News Cars By Ayoub

Saturday, 9 July 2016

Germany June 2016: Opel Astra snaps first podium in over 4 years

The German new car market gains a robust 8% year-on-year in June to 339.563 registrations, lifting the year-to-date total up 7% or 116.000 additional sales to 1.733.839. Last month, market leader Volkswagen was the only brand to lose ground in the Top 35, and this month the emissions scandal-embattled marque once again posts a negative result at -0.2% to 63.722 units and 18.8% share. Mercedes surges 13% to snap the overall 2nd spot away from Audi (+1%) while BMW displays even more dynamic growth at +17% in 4th place. Opel (+6%) holds Ford (+12%) at bay above Skoda, Renault (+30%), Hyundai (+13%) and Seat (-7%). Outside the Top 10 Suzuki (+21%), Dacia (+22%), Land Rover (+23%), Mazda (+24%), Jeep (+27%), Honda (+61%), Infiniti (+78%), Ssangyong (+81%), Jaguar (+101%) and Alfa Romeo (+119%) make themselves noticed, all improving at least twice as fast as the market.

VW Touran sales are up 138% year-on-year this month.
The VW Golf unsurprisingly retains the models crown but drops a worrying 7% to 21.995 units while the VW Passat crumbles 26% to 7.006 but remains #2. Boosted by the new generation, the Opel Astra is up 6 spots on May to land in third position: this is the nameplate’s first podium ranking in Germany since May 2012. The Audi A4 continues to catch up on lost time with its new model, up 23% to #4, while the VW Touran (+138%) and BMW 2 Series (+50%) post fantastic gains inside the Top 10. Just below, notice the BMW 1 Series (+16%), Skoda Fabia (+20%) and VW Up (+51%) all in great shape while further down the Skoda Superb (+100%), Hyundai i30 (+147%) and Mercedes GLC (+248% on the GLK) make themselves noticed. The Captur (+62%) is Renault’s best-seller in Germany this month ahead of the Megane (+44%) and Clio (+13%).

The Tesla Model X has landed in Germany.
The Hyundai Tucson is by very far the most successful recent launch at #35 with 2.719 sales this month, distancing the Fiat Tipo at #122 (+65 on May), the Renault Talisman at #148 (+3) and the Ford Edge at #149 (+55). We welcome no less than seven new nameplates in the German ranking in June, led by the Seat Ateca at #126 with 652 units sold, above the Fiat 124 Spider (#191), Alfa Romeo Giulia (#205), Hyundai Ioniq (#253), Maserati Levante (#259), Infiniti QX30 (#267) and Tesla Model X (#271).

Thursday, 31 March 2016

Top Gear

May, Clarkson and Hammond's new motoring show on Amazon

21:11:00

The trio and executive producer Andy Wilman signed a three-year deal and there are going to be 30-plus long episodes with Amazon worth a reputed £160m, with Clarkson on £10m a series, Hammond and May on £7m each.

May confirms it will begin in the autumn, with each run likely to be 11 episodes, possibly more. It will be scheduled – albeit not in the traditional sense – so won’t be immediately available to binge-watch.

It will also leave the TV studio behind, disappointing devotees of the “cool wall” but an exciting prospect for fans of Top Gear’s sumptuously filmed location shoots.

May says they are making more episodes than they did in the latter days of Top Gear and it is “logistically more complicated ... We are making a series of TV films and we don’t have a base”.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/27/james-may-chris-evans-top-gear-amazon

WW2

Seventy-one years ago, a young soldier left his World War II ambulance in a vehicle “graveyard” in Germany and returned home to Wisconsin. Last year, he found that ambulance in Albuquerque.

21:11:00

Thomas Grasser, 91, was visiting the New Mexico Museum of Military History last summer when he realized the museum’s ambulance was his “home on wheels” in Europe during World War II.

Grasser lives in Albuquerque now, but he grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Army drafted him just six days after high school in June of 1943, and although he didn’t know how to drive, he was designated as an ambulance driver and trained in California.

