.S. shareholders accusing Toyota of misleading investors.

The consumer class actions are based on the premise that the resale value of Toyotas has dropped substantially as a result of the company’s safety crisis.

Major automobile valuation services have downgraded the resale value of Toyotas, Howard said.

Toyota has long boasted one of the industry’s highest resale values for its vehicles, one of the major factors in its success in the U.S. market.

source from europe autonews com

As every people know, water is a very valuable natural resource for all living organism. Someone will keep nearly roughly a month without food, however it’s hard to stay alive for 7 days without water. This precious substance constitutes around sixty five % body mass, 75 % of our brain mass, and 80 % in our blood. Though it covers three quarter portion of our planet, but solely four % of water is used as drinking water, and out of this four % only 1 percent easily reachable for human use. This shows that water is precious resource on the world, thus there’s would like to preserve, recycle and efficiently use it. It is not doable to use less than normal quantity of water as a result of it is requisite for each industrial and domestic as well as for industrial activities. Thus, the feasible approach is to filter or purify it for reuse, and here comes the role of additional industrial water treatment plant.

The most modern water treatment plants are accessible for purifying the water with the new and modern techniques, while these machines purifies the water by extracting unwanted materials, chemicals, and organisms that contaminate water. Households, business houses, factories, and others are the main cause of pollution. The modern water treatment system is so compatible that they will purify the pollutant and keep the natural water safe. A number of the foremost common water purifies system are as mentioned under:

1) Cab Water Treatment System: This method is utilized on a mobile trailer with all the required water distillation equipment. The main benefit of this treatment is that it will be taken to application area. This method is appropriate for purifying each groundwater as well as surface. This type of treatment is cater to the big and high economical tasks. Its contain waste-water treatment system, reverse mobile osmosis system and drinking water treatment.

2) Ground Water Treatment System: This treatment system utilized for purifying the underground water, cleansing of water provide by proper firms and so. This treatment system is capable to clean the water from any type of suspended particles, organics, colloidal matter, manganese, iron etc. The major elements of this treatment system embody chlorination equipment and filters.

3) Cans Water Treatment Plant: This industrial water treatment plant is additionally known as plastic drinking water treatment plant. This can be the most vital sort of water plant used for drinking purposes in the plastic cans or bottles. This treatment plants not only purifies water, but conjointly adds useful minerals into it and present it for the drinking and selling purpose.

4) Swimming Pool Water Treating Plant: As the name tells this plant is meaning for fumigate the swimming pool water. Because of presence of swimmer or human beings in the pool, unwanted microorganisms developed. This pollutes the water of swimming pool and causes many diseases. This industrial water treatment system removes all the varieties of impurities.

5) Ocean water Distillation Plants: Seawater distillation plant is used to remove salt from water or in different words to desalinate it. This kind of treatment plants are used to purify the ocean water and make it safe for alternative commercial purposes. As it has been stated that there’s solely a scarce amount of recent water available over the planet for drinking and other purposes, sea water distillation plants play quite a crucial role in providing fresh water by convert the salty ocean water into pure and treated drinking water. This method basically makes use of either electrolysis or distillation so as to purify the sea water.

The model will go on sale this month and incorporates almost $4000 worth of additional equipment into a vehicle selling for a drive-away price of $36,490.

Ford says that when on-road and other costs are rolled into the deal the added value is almost $13,000.

The pricing represents a bargain for buyers as the entry-level Falcon XT, the mainstay of fleets, has a manufacturer’s list price of $39,290.

On the opposition front, Holden’s new base model the Commodore Omega with the 3.0-litre Spark Ignition Direct Injection (SIDI) is priced at $39,990.

Ford President and CEO Marin Burela told CarAdvice that while the Falcon range was selling strongly in general and models such as the XR6, XR6 Turbo and the G6E Turbo were “going great guns” the G6 had become a little lost amongst its stronger-selling siblings.

At a media briefing in Melbourne Mr Burela said that Ford had order books on popular models of the Falcon that stretched out to December or November.

He said XR6 models were currently making up about 43 per cent of all Falcon sales while the base XT model had reduced to 15 per cent, which left the balance to the G-Series, the most popular of which has proved to be the range-topping G6E Turbo.

While the new version of the G6 is called a Limited Edition, Mr Burela refused to be drawn on just how limited it would be, although CarAdvice understands the model will be offered until the end of this year.

He said that as G6 had so far only sold in relatively small numbers he did not expect the drive-away pricing to have any significant impact of residuals for cars already sold.

“We believe the G6 Limited Edition will drive sales to this area of out model range and will enhance the G6 and G6E proposition for many buyers,” Mr Burela said.

He also intimated that Ford might look at a simplification of its model range, possibly rolling the G6 and G6E into one model as a result of “lessons that can be learnt from this exercise.”

Mr Burela said there had been strong dealer interest in the G6 Limited Edition and he expected the model to sell strongly over the coming weeks.

Ford says the exterior of the G6 Limited Edition is enhanced with stylish 18-inch G Series alloy wheels, unique colour accent treatments on the upper and lower grilles, fog lamp bezels and rear bumper insert, and a ‘Limited Edition’ badge.

Inside there is an impressive list of new appointments, including side curtain airbags, leather-detailed seat trim, leather-wrapped sports steering wheel with satin alloy audio and cruise control buttons, iPod integration and Bluetooth mobile phone integration.

The G6 Limited Edition will also be available with the optional E-Gas dedicated LPG engine and accompanying four-speed automatic transmission.

The Civic sedan was judged a four-star performer when it was tested by ANCAP after the current model was introduced in 2006. Several rivals such as the Ford Focus, Mazda3, Mitsubishi Lancer, Subaru Impreza, VW Golf and Holden Cruze have all subsequently scored five stars, although not all of them have full curtain airbags.

