News watch August 2010: today's industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hourTuesday 31 August 2010• HSBC has sold its US car loan business to Spanish bank Santander, for an estimated £2.6bn in cash and assumed debt. The move sees the bank further distance itself from the collapsed US sub-prime market (Financial Times, subsription required) • Toll roads do not improve congestion, according to the Campaign For Better Transport. Its claims M6 toll road operator Midland Expressway Ltd is losing ‘tens of millions of pounds’ each year, while conditions on the original M6 have failed to improve (Campaign for Better Transport) Friday 27 August 2010• Spyker, which bought Saab earlier this year, has posted a €139m loss after tax in the first half of 2010 it announced today (Financial Times)• Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne says the business is performing strongly in the third quarter – and has ruled out selling Alfa Romeo.

2015 Nissan GT-R: facts and figures

Last week we told you about the 2015 Nissan GT-R, which will hit dealerships later this year. The latest GT-R will cost $103,365. The all-out track version will set you back $117,305.

Smart Forspeed Concept reveled

Smart Forspeed Concept - and the electric bike and scooter that will make production You’ve got to wonder if Smart is just a game for Mercedes. A bit like Maybach, except they keep churning out endless cars and concepts and editions and sales seem to go nowhere, instead of the Maybach way of keeping the same cars for a decade – and sales go nowhere. Last year in the UK Smart sales were down nearly 9% at a time you would expect sales of eco-focused small cars to boom.