The continued pursuit of adding lightness and cutting costs has led General Motors to a new material developed by Wilmington, Massachusetts company Quantum Leap Packaging. The liquid crystal polymer could be used in applications that traditionally require metal, including body panels. Plastics tend to have a larger coefficient of expansion, as anyone who's checked the door gaps on a Saturn SL1 will tell you, but this new material combines dimensional stability comparable to steel and strength on par with titanium. Quantech, as the material is known, is similar to Kevlar and could be used for support brackets, body pieces, and even underhood parts where the weather's always warm. While resins and exotic materials are no bargain, the price of steel has been increasing too, which makes a better case for trying something new. A fast-track plan may see Quantech hitting production cars in six months, though the timeline could protract to two years if the vetting process reveals any challenges to overcome.
A long, long time ago -- 1996 to be exact -- Toyota decided to brand engineer a GM vehicle for the Japanese domestic market. The vehicle they chose: the Chevrolet Cavalier. They even called it the Toyota Cavalier, and wanted to move 20,000 of them per year in Japan. They put them in dealer showrooms next to JDM cars, and, well... people didn't really buy them. By 2000, the Toyota Cavalier was mort.
And while their loss is not exactly your gain, it might mean you can have some fun with rabbits and hats. GM made Toyota Cavalier parts, including Toyota badges, for the car, and has boxes of the stuff at its warehouse in Lansing, Michigan. If you can get a parts manager to fulfill your order -- overseas-only parts are normally red-flagged for U.S. domestic use due to DOT issues -- then you can get a Toyota badge wrapped in official GM packaging. Cue the Ripley's Believe It or Not theme music...
It's nothing new to have automakers pushing suppliers to cut their component costs. For the past decade and a half, many companies have demanded suppliers provide price reductions of 3 to 5 percent a year, every year, with varying degrees of success. India's Tata Motors is taking these efforts to a whole new level. In order for Tata to build a new car with a retail price of only $2,500 they need component prices an order of magnitude cheaper than other cars. One example is airbags. While Tata wants the Nano to be a very basic car, it wants it to still meet safety standards. The problem is that frontal airbags cost about $150 each. At that level, a pair of airbags would account for more than 10 percent of the cost of the car, clearly a non-starter. As a result, Tata has asked occupant safety systems supplier Autoliv to develop airbags that cost only $10 each. How or if Autoliv will get down to that price point remains unclear. It seems that features like two-stage airbags and systems that detect the presence of a passenger to disable the bag if there is no one there will have to be left out. In any case, it'll be interesting to see if Autoliv and Tata can pull this one off.
Chrysler's turning up the heat on its suppliers to reduce the cost of parts by 25 percent over the next three years. That's not just new parts, either, but everything. A widget that hasn't changed in any way must drop in price by 25 percent in three years time. The automaker's also making changes to its own operations to help with the effort and save money on components. Sharing common pieces over a larger range of models will help, as will reducing expensive late engineering tweaks. Chrysler is also sharing its production schedule with suppliers to smooth out planning and reduce overtime and raw material costs for suppliers.
It should come as little surprise given the big-box provenance of Bob Nardelli, but Chrysler is pushing its suppliers to match the bargain prices from suppliers in countries like China, India and Mexico. The cost reduction stiff arm will likely lead to further investment in low-cost countries, and the automaker itself has added engineering locations in Shanghai and Chennai, as well as beefed up its Mexico engineering operation. It seems that this push to get suppliers to gut prices on parts that are already being produced, along with Chrysler's encouragement to send operations to places where labor costs are extremely low, will lead to more US-based layoffs as the OEMs shift their locations. Seeking efficiencies and cost reductions on parts in the pipeline is one thing, but with this Wal-Mart style move to browbeat suppliers into cost reductions, will there be anyo
While parts sales don't typically show up in quarterly earnings reports, they can comprise a big chunk of profits. Ford is protecting its parts investment by filing a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington against eight companies that are reproducing Mustang parts without the Blue Oval's consent. Ford parts affected are the hood, bumper, fender, side-view mirror and tail lamp assemblies, which are all covered under Ford's 14-year design patent on design elements. Chicago-based LKQ Corp and its Keystone Automotive Industries are named in the complaint along with several companies in Taiwan. Ford has already come out victorious in a similar case involving some of the same suppliers and the F-150, and Keystone is currently appealing. With Ford already winning a similar case, and what we'd assume is a much larger legal budget than the defendants', the Blue Oval will likely come out on top in this ruling, as well.
The sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata means that the two British marques will have to look elsewhere for the parts normally supplied by Ford. Following the news that Daimler could be a supplier to both automakers comes word from Dr. Z himself that a deal is a distinct possibility.
Daimler holds a seven-percent stake in Tata Motors, which could make an easy case for Mercedes to supply Jag and L.R. with the necessary components to wean them off of Ford. Dieter Zetsche told Auto Motor und Sport that, "If Ratan Tata approaches us regarding the supply of components, we would be open to talks." AMG-powered XF, anyone?
Eurospares, based in Essex, UK, specializes in spare parts for Italian cars, boasting 12,000 square feet worth of spares for Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Maseratis. As The Independent reports, if you need headlamps for a Lamborghini Miura, a steering column for a Ferrari 360, or a chassis and body for a BB512, the people at Eurospares have your back. But spares for out-of-production exotics need to come from somewhere, and this is where some readers might find themselves feeling queasy.
Eurospares honcho James Pumo gets parts from all around -- in some cases, from sources his father formed relationships with many, many years ago. Sometimes, however, the parts received don't come piled in shipping boxes; sometimes, they arrive as a whole, like the Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 you see above. Nice, right? Don't get too attached. As Eurospares details on its website, rust issues and a problem in one cylinder mean that the old stallion is going to get fully dismantled and parted out. It must die so that perhaps another 330 in need can be returned to its former glory. For car guys, witnessing the company's breakup operations must be akin to a vegan getting a tour of a slaughterhouse -- horrifying and mentally-scarring. On the flipside, to owners seeking the final piece of a restoration/repair puzzle, Eurospares is like that mythical pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It's all about perspective, we guess. Those of you interested in seeing what's scheduled to head to the big garage in the sky courtesy of Eurospares' blowtorch-wielding car slayers, click here. It might make you a little sad, though, so don't say we didn't warn you.
Say what you will about the Germanification of Lamborghini; it's producing damn good cars. Audi's stake in the Raging Bull has helped move Lamborghini from a quirky, inscrutable supercar producer to a purveyor of some of the finest road-going rockets our generation has ever seen. But according to Audi pres Stephan Winkelmann, the magic number for cross pollination of the two brands is 20-percent. "In the future, we will always work together just on the hidden parts – parts that will not touch the DNA of Lamborghini," Winkelmann told Autocar.
That pronouncement by Winkelmann is an attempt to quell criticism that the Gallardo shares too many components with the Audi R8 and that the majority of parts sharing will include unseen components, like electrical, plumbing and other, smaller pieces. "We have a quality benchmark with Audi," Winkelmann said, "[Lamborghini] gets the best and fastest, and Audi gets us the cheapest."
Genuine GM Accessories are as obsessively tested as the rest of the car during the design and prototype stage. When the production tweaks are being given to the basic car, the Accessories wizards are in there too, mocking up and trying out different creative ways to offer some pizazz at the parts counter. What we're most excited about in this video is the appearance of the new Camaro with some extra goodies. You don't get to see much, but the shroud of Auburn Hills gets pulled back just enough to show off ground effects done up in clay. The rear spoiler also appears to be different, though it's never actually shown. If customized Camaros of the past are any indication, we expect the hottest item will be the big peeing "Calvin" for the rear window and those ridiculous blackout head and taillight covers – this time, they'll be available with a GM part number, w00t!
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P. T. Barnum already answered how many people you could fit in an itty bitty car. BMW is now trying to figure out how much carbon you can fit into the same. The BMW 1-Series performance parts will keep carbon weavers in business for some time (we figure they'll be quite popular). The only sizable component not made out of carbon was the silencer, and no one will see that after it's installed. If nothing else, it could be the best and most agreeable way to raise your carbon footprint. It's a shame about that hood, though... Check out the gallery of hi-res photos below.