Grasser finished basic training at the end of 1943 and shipped out to England at the beginning of 1944.

The invasion of France on D-Day had begun. About three weeks later, Grasser and his unit landed on Omaha Beach.

When the strafing planes came to the ambulances, they pulled up and stopped shooting until they were back over supply trucks. The pilots “respected the red cross” on the ambulances, he said.

By the end of the war, Grasser had traveled through France, Belgium and Luxembourg to Germany. His company evacuated 25,000 patients between Omaha Beach and Aichach, Germany, and helped liberate two concentration camps, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

"We lived in it, we slept in it, we carried a lot of wounded in it,” he said. “It was our home.” Now that ambulance is sitting in the New Mexico Museum of Military History in Albuquerque.

http://argunners.com/veteran-finds-wwii-ambulance-71-years/
http://www.koat.com/news/it-was-our-home-vet-says-of-ambulance-after-chance-reunion/36917762

Grasser was driving an Army ambulance through some of the bloodiest fighting, including the Battle of the Bulge, in the European Theater of World War II.

For his service to his country and to France, Grasser, was awarded the Bronze Star and the French Legion of Honour.

These days, he volunteers at the visitors information center in Albuquerque’s Old Town.

http://www.abqjournal.com/587971/news/a-special-salute-for-wwii-veteran.html

humor

way to go flatbed trucker.... great sense of humor

19:13:00

Found on https://www.facebook.com/themenshed/?fref=photo

news

Jeep Grand Cherokee driver goes crazy, leads cops on high speed pursuit, that gets onto a Navy air field, and eventually crashed into a $65 million dollar F 18, and die.

16:01:00

Jeep Grand Cherokee

The incident started around 4 a.m. south of Lemoore. Police say the Jeep Grand Cherokee appeared to be disabled and an officer stopped to help. That's when the driver took off at high speed leading police on a high speed chase eventually going the wrong way on Highway 198 -- heading west in the eastbound lane.

"The pursuit was probably... 4 minutes. It wasn't very long. It went along the public access road here at the base. After the vehicle was traveling on the wrong direction, it passed the military checkpoint, our units stopped to coordinate with Naval security forces," said Lt. Dave Knoff, CHP.

The base has a heavily fortified main gate with steel barriers that must be lowered before vehicles can enter. The gate is guarded by military police armed with assault rifles.

Officials indicated the Jeep did not enter through that gate, but deflected questions about how it reached the jet
A CHP helicopter continued to follow the vehicle onto the operations side of the base and then the Jeep crashed into an F/A-18 fighter -- about 7 miles northwest of the airbase main entrance.

After the crash, a CHP helicopter landed and took the driver into custody. The driver was taken to the hospital where he later died of his injuries. The female passenger was pronounced dead at the scene. The suspects have not been identified in any meaningful way as to age, race, nationality or citizenship.

CHP has nothing to say, but believes the Navy base was NOT intentionally targeted and the suspects are not affiliated with the military.

Regardless of procedures and policies, CHP and military police, an ordinary suv took out a fighter jet after evading police. Ponder just how easy that was, when terrorists just went killing people in Belgium, San Bernadino, and Paris. How useless is national security around military bases and jets on a runway? WTF is TSA bothering people for at airports is anyone can disable an effing F18 with an ordinary SUV?

http://abc30.com/1270233/
http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/2016/03/31/freeway-car-chase-ends-crash-into-jet-naval-air-station-lemoore/82470494/

Top Gear

Here is the new Top Gear... preview.

15:43:00

They hired the right production staff members to give the preview a lot of snap and kick... lets see if the on camera talent can measure up

wreck

Race car design and engineering... tested, and found to be incredible at protecting drivers from 185 mph crashes

14:54:00

After touching wheels with another car at 185 mph during the Australian F1 GP, Fernando Alonso's MP4-31 rolled and hit the barrier. Alonso remained secure in the safety cell, and walked away with only his knees hurting a little bit.