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The Carlos and Dieter Show promises more collaboration

Daimler and Renault-Nissan said Friday the automakers have expanded their four-year-old alliance to include putting a Renault diesel in the Mercedes C-Class, a Mercedes gasoline engine in an Infiniti and possibly will involve automated driving technologies in the near future. At a joint Paris Motor Show press conference dubbed 'The Carlos and Dieter Show' by European media, Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn and Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said the alliance between the automakers is running strong and will expand into any area that makes financial sense for both companies.
Ghosn and Zetsche said the alliance between the automakers is running strong and will expand into any area that makes financial sense for both companies.
Daimler and Renault-Nissan began their partnership in 2010 with plans to collaborate on three projects. They've since expanded that and are working on 12 projects together, including building a joint plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Renault-Nissan and Daimler are launching their first vehicles developed together from scratch: the Renault Twingo (which went on sale in September) and the new Smart Fortwo and Smart Forfour, which go on sale in November.

2014 Nissan Versa Note pushes the little hatchback forward

Alright, truth time: The Nissan Versa isn't exactly our favorite car in the subcompact class. It's certainly competent, reliable transportation, but it's hardly an emotional purchase choice. Perhaps this new version of the Versa, then, can change our minds a bit. Meet the Versa Note - the cuter, five-door version of the li'l sedan, making its debut here at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show.
Aesthetically, the Versa Note is a pretty pleasant-looking thing; we've seen it before in JDM-spec. It's a decidedly aerodynamic thing, too, with a drag coefficient of just 0.29. And because of that - as well as an efficient little powertrain - the Note will achieve up to 40 miles per gallon on the highway.
Under the hood is Nissan's 1.6-liter inline four-cylinder engine churning out a furious 109 horsepower and 107 pound-feet of torque. Like, well, every other Nissan car, the Versa is equipped with a continuously variable transmission and will drive the front wheels exclusively. Base S models can be had with a five-speed manual transmission, but the moment you step up to a higher trim level, the do-it-yourself shifter goes away.

Nissan's Ghosn called out by Deltawing's Panoz in print ad

When the Nissan ZEOD RC limped to the side of the Circuit de la Sarthe a mere five laps into this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, we imagine that a certain American motorsports figure at least smirked a little. Don Panoz's ongoing feud with Nissan probably means he wasn't sorry to see the arrow-shaped racecar's poor showing, and now he's stepping up his campaign against his former racing partner.
For those who need a refresher, back in 2012, Panoz and Nissan teamed up to field the DeltaWing, an innovative, wedge-shaped racer, as the first entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans' experimental Garage 56 concept. The car rapidly became a fan favorite. The Panoz/Nissan alliance didn't last, though, and before long, the DeltaWing's designer was getting a paycheck from Nissan and the ZEOD RC racer arrived. Shortly after that, Panoz began mulling over a lawsuit alleging intellectual property infringement. The American motorsports icon would eventually pull the trigger on a suit back in December of 2013.
Panoz's latest move in the ongoing feud involves an open letter in both The Nashville Tennessean, the paper that serves Nissan's US headquarters, and trade paper Automotive News. The letter calls out Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn directly, and points out some of the similarities between the DeltaWing and the ZEOD RC, going so far as to quote the original car's designer, Ben Bowlby.