Toyota Emblem on 2040-parts.com

Puncture-proof car tyres 'within five years'

FORGET run-flat tyres – soon we'll be driving on un-puncturable tyres with no air in them at all. Tyre maker Bridgestone has announced plans to have its AirFree concept tyre installed on road-going cars within three to five years. The company made the announcement at a special event at its headquarters in Tokyo.

GM returning to leasing with luxury vehicles

General Motors will return to the leasing business focusing on luxury vehicles, but not on a broader basis, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said. "We will get back into leasing, but we are not going to use massive subsidized leasing to drive volume because it's volume without profitability," Lutz said July 29 in an interview with Automotive News. "We'd rather sell less at higher profit than sell more at lower profit." Lutz said it still would make sense for GM to do more leasing on its luxury vehicles.

Infiniti 'gunning for 700,000 sales' - Ghosn

Infiniti is planning to announce a new sales target of 10% global luxury market share - quadrupling sales to 700,000 a year - in a new mid-term statement due this summer. Renault Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn told CAR that Infiniti is on line to sell 165,000 cars worldwide in 2011 but said Nissan was investing heavily in its premium division to swell sales considerably. It's an ambitious goal: if successful, Infiniti would be encroaching on the 1m+ territory today dominated by the German luxury brands.