2014 Nissan Altima 2.5 S on 2040-cars

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Pickup sales may hit 2M units for first time since 2007

Even as fuel prices creep back up, trucks are still a hot item among new-vehicle shoppers. To see how popular pickup trucks still are, you don't have to look any further than how much effort automakers put into the continual one-upmanship of their trucks. Backing this fact up, USA Today is reporting that the segment could top two million sales this year - a total not matched since 2007, though still far from the pre-recession, three-million-unit levels.
Through August, the Ford F-Series continues to be the segment leader with almost 500,000 units sold, but the Chevy Silverado (328,269), Ram 1500 (234,642), GMC Sierra (122,232) and Toyota Tacoma (110,293) are all seeing at least 20-percent sales increases, helping to account for around 1.44 million truck sales so far this year - not including possible outliers like the Suzuki Equator and Chevy Avalanche.
This year alone, General Motors has completely redesigned its fullsize trucks, Ram and Toyota have significantly updated their offerings, the next-gen Ford F-150 will be out next year and Nissan is promising an all-new Titan around the same time with an eventual Cummins diesel under the hood. It would seem, then, that truck sales are poised to continue their upward trend.

Weekly Recap: Ferrari, Ford and Porsche power up for Geneva

Monday was Groundhog Day. Tuesday, apparently, was Sports Car Day. The Ferrari 488 GTB, the Ford Focus RS and the Porsche Cayman GT4 all debuted within hours of each other ahead of their rollouts at the Geneva Motor Show. Three sporty machines, three vastly different approaches – and a lot of implications for enthusiasts. That's a day worth repeating. It also illustrates the opportunities automakers see in the performance market, which is expected to grow in the coming years. Ford estimates the segment has expanded 14 percent in Europe and surged 70 percent in North America since 2009. The Detroit Auto Show was evidence of this, and performance cars of every stripe debuted, including the Acura NSX, Ford GT, Alfa Romeo 4C Spider and several others. This isn't a fad. Performance cars aren't going away. The question is why? Stricter CAFE standards are looming in the United States, as are tighter emissions regulations in Europe. And no one expects gas prices to remain low in America. None of this matters for sports cars, and automakers are increasingly using them to elevate their images. That's why Dodge rolled out two 707-horsepower Hellcats last year. It's why Ford has decided to resurrect the GT for road and track. It's why in the depths of bankruptcy, General Motors continued work on the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, not to mention the Z06. "Great brands are made one car at a time," Ford of Europe president Jim Farley said at the reveal of the Focus RS. Still, companies make those cars for different reasons. View 5 Photos Mainstream brands like Ford and Dodge want to build cars that get people talking, excite their bases and drive more potential customers into the showroom. They probably don't buy a Focus RS or a Hellcat, but suddenly the regular Focus hatch looks a bit hotter, and that V6 Charger seems to be just a touch more muscular. The halo of performance is alive and well in the eyes of automakers and their customers. "It's one of the most effective catalysts for ingenuity and innovation," said Joe Bakaj, vice president of product development for Ford of Europe. That also leads to a trickle-down effect. Some of the technologies inevitably make their way to other products. It's hard to think the new all-wheel-drive system in the Focus RS that distributes torque front to rear and side to side won't be used in other vehicles. It's different for Ferrari and Porsche.

Nissan expands Ghosn probe to more countries, executive Munoz under scrutiny, sources say

BEIJING — Nissan Motor Co Ltd has broadened its investigation into ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn to include dealings that took place in the United States, India and Latin America, three people with knowledge of the inquiry said. In one aspect of their internal probe, company investigators are looking into decisions made in the United States by Jose Munoz who led Nissan's North American operations from 2014 to 2018, the people said. Munoz was recently placed on a leave of absence due to the probe, they added. Nissan said this month that Munoz, its chief performance officer and widely seen within the industry as close to Ghosn, was on leave "to allow him to assist the company by concentrating on special tasks arising from recent events." Munoz is not cooperating with investigators, two of the people with knowledge of the probe said, both describing his actions as "stonewalling". One of the sources described Munoz, who currently heads Nissan's China operations, as a "person of interest" in the probe, adding that it was not clear whether he would be accused of any wrongdoing. Munoz, 53, did not reply to Reuters requests for comment. The people with knowledge of the probe spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. A lawyer for Ghosn, Motonari Otsuru, said in an emailed comment: "I am unaware of this." Some of the questions put to Munoz relate to dealer franchise rights, one of the sources said. Other questions relate to contracts with parts suppliers and service providers that Munoz approved when he was at the helm of Nissan's U.S. operations, another source said. The sources said the findings made as part of the probe into Ghosn's affairs in the U.S. market are being shared with prosecutors. Tokyo prosecutors declined to comment. Nissan has said its internal investigation had uncovered "substantial and convincing evidence of misconduct" by Ghosn and that its scope is expanding. Ghosn, once the most celebrated executives in the auto industry and the anchor of Nissan's alliance with France's Renault SA, has been charged with under-reporting his income. On Friday, he was also charged with aggravated breach of trust, accused of shifting personal investment losses worth 1.85 billion yen ($17 million) to Nissan. In his first public appearance since his Nov.