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France formally moves to ban Mercedes vehicles using contested refrigerant

That didn't take long. Shortly after a French administrative court gave the French government a ten-day window to reconsider its ban on registrations of Mercedes-Benz A-, B- and CLA-Class cars using the prohibited R134a refrigerant, the government cited an EU directive to formalize banning the sale of the cars. The country's environmental ministry said that registrations "will remain forbidden in France as long as the company does not to conform to European regulations," meaning so long as they do not use the approved R1234yf refrigerant.
Daimler had won the administrative court decision by challenging France's application of a "safeguard" provision in which the EU allows a country to block sales of cars that would "seriously harm the environment." In spite of Daimler's victory, France has cited that very provision as basis for the continuation of the ban.
Daimler got permission from Germany's KBA federal motor authority to keep selling cars with the coolant banned by EU politicians, and is using that national permission as the right to sell the cars throughout Europe. Meanwhile, above that battle, German politicians are asking the EU to let Mercedes sell the cars in France while the KBA does more testing, at the same time as the EU is threatening Germany with repercussions if it doesn't bring the KBA and Daimler into line.

2014 Mercedes S-Class priced lower from $92,900*

The massively overhauled 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class will start at $92,900, not including a $925 destination fee, when it arrives at US dealers in October. That's a 2.8-percent drop over the 2013 S-Class, although Mercedes is fast to point out that a drop in price doesn't equate with a drop in equipment for the executive sedan.
Besides an extra 20 horsepower from the 4.6-liter, biturbocharged V8, the S550 sports a standard panoramic sunroof, keyless start, a rear-view camera and LED headlights, taillights and interior lights. Adding the German manufacturer's 4Matic all-wheel-drive system bumps the S550's price up to $95,900.
If the S550 doesn't quite cut the mustard, you can wait until November, at which point Mercedes will quite happily sell you the new S63 AMG 4Matic for $139,500. Power is also up on the S63, from a max of 563 ponies with an AMG Performance Package to 577 horsepower as standard on the 2014 model.

Why all of this year's F1 noses are so ugly [w/video]

If you're a serious fan of Formula One, you already know all about The Great Nosecone Conundrum of 2014. Those given to parsing each year's F1 regulations predicted the strong possibility of the so-called "anteater" noses as far back as early December 2013. Highly suggestive visual evidence first came after Caterham's crash test in early January, with further proof coming as soon as Williams showed a rendering of the FW36 challenger for this year's championship. That car earned a name that wasn't nearly so kind as "anteater."
Casual followers of the sport - or anyone who gets the feed from this site - probably don't know what's happening, except to wonder why the current year's F1 cars are led by appendages that would make Cyrano de Bergerac feel a whole lot better about himself.
The short answer to the question of ugsome F1 noses is "FIA regulations and safety." The reason there are various kinds of ugsome noses is simpler: engineers. The same boffins who have given us advances including carbon fiber monocoques, six-wheeled cars, double diffusers and Drag Reduction Systems are bred to do everything in their power to exploit every possible freedom in the regulations to make the cars they're building go faster - the caveat being that those advances have to work within the overall philosophy of the whole car.