It is the second safety upgrade for the Honda small car, which gained ESC – or Vehicle Stability Assist, as Honda calls it – in February 2009.

Other minor upgrades for 2010 include two new colours – Dyno Blue and Habenera Red. The latter was introduced on the City.

As well, the Civic VTi-L sedan gets a new 10-spoke alloy wheel design.

Prices remain unchanged for the Civic sedan range, which is imported duty free from Thailand under the free-trade agreement and therefore not affected by the January 1 import tariff reduction.

The 1.8-litre Civic VTi manual is $22,990 (plus statutory and government charges), with metallic paint $475 extra and a $2300 premium for the five-speed automatic transmission.

KEY FEATURES:
CIVIC VTi

1. 1.8L SOHC i-VTEC engine
2. Combined fuel consumption 6.9L/100kms
3. 164g/km CO2 (manual only)
4. 5-speed manual or an optional 5-speed automatic transmission with Grade Logic Control
5. Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA)
6. Front, side and curtain airbags
7. Front active head restraints
8. ABS with EBD and Brake Assist
9. Cruise control
10. Air conditioning
11. Keyless entry
12. Remote boot release
13. Single CD tuner with MP3 compatibility and auxiliary jack
14. Tilt and telescopic steering wheel adjustment

CIVIC VTi-L
The same features as the VTi including:

1. Climate control air conditioning
2. New ten-spoke 16 inch alloy wheels
3. In-dash 6-stack CD with MP3 compatibility and auxiliary jack
4. Steering wheel mounted audio controls
5. Security alarm
6. 60/40 split fold rear seat

CIVIC SPORT
The same features as the VTi-L including:

1. 2.0L DOHC i-VTEC engine
2. Combined fuel consumption 8.3L/100kms
3. 197g/km CO2 (manual only)
4. Electric sunroof
5. 17 inch alloy wheels with a full size spare
6. Electric Power Steering (EPS)
7. Fog lights
8. Indicators in mirrors
9. Black leather interior
10. Leather wrapped steering wheel
11. Automatic transmission with steering wheel mounted paddle shifts
12. Exhaust pipe finisher

CIVIC HYBRID
Some features of the Civic Hybrid include:

1. 1.3L SOHC i-VTEC engine with Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system
2. Combined fuel consumption 4.6L/100kms
3. 109g/km CO2
4. CVT transmission with Grade Logic Control
5. Fuel consumption display
6. Front, side and curtain airbags
7. Space-saver spare wheel
8. Electric Power Steering (EPS)
9. Front and rear spoiler
10. Two speed and intermittent wipers
11. Fog lights
12. Micro roof antenna
13. Rear seat armrest
14. Leather wrapped steering wheel
15. Indicators in mirrors
16. Exhaust pipe finisher
17. Beige cloth trim

The new model would account for 10% to 15% of its target sales of 1,000 cars yearly for the same period, Asia region president Goran Larsson said after the launch of Volvo V50 2.0 PowerShift yesterday.

The previous model sold fewer than 100 units in 2009 but Volvo is confident the global financial crisis will not take its toll on 2010 sales with predictions in line with Frost & Sullivan’s forecast 4.5% growth for the local car industry this year.

Volvo sold 600 cars in all ranges in 2009 and expects stronger sales coming in the second half of 2010.

On its sales target for the next three years, Larsson said: “We are keeping a conservative figure for sales because the market is unpredictable.

“Volvo needs to bring in new ranges to our product line to enable growth.

“We also see a huge demand from the younger generation for the Volvo V50 2.0 PowerShift.”

Volvo is currently ranked 6th in the premier car segment and has dealers in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, Ipoh, Malacca, Johor Baru and Sabah.

The Volvo V50 2.0 PowerShift is believed to be Malaysia’s only luxury wagon. The car is now available in Volvo showrooms in the Klang Valley and nationwide from Feb 1. It is priced at RM185,950 (RM189,950 in east Malaysia) on the road without insurance.

By way of comparison, the 2010 Chevy Camaro SS has a 6.2-liter V8 with as much as 422 horses when mated to a six-speed manual and the 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT8 has a 6.1-liter Hemi that offers 425 ponies. And remember, both of those rivals are considerably heavier than the Mustang.

As much as we’d like to unload more goods on the 2011 Mustang, you’ll just have to wait until Ford’s good and ready. Or someone blows another embargo, whichever comes first.

amplifiers

Amplifiers allow you to get the most out of your speakers and subwoofers by delivering a clean high-power signal. A system that includes subwoofers, component systems and multielement speakers can really benefit from the addition of an amplifier. JBL offers a wide variety of them to meet and exceed your needs.

sound enhancers
Are you looking to optimize your vehicle’s sound system? Component systems are the perfect way to put together a system with superior imaging. These systems consist of a midrange/woofer and separate tweeter. In most cases, these systems also come with a pair of separate passive-crossover networks.

subwoofers
Adding a subwoofer to your vehicle’s audio system may be the most important upgrade you could make to it. Subwoofers come in a variety of sizes and configurations. Whether you’re adding bass to a factory system or building a trophy-winning competition system, JBL has a subwoofer for your application. Each JBL subwoofer can be interfaced with a variety of enclosures, from pre-made to custom-made for your specific vehicle.

speakers
JBL loudspeakers are known for their articulated sound. They can be found in many of the world’s most prestigious locations, including clubs, cinemas, recording studios, concert halls and outdoor stadiums, as well as in homes and vehicles. These speakers are for these who won’t compromise – in the studio, at home or on the road.