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Maserati and Lamborghini pull out of Iran

Daimler is out, Toyota is out, Porsche is out, Hyundai, PSA Peugeot-Citroën are out and when it comes to selling cars in Iran, now Maserati and Lamborghini are out, too. The definitive pullouts of those last two automakers are said to be reactions to a press conference held by a group called United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). The group highlights businesses that sell in both the US market and Iran, and works to get those businesses to choose one market or the other.
UANI said it had sent letters to Maserati and Lamborghini about their dealings in Iran, but that the letters went unanswered. Mark Wallace, head of UANI and a former US ambassador to the United Nations, held a press conference in October of last year that referenced the two companies. Apparently Lamborghini contacted Wallace just after the press conference and told him "they were out, they weren't doing any business in Iran anymore."
Discussions with Maserati then took place, and the Italian automaker said it had been out of Iran ever since Fiat announced it was leaving the country in May 2011. UANI said Maserati had been in talks with an Iranian distributor, however, and that distributor was continuing to use the Maserati name. The carmaker has since cut all ties with Iranian interests and has prevented its name from being used, adding that its new models will not be able to be sold there because they won't pass regulations the country's regulations.

Submit your questions for Autoblog Podcast #323 LIVE!

We're set to record Autoblog Podcast #323 tonight, and you can drop us your questions and comments regarding the rest of the week's news via our Q&A module below. Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes if you haven't already done so, and if you want to take it all in live, tune in to our UStream (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.
Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode #323
Lamborghini Veneno

Lamborghini Pregunta Paris concept offered at $2.1M [w/video]

When the Lamborghini Veneno was introduced at the Geneva Motor Show, there were those who connected dots from it to the Lamborghini Pregunta concept from 1998, and also to the Pagani Zonda that arrived one year later. Near the end of the turmoil that was Lamborghini's ownership through the mid-nineties, an order was placed with the French Carrosserie Heuliez for a one-off concept car that was "new, original and impossible to confuse with any other car's shapes," that would be built on a Diablo chassis. The result was the Pregunta.
It was an aerospace-influenced supercar with carbon fiber bodywork, a 530-horsepower V12 and a claimed 207-mile-per-hour top speed. It employed rear-wheel drive instead of the Diablo's all-wheel drive, was coated in the same paint used on the French military's Dassault Rafale fighter jet and had fiber optic lighting, rear-view cameras and a GPS system. It was shown to the world at the 1998 Paris Motor Show, and again at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show.
Thought to be the last concept built on a Lamborghini body before Audi bought the company in 1998, AutoDrome, a French specialist in vintage exotics, has the Pregunta for sale for 1.6 million euros ($2.1M US). You can watch it hit the runway with a Rafale in the video below, then give AutoDrome a call if you're interested.