No image available
/ 12 January 2009
Carmakers put on a brave face at the world’s biggest car show on Sunday, with the sales outlook bleak for the coming year.
No image available
/ 11 January 2009
Toyota said on Saturday it plans to launch an electric car in the US by 2012 and boost its gas-electric hybrid offerings to as many as ten models.
Electronics company scales back unprofitable businesses ahead of an expected buyout
No image available
/ 22 December 2008
Hammered by waning global demand and a surging yen, Toyota slashed its earnings forecast again on Monday.
No image available
/ 8 November 2008
General Motors and Ford reported far deeper-than-expected quarterly losses on Friday and said their rate of cash burn had accelerated
No image available
/ 8 September 2008
The 100 000th Land Rover Freelander 2 recently rolled off the company’s production line at Halewood on Merseyside, north west England.
No image available
/ 2 September 2008
Toyota has made great claims about the Prius’s fuel economy, so Ray Leathern figured he would drive it from Jo’burg to Cape Town.
South African new-car sales for June were the lowest since 1999. Ray Leathern looks at an automotive industry struggling to stay buoyant.
While more hybrid cars become available across the globe, there are no immediate plans to add to South Africa’s hybrid range, writes Dillon Davie
The Daihatsu Terios is like the middle child who has to work extra hard all the time.
Max Mosley will remain president of Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, after winning a vote of confidence on Tuesday from its members following his involvement in a sado-masochist sex scandal. FIA announced that Mosley had won 103 of 169 votes cast during an extraordinary general assembly at FIA headquarters in Paris.
In recent years, Jordan has started to develop its own shores to attract visitors. Pithy taglines like "turn sand into gold" sum up the determination the Jordanians have to make their country a top destination — and not just for Petra, the ancient city in the south of the country that has been voted a new wonder of the world.
It’s 6am and it’s already busy at the Bree Street taxi rank. Taxis are honking their horns, pavement entrepreneurs are hawking their goods and commuters are forming lines, waiting for their taxis. It may be early for some, but Zodwa Khumalo, one of only a handful of women taxi drivers, started her day at 3am.
Police have confirmed the arrests of three men suspected to be involved in at least 14 robberies linked to OR Tambo International Airport. Police spokesperson Dennis Adriao said on Tuesday that he could confirm the arrests but could not comment further because the matter was in court.
Japan and China will cooperate in a -million project to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from a thermal power plant, a Japanese daily reported on Saturday. Under the plan of the project, emitted carbon dioxide from a thermal power plant will be injected into a major Chinese oil field to extract more crude oil, the report said.
Ferrari’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen stretched his Formula One lead to nine points with a dominant win from pole position in the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. Brazilian Felipe Massa sealed Ferrari’s second successive one-two finish, and third win in a row, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton taking third place to revive his title challenge after a disappointing last race in Bahrain.
A Pretoria magistrate on Friday denied bail to the security guard accused of murdering city dancer Estee van Rensburg. It also emerged on Friday that the guard, Aaron Mashishi, will go on trial in the Pretoria High Court on October 20. The 26-year-old is being charged with murder, robbery with aggravated circumstances and two counts of theft.
The naked body of a prominent Limpopo magistrate was found lying next to a used condom in a bush near Giyani, the Sowetan reported on Wednesday. The body was identified as that of Giyani magistrate Nuel Maluleke (58), of Mphangane village near Giyani.
Brazilian Felipe Massa stormed to victory on Sunday for his second successive victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix and answered his mounting bank of critics as his Ferrari team celebrated a comfortable one-two with Kimi Raikkonen finishing second.
Leading German car manufacturers Mercedes-Benz and BMW issued a statement on Thursday slamming the alleged recent lurid behaviour of world motorsport governing body (FIA) president Max Mosley as ”disgraceful”. Both companies, with teams set to take part in this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, distanced themselves from the revelations about Mosley’s private life.
Defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen wants to erase from his memory bad results at one of his bogey tracks on Sunday by winning this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. The Ferrari-driving Finn, who roared back to life in this year’s title race by winning the Malaysian Grand Prix ten days ago, has never won on the sand-blown circuit built in a desert.
Pretoria police investigating the murder of Pretoria dancer Estee van Rensburg asked the public on Thursday to help them find the silver Toyota Tazz that was stolen from her home. The 19-year-old ballet dancer was found dead in her home when her domestic worker reported for work on Wednesday morning.
Defending drivers’ world champion Kimi Raikkonen bounced back to form and back into the scrap for this year’s title when he won the Malaysian Grand Prix for Ferrari on Sunday. But the Italian team’s hopes of a dream one-two finish were wrecked by Brazilian Felipe Massa spinning off while running second.
Two people died and three were injured — two of them seriously — in a three-car pile-up on the N1 south near the Grasmere toll plaza on Saturday night. Netcare 911 has responded to more than 280 accidents on the country’s roads since the start of the Easter weekend, said spokesperson Nick Dollman.
It has only taken two races of the new season for McLaren to get on the wrong side of Formula One officials — and Fernando Alonso — again. The team — kicked out of last year’s constructors’ championship — were back in trouble on Saturday, penalised for their drivers causing interference during qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Brazilian Felipe Massa secured pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix on an all-Ferrari front row on Saturday. Driving in hot and humid conditions under heavy cloud cover, Massa was joined at the head of the field by Formula One world champion team mate Kimi Raikkonen, who lapped 0,482 seconds slower than the pole sitter’s time of 1,35.748.
More than 60 teams from nine countries have lined up to chase a -million prize for making a green supercar that smashes records for fuel efficiency, organisers of the competition said on Thursday. ”We’re not talking about concept cars,” said Peter Diamandis, chief executive of the X Prize Foundation.
Lewis Hamilton got an early psychological edge over Kimmi Raikkonen, winning pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix while the world champion will start near the back of the grid. McLaren’s Hamilton had the fastest times in the second and third runs of the three-phase qualifying session.
Five men robbed a family at Hennopsriver in the Erasmia area, burning the mother and father with an iron. Constable Patricia Simelane said the men demanded money — saying that they had been told there was money in the house — and ”they burnt the mother and father with an iron three of four times on the upper body”.
Ferrari are back on top, Lewis Hamilton is a title contender and two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso is back with Renault. Add night racing to all that and one of F1’s most exciting seasons in 2007 is set for a worthy follow-up in 2008.
"For me, the most difficult part of judging at the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists’ Car of the Year competition is not losing sight of the fact that I’m judging the cars not so much against each other as against their direct competitors in the market place." Gavin Foster rounds up the Car of the Year finalists.
No image available
/ 4 February 2008
Sales of new vehicles were down by 9,4% in the first month of the year to 47 296 sold compared with the 52 212 sold in January last year, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa said on Monday. New car sales were down to 30 483, or 14,6%, in January this year compared with 35 687 sold in the same month last year.