TTAC News Round-up: Mller May Be On The Hot Seat, Crossover Racing, and Mazda's CX-4
Porsche-Piech family is standing behind their man — which totally isn’t the kiss of death, right?
That, Toyota’s completely nuts and it’s awesome and Mazda’s CX-4 breaks cover … after the break!
Porsche-Piech family says Müller is their man, for now
After a particularly disastrous trip to the United States, Volkswagen’s controlling family told sources it would stand behind Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller, Reuters reported ( via Automotive News).
According to the report, doubts are growing within the Volkswagen board as to whether the former Porsche boss is up to the task of digging the German automaker out of the biggest crisis in its history. Volkswagen denied those reports.
Volkswagen’s supervisory board is scheduled to meet Tuesday to hear progress on the automaker’s internal investigation.
Volkswagen has been criticized for being too slow to act and too slow to fix its illegally polluting cars.
Toyota has lost their damn minds and it is great
Toyota said this weekend that its new C-HR crossover (which’ll come Stateside as a Scion) will race at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in May because why the hell not.
Toyota Gazoo Racing will field the crossover alongside a Lexus RC and RC F for the endurance race in Germany.
It’s unclear what will power the C-HR at the race in May — the production version will likely be a hybrid, but that kind of racing tech would be wildly expensive to develop overnight — when takes a stab at the 24-hour race. We’ll likely get a chance to see what normal people can buy in March when Toyota reveals a production version in Geneva, and Scion’s version in New York.
Is this the Mazda CX-4?
Our friends over at Auto Guide found snaps of a Mazda CX-4 hiding in plain sight over in China.
The “tweener” crossover between the subcompact CX-3 and midsize CX-5 looks to be fairly close to the Koeru concept we saw last year — albeit with some smoother angles and smaller wheels.
It’s possible that we see the CX-4 on sale sooner rather than later if these shots are to be believed. It looks ready for prime time to me.
More by Aaron Cole
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Surely VW biggest crisis was WW2. I mean it is not like it is being shopped around conquering powers as spoils of war.
Yeah, I'm sure a Mazda employee in Japan just had to pop into a mall in China. My best guess is that those pictures were taken in a Mazda plant, probably in Japan unless they are setting up joint venture mfg in China. PP-18 could that stand for pre-production 18? Is that a light tunnel for checking body fit and finish in the background? Where do you find a green epoxy coated floor large bright orange painted metal objects and cars without license plates. Could it be... in an auto mfg plant?