Two (2) Oer Lower Ball Joint 10231 on 2040-parts.com

Carlos Ghosn's automaker mantra: Go big or you'll go away

Size matters in auto company survival, Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn told an audience in Detroit on Tuesday. To cope with the escalating costs and scope of a global industry, successful automakers must complete a trifecta--be able to compete in every technology, every market and every segment, Ghosn said during a luncheon speech at the Detroit Economic Club “No 3 million-unit carmaker can make it,” Ghosn said, explaining why his Renault-Nissan alliance forged an alliance with Germany's Daimler AG. Competency in one or two of the three skills is not enough, and only very large companies can afford all three, he said.

It’s the Skoda Citigo, Skoda’s take on the VW Up!

Skoda Citigo If the latest addition to the Skoda range – the Skoda Citigo – looks familiar, that’s because it’s the Czech maker’s take on Volkswagen’s own city car, the VW Up! It gets a daft name too, but at least it doesn’t get the exclamation at the end. Sensibly, with a big chunk of the world falling in love with little cars designed for use in our congested cities (and about time too), Skoda has chosen to jump on the bandwagon quickly with its Citigo, with the baby Skoda arriving on its home turf – the Czech Republic – this year and the rest of Europe by Summer 2012.

Alfa Romeo & Mazda to build new roadster

Mazda & Alfa to jointly develop a new roadster Alfa Romeo and Fiat have signed an agreement to build a new new RWD roadster based on the next generation Mazda MX-5 platform. Sergio Marchionne is a big believer that the only way to survive as a mainstream car maker is to be as big as possible and share development costs whenever you can. Which explains – from the Fiat point of view – why Alfa Romeo has entered in to an agreement to produce a new roadster with Mazda to be based on the next generation Mazda MX-5 RWD platform.