Garmin Aera 560 on 2040-parts.com

Tornadoes halt output at Mercedes, Toyota plants in South

Violent weather across Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee has halted production at Toyota and Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama, as emergency workers try to assess two days of damage in the region. On Wednesday, a mile-wide tornado destroyed parts of Tuscaloosa, Ala., damaging the Mercedes-Benz U.S. International auto-assembly plant just north of the city.

Ford to triple production of EcoBoost engines by 2015

Ford EcoBoost Engine production to increase In another clear sign of engine downsizing by car makers Ford has announced it will triple production of its EcoBoost engines in Europe by 2015. The petrol engine is fighting back against hybrids and diesels with downsizing and forced induction creating petrol engines that work more pleasingly than  diesels – and with lower particulate emissions – whilst delivering proper performance and levels of economy that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Ford is in the vanguard of this mainstream push to make petrol engines relevant even in a car world dictated by government CO2 targets (which aren’t really CO2 targets , they’re official economy targets) and they’re planning to triple production of their very good range of EcoBoost engines in Europe over the next three years.

Now even Audi slows production

We’ve written endlessly about the slow down in car production worldwide. All the top end manufacturers have made savage cuts in jobs and production. But there seemed to be one company bucking the trend – Audi.