West Marine Vector Ii Loran Splash Proof Housing on 2040-parts.com

Volkswagen's No. 1 ambition: How it plans to rule the world

When Ferdinand Piech celebrates his 74th birthday on April 17 in his villa in Salzburg, Austria, with his wife, Ursula, his youngest son, Gregor, and other close family members, he likely will look back at his career and break into a big, satisfied smile. The chairman of Volkswagen AG's supervisory board wants to turn Volkswagen Group into the world's largest automaker. And he loves it when a plan comes together.

Honda Urban SUV Concept: 2013 Detroit Auto Show

Honda has revealed their Urban SUV Concept at the Detroit Auto Show, previewing a new compact SUV based on the new Honda Jazz. The latest offering in this burgeoning sector is the Honda Urban SUV Concept – teased in December –  debuting at the Detroit Auto Show this week and previewing a new, more compact SUV, from Honda, designed to sit below the CR-V. The Urban SUV has a relatively low roof line, lots of crease lines, rounded shapes and a statement nose, and does look a lot like the Nissan Juke’s smoother older sibling.

GM to slash global vehicle platforms by more than half, to 14, by 2018

General Motors says it will cut the number of vehicle platforms it uses globally by more than half over the next decade, in a bid to reduce complexity and save on product-development costs. “More of our components will be common, and more of our vehicles will be on global architectures,” GM CEO Dan Akerson told analysts on Tuesday. His remarks came as GM kicked off a series of presentations online, billed as its 2011 Global Business Conference.