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Tata to enter uber-lux segment with Daimler revival
Filed under: Sedans/Saloons, Daimler, Tata  It's lonely at the top. If you've got a big budget to buy a big luxury sedan, you're typically looking at a Bentley Arnage or a Rolls-Royce Phantom (Mercedes tried to make a go of it with Maybach, but never really managed to establish itself outside the Persian Gulf and hip-hop videos). Now Jaguar's new owners at Tata want to take on the establishment with a storied name of its own: Daimler.
Not to be confused with the Mercedes parent company, Daimler has the same roots as the British subsidiary of Gottlieb Daimler's operation. Between 1896 and 1960, Daimler made a range of elegant limousines. After...
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Daimler forces Chrysler to give up goods on $515M Q2 loss
Filed under: Euro, Chrysler, LLC., Daimler, Earnings/Financials 
Normally the privately owned Chrysler LLC is under no obligation to reveal its financial performance to Wall Street, but yesterday the Cerberus-owned automaker was forced to show a few pages from its accounting books thanks to one of its largest stakeholders and former owner, Daimler AG. The German automaker revealed that in the last six months, its 19.9% stake in Chrysler has cost it $585 million. To clarify Daimler's numbers, Chrysler also revealed yesterday that the loss being attributed to it, all of which was incurred in Daimler's first fiscal quarter of the year, is around 65 million euro,...
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Mercedes-Benz to introduce fully turbocharged lineup by 2010
Filed under: Green, Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, SMART 
When it comes to increasing fuel economy, turbochargers are the replacement for displacement. The combination of highly efficient snails and smaller engines provides the power people expect, while reducing the overall weight of the vehicle. Like other automakers that have realized that forced induction is a suitable stop-gap for improving fuel economy, Mercedes-Benz is in the process of developing turbo'd engines that will proliferate throughout its lineup in the next two and a half years.
Thomas Weber, a Daimler board member in charge of research and development told Automotive News, "All our vehicles will have turbocharged engines in series...
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The wealthy concerned about gas prices? Merc S-class sales fall
Filed under: Car Buying, Sedans/Saloons, Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, Earnings/Financials 
With sales of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class down 23 percent in the United States, and off nearly 12 percent worldwide, Daimler officials are showing concern. The luxurious S-Class is the most profitable model in the lineup, contributing up to an estimated 25 percent of Daimler's pre-tax profits, the drop is getting painful. With the exception of the new C-Class (up 38 percent), overall sales for the German automaker have fallen in the first six months of the year. In response, Daimler is diverting shipments of vehicles to China and Russia as those emerging markets have yet to...
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The Maybach Exelero can be yours... for $7.8 million
Filed under: Concept Cars, Coupes, Sports/GTs, Euro, Supercars, Daimler, Maybach 
Click above for a high-res gallery of the Maybach Exelero
Big-bucks enthusiasts annoyed that they're not the only ones at the club with a Veyron can now ensure that they arrive in total exclusivity. That's because the one-off Maybach Exelero, commissioned by Fulda to act as a high-profile demonstrator for its tire line of the same name, is now for sale. The Exelero isn't some delicate flower of a show car. Based on the Maybach 57 and powered by a 700-horsepower version of that car's turbocharged V12, the...
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Is Tesla Motors working with Daimler?
Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Green, Daimler 
A few months back, Tesla Motors revealed that its upcoming WhiteStar sedan would be available in two variants, a pure battery electric like the Roadster and a range-extended electric more like the Chevy Volt. We still don't have many details on the car, although we do know that lessons learned while working on the drivetrain for the heavier sedan have been fed back into the Roadster for its updated 2.0 drivetrain.
As a small start-up with limited resources, developing a new engine for the WhiteStar would obviously be problematic. Tesla Chairman Elon Musk let slip in an interview with Fox Business News...
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Jaguar and Land Rover could strike a deal with Daimler
Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Daimler, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Tata 
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...
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Daimler reduces book value of Chrysler stake by two-thirds
Filed under: Chrysler, LLC., Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, Earnings/Financials 
Daimler may have divested 80.1% of its ownership in Chrysler, but the German automaker is still feeling pain from the Pentastar. The value of Daimler's portion of Chrysler has dropped from $2.18 billion to $852 million not even a year after the two parted ways. The loss of nearly $1.4 billion in value is a fair chunk of change, even for the mighty Daimler, but the news is not all bad for company shareholders. If Daimler hadn't sold Chrysler to the private equity firm Cerberus as fast as it did, the automaker's stock would likely be in much worse shape....
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Daimler considers shutting down Maybach
Filed under: Daimler, Maybach, Earnings/Financials  Daimler will take the next two years to decide whether to invest more in its failing Maybach flagship marque or else shut it down. This comes from the mouth of Daimler and Mercedes chief Dr. Dieter Zetsche, who inherited the problem-child brand from his predecessor, ex-CEO Juergen Schrempp.
After ditching Chrysler, another deal that was orchestrated by Schrempp, Dr. Z may be inclined to shut down Maybach, too. By all accounts the ultra-premium brand has not been a sales success, barely reaching ten percent of its original sales forecast. In speaking with TheCarConnection.com, however, Zetsche insisted that Maybach's profitability "does not matter" in the face of...
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Mercedes to pump some extra octane into next A- and B-Class
Filed under: Hatchbacks, Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, SMART  According to the latest reports, Mercedes has finally realized why its A-Class and B-Class compacts haven't been doing so well: they're boring, overpriced and underpowered... and that's a losing combination. So for the next generation of the two model lines that's expected around 2011, Mercedes is reportedly preparing to turn up the volume.
Although the next-gen baby Benzes will reportedly stick with front-wheel-drive, they'll sit lower to the ground - and save production costs - by ditching the expensive current models' sandwich platform. Whereas the 193-hp 2-liter turbo is currently the most powerful engine offered between the two related models, sources indicate...
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