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Mercedes-Benz axes Maybach

High ranking Mercedes-Benz sources have confirmed to Autoweek that the underperforming Maybach brand will be officially killed off in 2013. The decision to disband Mercedes-Benz’s upper luxury marque comes after a decade of disappointing sales for the Maybach 57 and 62 and a recent decision from the German car maker’s chairman Dieter Zetsche not to push ahead with the development replacement models – the likes of which were tentatively due out in 2014 – owing to what one insider describes as a “positive move to focus greater attention on the Mercedes-Benz brand” . “We’ve come to the conclusion that it is better to cut our losses with Maybach than to continue into an uncertain future with a brand that has failed to live up to original sales expectations," the insider said.

Lamborghini Gallardo: Chinese owner takes umbrage

Lamborghini Gallardo destroyed in China by disgruntled owner Maybe China doesn’t have any effective consumer rights laws to protect disgruntled consumers. Or maybe the owner of the Lamborghini Gallardo in China, who organised its destruction on China’s ‘National Consumer Day’ to make a point about Lamborghini’s failure to address his problems, had just reached the end of his tether. But whatever the reason, the sight of an almost new Gallardo being destroyed by a team of boiler-suited, sledgehammer-wielding chaps certainly garnered a crowd.

NHTSA proposes rules for automakers to add sound to hybrids, EVs

Automakers would need to make hybrids and electric vehicles emit sound under rules that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed on Monday. The rules, ordered by Congress three years ago, are meant to protect pedestrians and bicyclists from vehicles that make little sound when using electric power. NHTSA says that designing the vehicles to make noise at speeds below 18 mph would prevent about 2,800 injuries over the life of each model year of vehicles.