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New Mercedes A45 AMG has 105 years of 4WD on its side

With the new Mercedes A45 AMG on the horizon – complete with 4WD – Mercedes chart the history of all wheel drive on their vehicles. We tend to think of 4WD road cars as a modern innovation, and certainly very few 4WD road cars hit the road in a mainstream way much before the 1980s (the Jensen FF was hardly mainstream before someone points out that was in the 1960s). But the history of 4WD goes back, certainly in the case of Mercedes, a surprising 105 years when Daimler built the Dernburg-Wagen, a 4WD vehicle that not only got all-wheel drive but all wheel steering too.

Toyota's quake-hit Yaris plant offline for at least another month

Toyota's quake-hammered Miyagi assembly plant, which makes the Yaris small car for export to the United States, is expected to be offline for at least another month. Workers have completed repairs at the factory and restored electricity, but the facility cannot get supplies of natural gas, a person familiar with the situation said. The assessment underscores the long road facing Toyota and other Japanese automakers in bringing plants back into full operation following the deadly quake, which killed more than 11,000 people, ruptured gas lines, shutdown electric grids and snarled logistics across half the country.

Chrysler 200C EV unveiled at Detroit auto show 2009

By James Foxall Motor Shows 12 January 2009 13:07 With the years of elaborate stage sets and money-burning stunts such as driving cars through plate glass windows consigned firmly to the history books, Chrysler’s 2009 Detroit Motor Show stand was a sober place to be. While Ford and General Motors executives chose largely to ignore the financial crisis and government bail outs by pretending they hadn’t happened, Chrysler president Jim Press started his presentation by cracking jokes about it. He then outlined how the company – in an aggressive restructuring programme before the credit crisis – was responding.