An intriguing yet realistic admission from the chief of Lexus Europe this week – the Germans can’t be beat so the Toyota luxury brand will tussle for fourth place. Also some interesting comments on Lexus’ lack of diesels – which is one reason why the Germans dominate.
GKN was finally permitted to admit the UK supplier had helped out BMW with a clever new two-speed eAxle for the i8 and Mercedes announced some planned new developments for LED headlamps. All clever stuff reflecting the ingenuity of the auto industry, and its suppliers.
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At last, a bit of encouraging news about Russia, and we learned Fiat is – temporarily – abandoning the hard-fought Golf segment in Europe.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz has come up with a new way of naming its ever-widening model range and Our Man in Brazil wrapped up the Sao Paulo show, opining it was one of the best yet.
The Takata airbag issue rumbled on again this week – all our coverage is grouped here.
All those strikes over the last year or so are giving Ford pause for thought in South Africa and I ventured out into London traffic for the first time in years – in the excellent new Kia Soul EV – and got to spend the best part of an hour in a traffic jam in Wapping. Give me LA or Sydney to drive in any day.
Have a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
