Automobile News

Alpine, the company which is famously known for its car audio equipment has signed agreements with General Motors, BMW, and Mercedes Benz. However, they will be supplying three different types of products to these companies. It all started with the Alpine announcing its collaboration for supplying head units to the globally famous car manufacturers, Mercedes Benz. Their head equipment is now available in all classes of cars produced by Mercedes Benz around the world.

One of the amazing features of the head unit produced for the Mercedes-Benz is the 40GB hard drive. Users can effectively utilize this space to download songs in MP3 format. The songs can be transferred using the SD card reader or you can even connect it with an iPod to a six-disc DVD changer. Indeed the Alpine head unit for Mercedes appears more impressive than many of Alpine’s other high-end commerical products, like the Alpine IVA-W202R in-car entertainment device. Other features of the Mercedes Benz headset include traffic updates with the help of Sirius Satellite Radio, Bluetooth facility, voice recognition for system control and text-to-speech facility. These features ensure safe driving besides adding luxury to the car.

For the general motors, they will be producing the all-new 2010 Buick LaCrosse, 2010 Chevrolet Equinox and 2010 Cadillac SRX. These devices come with a 2GB memory, USB 2.0 for iPod, flash memory connectivity, DVD/CD player and the FM/AM/XM satellite tuner. Their creation, for the BMW, is a massive surprise package. The center stack comes with a resolution of 1280 x 480 pixels and a display of 8.8 inch, which is the largest center stack available in the market. This stack opens and closes on its own, when not in use. The large display enables easy viewing of the maps and thus is safe for the eyes. In short, the Alpine is riding high, despite recession.

Mercedes has made its intent to seize the latent potential of the market at the higher echelons very clear with the launch of its latest model. This model is considered to be the most hardcore version of its iconic SLR super car yet. The launch will also signify the end of production of the company’s next generation super sports cars, which is currently under production by its racing unit, HWA, as well as its in-house tuner, AMG, who is the manufacturing partner of MacLaren. The new version will have an initial production of just 75 units, with the provision to increase it depending upon the market response.

The latest version called the SLR Stirling Moss is a class apart from the current model on which it is based. Customers will be blown away by the Mercedes-McLaren SLR’s rather uncharacteristic but appealing specifications, as it features an open-top design, which radically incorporates a roofless design, and is, bereft of any windshield or for that the contemporary vertical lifting doors. The design to an extent resembles the C16 Speedster based on the Corvette from Callaway that was launched last year.

The car is provided with the discretion to zoom to 100 km/hr from standstill in 3.5 seconds flat, and has an equally impressive top speed of 350 km/h, which is a notable 13 km/hr faster than one of its earlier models the SLR 722. Meanwhile, the heart of the engine is powered by a supercharged 5.5L V8 engine which remains at a heady 650hp.

The performance of this scintillating device is further boosted by the lighter kerb weight, which helps it in shedding as much as 300kg of the excess baggage.

Speaking on the sidelines of the launch, a company spokesman revealed that the model is specially designed to suit the needs and comfort levels of the elitist customer who is ever ready to splurge that additional buck to get the same.

Inchcape, the world’s largest car retailers is facing a heavy down fall in its profits due to the worldwide recession. An unprecedented and sudden slowdown in the market has badly affected the sales of the company. Inchcape is into the distribution and retail of cars from premium brands, such as Audi and Mercedes-Benz. The stock market crash and drying up of customer’s credit has lead to heavy losses and above this the company will be now facing new import duties in Russia starting from next year.

The financial condition still continues to decline as the GMAC, the company in Australia which provides vehicle finance through Inchcape’s showrooms will stop doing the business with the Inchcape from January onwards. Andre Lacroix, Chief Executive said, “Demand is very weak in the UK, which provides half of our revenues. But carmakers are reducing production to keep supply in line with demand, which is very welcome.” According to him the company had anticipated a fall in the UK sales but didn’t expect such a heavy economic slowdown in the Australia and Hong Kong markets.

However Lacroix also commented that, “Markets will recover in due course and we believe that Inchcape is best positioned to benefit from its strong market positions and its long standing relationships with the leading manufacturers.”