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Volvo, the Swedish automobile brand, has always been associated with dependability and security. In fact, most Volvo patriots praise the brand not only for it’s great value for your money but also for the superior safety features each Volvo car is equipped with. However, Volvo recently expressed its move to move beyond this “safe” image and pursue a broader, bolder, and more luxurious.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., one of the ten biggest leaders in the car industry in China, was the one who bought Volvo from Ford Motor. Co. for around $1.5 billion. Volvo’s new CEO, Stefan Jacoby, was the one who started the investigation about Volvo’s reputation on good safety features becoming obsolete with all the competitors upgrading their safety advancements. Therefore, the image shift will focus on upgrading and combining comfort elements with luxury. The new image shift aims to compete with luxury cars such as the Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz, the BMW AG, and Volkswagen AG’s Audi.

With this new image, Volvo pushes to win more Chinese consumers and increase their sales this year to 50,000 cars, which is almost a 60% increase. Volvo aims to sell up to 200,000 cars by 2015 by reaching out to those consumers who want a touch of luxury in their cars and still get top-notch safety measures with new features such as the recently introduced S60 sedan technology that acts a warning device for potential pedestrian impact. Soon, the Swedish brand might also introduce an automatic braking system for animals on the road.

A lot of people thought that BMW will not be doing anything with their new 3-Series since they are currently cooking up a replacement for their bread and butter car. The changes though are mostly for aesthetics purposes as compared to the more significant changes for the 5-Series and the 6-Series.

The 3 Series Coupe and Convertible M Sport Edition and Exclusive Edition , ad the 320d Efficient Dynamics Touring Edition gets a Special Edition Package. The cabrio gets an option to have a hardtop.

The Exclusive Edition for the convertible and the coupe gets a customized colors for the exteirios include an option for a combo of Oxide Silver mirror caps with a shade of Mineral Grey and the 18 inch rims painted in Space Grey. The interior gets a Dakota leather treatment for its upholstery on a Grey leather with grey stitch contrast or an option to have it on black stitched with contrasting white threads. The trim strips gets a Bamboo Grain Anthracite treatment.

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Ferrari recently released the official photos of the new Ferrari FF and claims that the new DD is the most versatile and most powerful four-seater of all time. The new Ferrari FF is also the Italian marques. It is also a prancing hatchback!

If you are wondering what the FF stands four, the Italian luxury car maker explains that it is the acronum for “Ferrari Four”. The FF which is a four-seater, and a four-wheel drive takes the place of the 612 Scagletti and gives way to a new line of GT concept.

The Ferrari FF was designed for usability, just like the Ferrari California, compared to the outgoing cars of the brand. With this in mind, the Italian carmaker hopes to attract more new customers to their client base. Ferrari expects the FF to meet head on with the Continental GTC/GT of Bentley, the Rapide from Aston Martin and the other coupes from Audi, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW.

The new FF has the engine power to accelerate from 0 to 62 miles per hour in a matter of 3.7 seconds. The top speed is pegged at 208 miles per hours.

The pirce for the new stallion of Ferrari has not been announced yet. We can expect the tag price to be revealed during the upcoming Geneva auto show and will hit the market in the United States come fall.

The powerplant of the Ferrari FF is a V12 6.3L that can give out660 horsepower while revving at 8,000 rpm. These numbers is just 10 hp shy from the 599 GTO. The torque is also impressive at 504 lb-ft revving at 6,000 rpm.

Ferrari equipped the FF with the 4RM or their FWD system. The information about the four-wheel drive setup is still very limited at the moment but according to insiders the 4RM is half the weight of the conventional 4WD systems today.

We also posted the Ferrari FF teaser for you in case you have not seen it yet:

Porsche recently announced that it will be unveiling a new sports car with a mid engine configuration next week during the Auto Show in Los Angeles. The new car will go side by side with their reveal of the latest versions of the 911 Speedster and GTS models. It might come as vague but the spotlight might be on the new Cayman Clubsport which is kind of a Boxster Spyder hardtop.

According to some reports, the Cayman CS will draw power from the flat six 3.4L that has an output of around 333 hp. Just like its Boxster sibling, the Cayman S is expected to get rid of around 162 through 184 pounds.  That means aluminium components for the body, alloy wheels, and other elements to help the car focus on being a speed monster.

The new Carrera GTS will be on top of its series with an equation involving 408 horsepower, sporty equipment, and dynamic suspension. A wider body configuration of the Carrera 4 for the AWD version plus a RWD setup is unique to the Carrera brood. The new 911 GTS is almost as efficient as the Carrera S with a mileage of 10.2 liters for every 100 kilometers.

The new 911 Speedster will also be unveiled beside the new top athlete of Porsche.  It will come with the 408 horsepower 6-cylinder engine with PDK, active suspension system, and ceramic composite brakes. The average consumption of the of the Speedster hits 10.3L for every 100 kilometers.

The major car manufacturers in the United States posted double digit gains in May except for Japanese carmaker Toyota. The sales for light vehicles peaked since December.

The figures are up by as much as 19% compared to the May 2009 sales numbers marking the eight consecutive month of increase which is considered the longest streak since the first half of 2000. The adjusted rate of sales hit the bell at 11.8 million way over the predictions of experts.

Ford registered a 22% gain for May and also performed well during the incentive spree during the weekend of Memorial Day. General Motors also saw a jump of 17%.

Chrysler soared to a 33% improvement compared a year ago when the carmaker suffered bankruptcy.

The Detroit 3 surpassed the forecast figures of analysts going over by at least 6%.

The sales of Japanese car manufacturer Toyota also went up but only by 7% despite its barrage of incentive programs since March. This is the worst performance by Toyota after posting drops from January through February during the peak of the recall issues. Toyota is still struggling to get up and come up with a better image for the market after recalling over eight million units due to braking and acceleration problems.

I have to tell you. Of all the things I never thought I would see, a French pickup truck is near the top of the list.

Yet, here we have it. Peugeot, one of my very favorite European automakers, has just come out with their first ever pickup truck.

Called the Peugeot Hoggar, this comes from the concept introduced way back in 2003.

It was actually designed not only in Brazil but for Brazil. It is for the Brazilian market, for the specific needs of the clientele there.

It will be launched later this season, in the middle of May.

When you think about it – putting a law into effect that insists that young drivers, anyone under 21 to put a red sticker on their license plate just makes sense.  I mean, we have changed their license around already.  New Jersey thinks that their teen or young drivers need to be identified and that is why they have come up with this particular law.

That way, it is easier for the cops to be able to identify exactly who should be in for their 11 o’clock curfew and who shouldn’t.  There are some exceptions to this law though and one of them is that if you take drivers educational classes, you do not have to display the sticker.

Also, once the driver obtains a license, not a learners permit, they can take the sticker off of their license plate.