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Toyota, Mazda drop Takata as Mitsubishi, Subaru weigh options

It's not a very good time to be Takata right now. Fresh on the heels of longtime partner Honda ditching them, Toyota and Mazda have both come out and said they will not use the company's airbag inflators if they continue to rely on ammonium nitrate. Bloomberg reports that Subaru and Mitsubishi are also contemplating a divorce. "The inflator using ammonium nitrate produced by Takata will not be adopted by Toyota," President Akio Toyoda said during a briefing today. "What's most important above anything else is the safety and peace of mind of customers." Mazda echoed that position, simply saying it "will not use Takata airbag inflators which contain ammonium nitrate in our new cars." When you lose three huge OEM accounts in as many days, it's certainly going to have a deleterious effect on your fortunes. In Takata's case, that's meant a staggering 39-percent drop in their share price over the last three days. Yesterday alone, the company saw a 6.2-percent fall, Bloomberg reports. As the business publication reports, though, Takata isn't going down without a fight. The company is "considering some plans to survive," including a fundraising plan that will see it potentially offer up additional shares for sale. Still, at least one analyst doesn't see whatever company survives staying involved in the airbag inflator business. "I really don't see how they're going to be able to survive as an inflator manufacturer," Valient Market Research founder Scott Upham told Bloomberg. "When your major clients publicly come out and say that they're not going to use your products anymore, it makes this very difficult to sustain your business." News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Carlos Osorio / AP Honda Mazda Mitsubishi Subaru Toyota Safety supplier

Ford F-150 bumps Camry from top of Cars.com American Made Index

With July 4th just around the corner, what better time could there be for Cars.com to announce that the Ford F-150 is the Most American car of 2013? This may be especially true since it was the Toyota Camry, a car produced by a company based in Japan, that had held the top spot from 2009 to 2012.
Cars.com compiles its Most American list by considering the amount of parts each vehicle uses that come from America, where it's final assembly takes place and how many units per year are sold. "While the assembly point and domestic parts content of the F-150 didn't change from 2012-2013, vehicle sales are responsible for bumping the F-150 to the top spot," according to Patrick Olsen, Editor-in-Chief of Cars.com.
As far as automakers go (as opposed to individual models), Toyota retains the top spot it held in 2012, with General Motors, Chrysler, Ford and Honda (in that order) rounding out the list. The motivation behind this list each year, according to Olsen, is "to help car shoppers understand that 'American-Made' extends beyond just the Detroit three" and because "a study we conducted in 2012 indicated that 25 percent of shoppers surveyed preferred to buy American."

James Glickenhaus' SCG 003 undisguised in street and track form

For James Glickenhaus buying a factory-made supercar isn't good enough; he wants to develop his own. Following up on the Ferrari Enzo-based P4/5 and later the P4/5 Competition, Glickenhaus' latest project is appropriately called the 003, and he's finally displaying it in road trim. These first undisguised photos of the SCG 003S show off a supercar with a front end reminiscent of a Ferrari Enzo. However, the rear evokes the look of a modern endurance racer with a fin running along the spine. A wing at the back connects it all together, and the massive diffuser should keep things planted too. Development of the 003 has been going for over a year by Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, but the company has set quite a challenge for itself to get just right. Glickenhaus wants his latest project to be a true racecar for the street. That idea gets thrown around a lot, but it might be true in this case. In motorsports trim, the SCG 003C (pictured inset) packs a mid-mounted Honda Performance Development twin-turbocharged V6, but the engine sits in a detachable rear subframe. When the time comes for the road, the car converts to the SCG 003S and allegedly swaps in a twin-turbo W12. It makes the vehicle the best of both worlds – at least in theory. SCG reportedly plans to show the 003 at the Geneva Motor Show, so we should get a better look then. Glickenhaus also wants to take the car racing in the 24-hour events at the Nurburgring and Spa later this year.