2013 Volkswagen Golf GTI

2013 Porsche Panamera GTS - First Drive

Porsche’s Panamera is now available as eight versions in the U.S. You can, for example, slide in at $75,200 for a 3.6-liter V-6 Panamera and get to 60 mph in 6.0 seconds. Or you can leave that in the dust with the $173,200 4.8-liter Turbo S, which hits 60 in 3.6 sec. Or perhaps you would like better to tip your green-tinted hat as you drive by in your $95,000 S Hybrid.

So where does that put the newest variation, the $109,900 GTS. Porsche calls it, the sportiest of all Panamera models. That assert seems odd given the Turbo’s spot at the top of the horsepower and image list, but once you’ve driven the GTS, Porsche’s announcement makes sense.

We were at the Ascari circuit in Spain to try the 2013 Porsche Panamera GTS, which was popping its split-second PDK shifts as soon we accelerated uphill away from the pits. You would need much of the Panamera schedule there to make back-to-back comparisons, but reasonably rapidly you can sense this one has a firmer edge. Point the nose to a summit and there’s a split second of confidence-inspiring under steer, but then the car sets and responds. Not that Panameras are known as leaners, but this one is even less so. You almost forget there are two supplementary seats behind you.

Visit the Chennai SALSA Congress to know more about the Events.

Chevy to improve Volt after battery fires

Federal regulators have permitted a General Motors Co. proposal to revise the configuration of its Chevrolet Volt to reduce the hazard of an electrical fire.

The redesign was prompted by a formal protection defect investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety organization into the Volt's lithium-ion sequence pack, after two fires that followed crash tests, Wired.com reported.

GM has defended the Volt, which has received a five-star wellbeing rating, but said the amendments will make the car safer. The Volt has always been safe to oblige. Now, we will go the extra mile to ensure our customers' peace of mind in the days and weeks following a severe crash, Mary Barra, senior vice leader of global product enlargement.

In June a Volt caught fire three weeks after a side-impact collapse that punctured the battery pack and caused coolant to leak, eventually causing a short circuit, GM said.GM said it would toughen part of the Volt's underbody to enlarge protection of the pack in a ruthless side collision.

Nissan to produce Merc four-pots in US engine plant

The latest development of Daimler-Benz’s collaboration with the Renault-Nissan Alliance is a deal that sees the Nissan powertrain assembly plant in Decherd, Tennessee help build Merc’s four-cylinder petrol engines.

Production is set to commence in 2014, with the plant able to churn out 250,000 engines at full capacity. The Decherd plant was commissioned by Nissan in 1997, and today it serves to manufacture a range of engines for various Nissan and Infiniti models.

The plant houses its own crankshaft forging and cylinder block casting operations and produced more than 580,000 engines in 2011. Among the first recipient of Tennessee-built Merc engines will be units of the C-Class rolling out from Daimler’s plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.