1973-1979 Ford Bronco Truck Pickup Speedometer Cluster 80 Mph 40 K on 2040-parts.com

News watch March 2010: today's auto industry news

Tuesday 30 March 2010• Mercedes has dismissed claims that its Maybach brand is for sale, after reports in the Chinese media claimed Chinese car company BYD was considering a bid for the upmarket offshoot. BYD has also denied the claims (Reuters)• Toyota president Akio Toyoda has promised his company will listen more carefully to customers and react faster in a bid to regain credibility after the Japanese car manufacturer was forced to recall millions of vehilces over safety fears (BBC)• The Obama administration is expected to unveil its finalised fuel economy and tailpipe emissions through to 2016 this week, to coincide with the opening of the 2010 New York auto show (Detroit News)  Monday 29 March 2010• Toyota has agreed to licence the hybrid technology in the Prius to Mazda, which will combine the electric system with its next-gen Sky engines. It’s part of Mazda’s plans to increase the average fuel economy of its vehicles by 30% by 2015 (compared to 2008 levels) and it hopes to have its first hybrid vehicle on sale in Japan by 2013 (Mazda)• Ford and Chinese car company Geely have signed a stock purchase agreement that will allow the latter to acquire 100% of Volvo (along with related assets including intellectual property rights).

The future is cloudy

Last night before CES opened here in Las Vegas we met the principals of a start-up company called Driver Cloud. They said they had an idea about using the cloud to operate a package delivery service the same way other sites do ride sharing – you'd send out a notice on their network that you needed a package delivered and a bonded, licensed Driver Cloud truck owner would deliver it for you for a fee. The service, called Gofr, would work in conjunction with Driver Cloud's ride sharing component, called Chofr.

Clarkson tops poll of dream celeb passengers

Jeremy Clarkson is the nation's favourite dream passenger, according to research by car-sharing website BlaBlaCar. Jeremy Clarkson would of course be great company, full of wit and un-PC humour. And you would get to hear him scream powerrrrrrrrrr every time you set off from the traffic lights.