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U.S. auto sales fall in July, as Detroit dials back on inventory, rental sales

DETROIT — U.S. carmakers said on Tuesday they continued to slash low-margin sales to daily rental fleets in July as General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles struggled to curb a slide in retail sales. July is on track to be the fifth straight month in which the annual pace of car and light truck sales declined from the same month a year ago, in part because of fewer fleet sales, analysts and industry executives said. July 2016 sales hit a strong 17.9-million-vehicle pace. GM said the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate fell to an estimated 16.9 million vehicles in July. At midmorning on Tuesday, GM shares were down 3.4 percent at $34.77, Ford was down 2.8 percent at $10.91, and Fiat Chrysler shares were down 0.3 percent at $12.05 in New York. GM sales dropped 15 percent from a year ago to 226,107 vehicles, as the company cut rental fleet sales more than 80 percent. The automaker said inventories of unsold vehicles at month's end were 104 days, down from 105 days at the end of June. GM has promised investors to reduce inventories to 70 days by year-end. Ford said its July sales dipped 7.5 percent to 200,212 vehicles, as it cut fleet sales more than 26 percent. Inventories fell to 77 days from 79 the previous month. Fiat Chrysler said sales dropped 10 percent to 161,477, as it also cut back sales to daily rental fleets. Among the top Japanese companies, only Toyota reported a year-to-year gain, with sales up 4 percent to 222,057 — just 4,000 units behind GM. Honda sales were down 1 percent to 150,980 — its first-quarter sales continuing to decline in North America but seeing a big increase in China. And Nissan sales fell 3 percent to 128,295. GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler have cautioned that second-half financial results likely will be lower than first-half results, in part reflecting production cuts in North America and pricing pressures. The automakers this year have been deliberately dialing back sales to rental-car companies, which often generate little to no profit, while struggling to keep retail sales from sagging further, according to industry analysts. Industry consultant LMC cut its full-year forecast for new vehicle sales to 17 million vehicles. Automakers sold a record 17.55 million vehicles in the United States in 2016.

Man sells testicle to buy Nissan 370Z

We aren't entirely sure what's stranger about this story - that a man actually sold a vital piece of his manhood for a car, or that he did it for a Nissan 370Z. That's not to discredit the trusty Fairlady, a car we generally like, but that if we were to do what Mark Parisi did and sell one of his testicles to science, we'd be asking for a helluva lot more than $35,000.
But Parisi did just that, and announced live on CBS' The Doctors (we really can't make this up) that the sale of his nut would go towards the purchase of a Z. According to our friends Down Under (Australia, get your mind out of the gutter), $35K is the going rate for one slightly used testicle, so if you get nothing else from this story, gentlemen, know that you have $70,000 swinging between your legs.

Nissan heading to Le Mans with 1,250-hp GT-R LM Nismo [w/videos]

Endurance racing faced a pivotal year in 2012. The FIA and the ACO had just come together to form the new World Endurance Championship when Peugeot announced it was shuttering its team, leaving only one manufacturer to contest the top LMP1 class of the nascent series. Fortunately Toyota was able to advance its program to join Audi in the WEC and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Two seasons later Porsche joined the fight, and now Nissan has formally announced its return to Le Mans as well. Revealed in Nissan's With Dad spot during the Super Bowl, the Japanese automaker is set to join the grid with the innovative GT-R LM Nismo you see here. It's a hybrid just like the challengers from Audi, Porsche and Toyota, but instead of a mid-engine/rear-drive setup, Nissan's oddball challenger places its engine in the front, driving the front wheels. The 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 is mated to a five-speed sequential gearbox and produces upwards of 550 horsepower on its own, but is mated to an electric Energy Recovery System that kicks in over 700 additional horses for a combined hybrid output exceeding 1,250 hp. That could make Nissan's the most powerful LMP1 on the grid, while still complying with the fuel flow limits outlined in the rulebook that gives participating constructors the latitude to toy with different configurations. Both powertrain components are mounted under the long nose of the oddly styled prototype, behind the canopy of the rearward cockpit that may give it a similar profile to the DeltaWing prototype and subsequent ZEOD RC. But the unconventional GT-R LM Nismo is also innovative in its own way. The front-drive configuration means that the Nissan prototype actually has wider tires up front than in the back, and also allowed for a drastically different approach to aerodynamics. Instead of testing it out at a handful of events in its first season, with the GT-R LM, Nissan will contest the full 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, starting with the 6 Hours of Silverstone in April and including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.