Mercedes SLS AMG – production begins

The Mercedes SLS AMG has gone in to production in Germany I don’t know why – as Mercedes hadn’t previously announced it – but we guessed that they’d already started to put the Mercedes SLS AMG in to production ready for the first customer cars to start hitting in the Spring. But apparently they’ve only just started. The SLS AMG is due to arrive in Germany at the end of March at a base price of €177,310 and is being produced at the Mercedes factory in Sindelfengen, Germany.

CES: Cranking up Harman's QuantumLogic 3D surround-sound system

Yesterday we reported how Audi was readying a lavish 3D sound experience with 23 speakers and 1,400 watts of goosebump-inducing audio power. Not to be outdone, Harman had been quietly developing a system of its own: Quantum Logic 3D brings together 25 speakers and more than 2,000 watts of Tubthumping power to a new car near you, like driving inside Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. Sitting inside the demonstration BMW 7-Series that Harman painstakingly lifted into the Studio at the Palms, Global Audio Engineering vice president Phil Muzio explained, "great music is delivered in stereo, yet our consumer research indicates that people enjoy surround sound." QuantumLogic 3D's surround sound expands beyond the boundaries of the vehicle's cabin, providing "a sense of detail and spatial placement that you don't get in stereo." Five height component speakers mounted in the corners of the headliner, and above the rearview mirror, elevates audio beyond the confines of the roof, "almost like you're in a convertible," said Muzio.

Ford boosts prices 0.4 percent on 2011 models

Ford Motor Co. said it boosted prices an average of $117, or 0.4 percent, on 2011 models effective Friday, April 1. The increase is because of “higher commodity costs,” George Pipas, Ford's chief sales analyst, said Monday.