The Elegance at Hershey concours in Hershey, Pennsylvania on June 10-12 will feature a group of five exceptional Duesenbergs, including this rare 1932 Judkins coupe. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ General Motors has confirmed that it will end production of the Buick Verano sedan in October as it shifts the division’s product mix toward more SUVs and crossovers. More at The Detroit News.
+ Ford Motor Co. will purchase two blocks of prime real estate in downtown Dearborn, Michigan, including the former Wagner Hotel built in 1896. More at Crain’s Detroit Business.
+ Eight automakers announced on Friday they are recalling another 12 million U.S. vehicles to replace defective Takata air bag inflators, adding to the approximately 50 million vehicles previously recalled. More at Reuters.
+ Due to the greater cost and complexity of diesels, global sales of hybrid cars are set to catch up with diesel models in the next two years, predicts Volvo president Håkan Samuelsson. More at Car.
+ Alexander Rossi, a 24 year-old Formula 1 driver and Indy rookie from California, stretched his fuel mileage to the limit over the final laps to win the Indianapolis 500. More at ESPN.
+ Hyundai has revealed that the first vehicle from its N Performance Division, based on the next-generation Elantra GT hatchack, will appear in 2017. More at Motor Trend.
+ General Motors and its joint venture partners in China sold nearly 278,000 vehicles in April, a 7.5 percent increase over the same month last year, due mainly to increased demand for SUVs. More at USA Today.
+ Zoox Inc., a little-publicized autonomous-driving startup in Silicon Valley, is seeking to raise as much as $252 million in investor funding, according to a securities filing. More at Bloomberg.com.
+ The Elegance at Hershey in Hershey, Pennsylvania on June 10-12 will include a selection of five exceptional Duesenbergs, concours officials announced. More at Old Cars Weekly.
+ Great Britain’s exit from the European Union could subject the country’s $100 billion auto industry to export tariffs that would damage profitability, according to an industry trade group. More at Automotive News Europe.
+ The Red Bull and Toro Rosso Formula 1 teams have secured an agreement to run the latest-spec Renault Formula 1 engines throughout the 2017 and 2018 seasons. More at Racer.
Review the previous Executive Briefing from May 27 here.
Photo courtesy of the Elegance at Hershey.
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The never ending saga of faulty airbags has become such a joke. Many manufacturers use the same steering wheel/ airbag over a range of models. Some model airbags are recalled and some not!!
Too be quite honest disconnecting the things is probably safer. Even IF they do not spray metal shards at you the things are so hap hazard going off,, hit a runaway supermarket trolley at 10k and they go off, yet a serious fender bender and they do not.
They are usually ok in a higher speed accident,, where they are more usefull.
Millions of faulty potentially dangerous vehicles over a dozen years.
The Takata airbag thing has been a mystery to me also. I can’t seem to read if it is a design error, a manufacturing flaw or a QA mistake in not catching the problem.
I have been told that the inadvertent activation is tied to temperature and humidity conditions, i.e., in wet states it’s a problem, in dry states it’s not. The metal shards are a different thing