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General Motors fires back at Volkswagen

General Motors issued a terse response this week to published comments by Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, who suggested to the German press that Opel could be sold to a Chinese competitor. Detroit-based GM called Winterkorn's comments “regrettable” and accused him of “fanning speculation.” Opel was nearly sold to Magna and Russian investors in the wake of GM's 2009 bankruptcy. But then-CEO Ed Whitacre and the corporate board reversed that decision, igniting controversy from German political and labor leaders who have long chafed under American oversight.

Mazda Kazamai preview

As we reported in June, Mazda has now confirmed it will unveil a compact crossover vehicle concept at the Moscow International Automobile Salon on 26 August. Called the Kazamai, which means "swirling crosswinds" in Japanese, the new vehicle is the sixth concept to employ Mazda's evolving 'Nagare' design language. The car's lines, inspired by crosswinds in nature, are claimed to evoke visual lightness, while its aerodynamic proportions accentuated by its bold front wheelarches and sleek roof line gives the design an emotional appeal.

Volvo’s new VEA family of four-cylinder engines starts production

As a result, Volvo has been planning a new range of four-cylinder engines to power their range in the future – the new Volvo Engine Architecture (VEA) – and has spent the last couple of years readying their design – and their facility in Skövde – to start production. And now it’s underway. Together with Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) the new VEA engines will be a core part of every new Volvo before too long, and will replace the five and six cylinder engines Volvo currently uses and will provide more power than current six-cylinder engines with economy and emissions better than current four-cylinder engines.