Car News

Pressure is mounting on luxury car brands to boost their warranties to five years or more, now that nine of the Top 10 brands offer extended coverage as standard. In particular the decision by car giants Toyota and Volkswagen to increase their warranties from three to five years from January 1, 2019 has made it increasingly difficult for their respective luxury affiliates Lexus and Audi to hold out.

Lexus has teased the RC F Track Edition once again, shortly before it is fully unveiled at the Detroit motor show next week. "The Lexus RC F Track Edition turns hot laps all day... and heads all night," the company said in its press release, not offering any further details of the new model.

Bentley has been told by two of the Volkswagen Group's main shareholders it needs to stop the flow of red ink, although it's not clear what will happen if it misses the target. The call was made by the Porsche and Piech families, who not only own a significant portion of the company's voting stock, but also have two seats on its supervisory board.

American Special Vehicles has issued a recall for the Ram 1500 over concerns a loose cable could cause the parking brake to become "difficult to operate". The conversion firm reports the outer cable sheath for the park brake may have slipped through the end fitting. If the condition occurs, the park brake could also fail, meaning the vehicle is unable to be secured. This increases the risk of an accident, and also poses an injury risk to the vehicle's occupants and other road users.

Despite stating at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that the ‘future is definitely electric’, Mercedes-Benz has also confirmed that its V12 and V8 engines, which are used in ‘600’, ‘650’ or ‘AMG 65’ (plus by Pagani) and ‘500’, ‘550’ or ‘AMG 63’ models respectively, will survive for another generation.