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Japan Just Lost Its Lead As Australia’s Top Car Importer

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Japan has been Australia’s top vehicle source since 1998. Australia sold 22,362 Chinese cars during February. Four of Australia’s 10 top-selling brands now come from China. With no local car manufacturing industry left to protect, Australia has moved quickly to embrace the growing wave of cars arriving from China. New data show that shift has reached a notable milestone. For the first time ever in a single month, China became the largest source of new vehicles sold in Australia in February. Ever since 1998, Japan has been the country’s primary source of new vehicles, but the balance appears to be changing . In February, 22,362 new Chinese cars were sold locally, edging past Japan with 21,671. Thailand followed in third place with 19,493, while South Korea accounted for 11,913 units. Read: Chinese Carmaker Busted Illegally Stockpiling Cars In Australia Overall, sales of Chinese-built vehicles rose 50.5 percent year-on-year, while Japanese-built vehicles fell by 31.3 pe...
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Nissan Hints More US Models Could Get e-Power After The 2027 Rogue

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The Nissan Rogue Hybrid e-Power debuts later this year. It finally brings the company’s e-Power system to America. The Rogue could eventually be followed by a Kicks e-Power. Nissan is gearing up to introduce the redesigned Rogue later this year and it will be notable for featuring an e-Power hybrid system that aims to combine the benefits of EVs with the convenience of gas-powered models. You can read more about the powertrain in our preview piece, but Nissan’s e-Power system has been around for three generations and is already used in over 1.5 million vehicles. Despite this, it hasn’t been offered in the United States. First Drive: Nissan’s 2027 Rogue Finally Goes Hybrid And We Got An Early Preview That will change with the introduction of the 2027 Rogue Hybrid e-Power and it’s likely just the tip of the iceberg. Speaking at a media event outside Detroit, Nissan officials told us it’s safe to assume other e-Power models are on the horizon. While they stop...
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America’s Car Market Is Booming, Just Not For The Middle Class

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Wealthier buyers now dominate the American new car market. Average new car prices in the US recently crossed $50,000. More buyers stretch loans to seven years to afford monthly bills. If you’ve been wondering how the auto industry keeps selling expensive cars while everyone seems to be complaining about affordability, the answer is surprisingly simple. Wealthy buyers are carrying the market. While many Americans struggle with rising costs, high earners are still signing papers at dealerships and keeping sales moving. Economists say the modern car market looks a lot like the broader economy where one group is doing just fine while another is feeling the squeeze. Higher income households are powering many of the positive spending numbers while lower income buyers are getting hammered by inflation and experiencing lower wage growth, according to economists interviewed by Auto News. Also: Trump Tariffs Pushed Some MSRPs Up $4,000, But US-Made Cars Now Top 55% In some case...
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Stellantis Is Hiring 2,000 New Engineers As Quality Concerns Finally Reach The Top

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Stellantis has hired over 2,000 engineers to boost quality. Recent launches and tech shifts raised reliability worries. Dealers link earlier cost cuts to some quality issues. Automakers can release all the cars they want, but if the public perceives them as cheap or of bad quality, that reputation can stick. After some recent trials in that realm, Stellantis is hiring some 2,000 engineers to combat quality issues. The brand’s CEO is calling this a ‘deep reset’ as a new wave of models comes to market. Speaking during a February earnings call, CEO Antonio Filosa said Stellantis is restructuring its processes to address problems caused by previous operational decisions. “We are resetting execution and improving quality management processes to address previous operational issues triggered by past decisions,” he said. More: $0 Bonus Leaves Furious Stellantis Workers Feeling ‘Screwed’ According to AutoNews , quality has a more prominent role in the automaker’s leadership st...
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Police Video Shows What Happens When A Smart Camera Spots Your Car

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Flock Safety cameras helped police locate fleeing suspects. Incident footage shows how the tracking technology works. Systems can identify vehicles even without visible plates. Cities across the USA are ditching Flock Safety cameras and other similar systems, with privacy advocates saying that such networks are a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Now, a new video from two police departments shows how the technology can help capture suspects. It also demonstrates some limitations and verifies the concerns some have. Officers in Glendale, Arizona, found themselves called to a local carwash thanks to a Flock camera alert. The system saw an allegedly stolen truck pass a camera and police tracked it to a bay where the driver was vacuuming it out. Despite having three cruisers on scene around the car, the driver decided to flee the scene. More: Flock Traffic Cameras Track Everything, Except The Cops Misusing Them In doing so, he rammed one of the cruisers multiple times t...
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RS5 Coupe Is The BMW M4 Rival Audi Refuses To Build

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Renderings imagine the RS5 as a sleek two-door coupe. The RS5 name now lives on Sedan and Avant body styles. Audi axed the A5 Coupe, TT, and R8 two-door models. Audi’s decision to move the A5 and RS5 lineups exclusively to five-door Sedan and Avant body styles may make sense on a spreadsheet, but it still disappointed fans of the original two-door coupe. Not everyone is ready to accept that era fading away. Read: Audi’s New 630 HP RS5 Somehow Weighs More Than A V8 F-150 SuperCab Now, independent digital artist Sugar Design has stepped in to imagine a 2026 Audi RS5 Coupe, effectively giving the BMW M4 the rival many enthusiasts probably wanted all along. The renderings translate the muscular design language of the new B10 generation into a tighter two-door silhouette. Up front, the familiar RS attitude remains intact, with large intakes flanking the honeycomb grille, sharp Matrix LED headlights, and wide fenders with integrated vents. It looks every bit like the curr...
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