Car News

After an emergency board meeting Fiat Chrysler (FCA) has appointed Mike Manley, previously head of Jeep and RAM, as its acting CEO effectively immediately. In a statement overnight, the company announced with "profound sorrow that during the course of this week unexpected complications arose while Mr Marchionne was recovering from surgery and that these have worsened significantly in recent hours", and as a result the outspoken CEO "will be unable to return to work".

The Lamborghini Aventador SVJ has been teased blasting around the Nurburgring, confirming one detail, but leaving so many others up in the air. Many have speculated the Italian marque would bring the Jota name back for a hardcore version of the Aventador, which has been spied multiple times during development. The teaser video's title and end tag, "Aventador SVJ meets the Nurburgring", confirms the rumour, as J is pronounced "jota" in Spanish.

You could never find the Opel name in Holden's announcements for the new Commodore and Astra. Never even for the rebadged Insignia OPC, already known locally as an Opel product. Of course, with an earlier attempt to launch the lightning-bolt brand falling on its face, it's no surprise Holden would want to avoid any further association in buyers' minds.

Ford Australia has revealed preliminary specifications for the upcoming 2019 Focus range, ahead of its November on-sale date. Headlining the announcement is the availability of the Focus wagon for the first time in Australia, along with the sport-themed ST-Line trim level (pictured in blue). As previously reported, the Focus line-up will be fitted as standard with autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection, along with lane-keep assist.

The BMW 8 Series has already been revealed, but the high-performance M8 remains under (partial) wraps at this stage. So far we know it'll feature a twin-turbo V8, and a rear-biased M xDrive all-wheel drive system, but as far as the final design touches and model-specific equipment it gets over the 'standard' 8 Series? We're none the wiser.