(November 13, 2009) INGOLSTADT, Germany — Last January Audi predicted worldwide sales of 900,000 vehicles in 2009. But the picture is brighter at the German automaker going into the last six weeks of the calendar year.

(November 12, 2009) COLOGNE — Ford achieved its highest October market share and car sales volume since 1997 with total sales of 121,000 new vehicles and a market share of 8.8 per cent in its 19 main European markets.

(November 11, 2009) OSHAWA, Ontario — Because of strong sales of the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain, CAMI Automotive is investing $90 million Canadian for a substantial project that includes the re-tooling of the facility’s West Body Shop resulting in increased capacity and the recall of approximately 150 employees.

The added capacity from this investment will result in the production an additional 40,000 vehicles annually for the Canadian and U.S. markets.

(November 11, 2009) Volvo has released the first official pictures of the redesigned S60 sedan.

The much-anticipated car will go into production next summer. It will be shown for the first time at the Geneva motor show in March.

The production S60 looks a lot like the concept that was revealed at the Detroit auto show in January. Volvo says the redesigned S60 will compete against luxury sedans such as the Infiniti G35.

The S60 will compete against cars such as the Infiniti G35 and the BMW 3-Series.

(November 11, 2009) Automotive News reports that the Jeep Grand Cherokee from the 1993 to 2004 model years may be investigated by federal safety regulators after a complaint that its fuel tank is an exposed fire hazard that may have contributed to hundreds of deaths.

(November 11, 2009) SHANGHAI — General Motors Company announced that the automaker and its joint ventures in China today surpassed 1.5 million units in sales for 2009. With a strong October, the GM China family continued its string of record monthly sales that began at the start of the year.

(November 9, 2009) Automotive News reports that the Ford Ka minicar and the global Ford Ranger will not be sold in the United States as previously indicated. Ford CEO Alan Mulally says Ka is too small for U.S. tastes.

Mulally previously had said both vehicles were under consideration for sale here. But the Ka, a minicar developed with Fiat, has been deemed too small for American tastes. The Ka is smaller than the subcompact Ford Fiesta, which will go on sale in the United States early next year.

(November 9, 2009) The global car market has bottomed and is on track for 60 million units sales next year, aided by the United States, Carlos Ghosn, who heads Japan's Nissan Motor Co. and France's Renault SA, said on Sunday.

Ghosn said his global forecast for auto sales for this year was above his earlier expectation of 55 million unit sales. "It looks like we are here hitting a plateau," he said at a World Economic Forum event in New Delhi. Global vehicle sales totaled roughly 70 million vehicles in each of the past two years.

(November 9, 2009) Nissan is recalling more than 10,000 2009 model year Nissan Sentra vehicles because of a defective master cylinder from Robert Bosch. Sentras manufactured from February 23, 2008 through April 18, 2008 are affected.

This latest recall expands a previous one last year covering more than 169,000 Sentra cars from the 2007 and 2008 model years.

(November 8, 2009) Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has opened a new showroom at Qatar’s most exclusive address, the Pearl Island in Doha. The luxury automotive manufacturer celebrated the occasion on the outstanding, man- made island, located offshore the Arabian Peninsula, with a prestigious event that attracted prominent members of the Qatari business community.

The event was marked by the unveiling of the new Ghost, the latest addition to the Rolls-Royce model range which was making its debut in Qatar.