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Ford and Mercedes join Renault in French emissions investigation

The French government is investigating certain models from Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and Renault because they allegedly produce more nitrogen oxide than the country's pollution rules allow, according to Automotive News, citing a French newspaper. After VW's emissions scandal, French regulators began checking more vehicles for evidence of defeat devices and excessive real-world pollution. According to Automotive News, the Mercedes S350 allegedly showed inconsistent results across these tests, and a Ford C-Max had NOx levels five times over the limit. The Renault Captur crossover, Espace, and an unnamed utility vehicle also had results that were too high. The French testing for this investigation includes an on-road emissions check that's not part of the EU's normal evaluations, which some automakers claim is unfair. "Unofficial on-road testing has varying conditions and can produce significantly different results," a Ford of Europe spokesman told Automotive News. Renault representatives met with French officials on January 18 to explain the situation. The company later submitted a plan to recall 15,800 examples of the diesel Captur, and said it would offer a voluntary software upgrade for about 700,000 other vehicles, according to Automotive News. Representatives from Ford and Mercedes will meet with the government soon, too. Renault's stock price plunged last week after investors heard that French regulators searched three of the automaker's sites as part of the emissions investigation. The stockholders feared an environmental scandal like the one currently embroiling Volkswagen. There's one major difference – as of now, there's no evidence Renault equipped any of the polluting models with defeat devices. Related Video:

Mercedes-Maybach Pullman is the luxury car for the discerning dictator

For decades, Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-Maybach cars have been the ride of choice for leaders across the globe, presidents, ambassadors, dictators and despots alike. The Pullman model — a long-wheelbase six-seat variant — has been particularly popular with this select clientele. This week, the German automaker announced the latest version of the car, the Mercedes-Maybach Pullman S650. Essentially, this is a stretched version of the V12-powered Maybach with two rear-facing seats just behind the front row. Mercedes is calling this vis-a-vis seating. There's also a partitioning glass between the front seats and the rear cabin. This is of course to help prevent the chauffeur from learning and spilling any state secrets or plans for plans for secret moon bases. New for this model is a front-facing camera for rear-seat passengers. This allows occupants to watch for any oncoming obstacles, barricades or road blocks. Visually, there's no mistaking the Pullman for another Maybach or really anything else on the road. The car is 21.3-feet long, 4.5-feet longer than the standard Maybach or roughly the size of two and a half Smart Fortwo placed bumper-to-bumper. The requisite 20-inch 10-hole wheels are present and the standard pinstripe Maybach grille has been updated with a slightly new design. The car only comes in S650 trim, meaning it's powered by a 630 horsepower 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12. As expected, the Mercedes-Maybach Pullman isn't cheap. Orders have started, but be prepared to shell out at least $615,000 before adding any custom touches. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2019 Mercedes-Maybach Pullman View 10 Photos Image Credit: Daimler Design/Style Maybach Mercedes-Benz Luxury Special and Limited Editions Sedan mercedes-maybach mercedes-maybach pullman

Mercedes-AMG GT3 opts for big displacement without a turbo

There was a time when there were numerous categories in sports car racing: GT1, GT2 , GT3... but these days they've all been amalgamated into the latter. That's left a GT3 class packed with competitors and possibly more contentious than ever before. What you see here is Mercedes' new challenger, in official form after being leaked earlier today by the French website Le Point. Replacing the SLS AMG GT3 that won its class (among other races) the Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2013 is the new Mercedes-AMG GT3. Set to be revealed at the Geneva Motor Show, it's the racing version of the new Mercedes-AMG GT, and aside from looking the business, it has the makings of a highly competitive entry. As you can see, it sits closer to the track surface than the road-going version, and packs more extreme aero – including a front splitter you could serve dinner off of, little winglets to deflect the air away from the front tires, deep side sills, a massive rear wing and (though we can't see it presently) what promises to be a very large rear diffuser. It's also got more ventilation to feed the engine and cool the brakes, and a stripped-out cabin with full roll cage and a steering device that's long since evolved beyond resembling an actual "wheel." To save weight, Mercedes has redone many of the panels out of carbon fiber, but one of the most intriguing elements is what you'd find under that woven hood: instead of adapting the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 from the road-going GT, AMG has slotted in the larger atmospheric 6.3-liter V8 from the outgoing racer – coupled to a six-speed sequential gearbox. With its new GT3 entry, Mercedes surely hopes to take a slice of the customer racing market that Porsche in particular has developed into a successful and profitable business over the years. Racing fans, however, will be more interested to see how this puppy fares at Le Mans, the Nurburgring, the Blancpain sprint and endurance series, the United SportsCar Championship, the FIA World Endurance Championship and countless national series around the world. It'll have tough competition on its hands, though, from the likes of the Porsche 911 RSR, Audi R8 LMS, Bentley Continental GT3, Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, McLaren 650S GT3, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and countless others that battle for glory on a racetrack somewhere on any given Sunday. World premiere in Geneva for spectacular AMG racing car All-out attack : the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 Affalterbach.