Mercedes Sl 300 Sl500 Hard & Soft Top Convertible Service Records * No Reserve * on 2040-cars

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China's BAIC looks to invest in Daimler

Daimler and Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC) are already intertwined in China. Daimler is a 12-percent shareholder in BAIC Motor, the third largest shareholder in the passenger-car division of BAIC. They have a joint manufacturing venture Beijing Benz in which BAIC is the majority partner by one percent, a sales joint venture Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co. in which Daimler is the majority partner by one percent, and Daimer says, "BAIC is our most important partner in China." Beijing Benz is ten years old this year. They'll become even closer if talks between the two concerning BAIC taking "a major stake" in the German conglomerate come to anything. Reuters reports that the two are in talks now, with BAIC Chairman Xu Heyi saying it should be resolved one way or another by the end of this year. If they agree, the China-based, Hong Kong-listed company will join Renault-Nissan and the Kuwait Investment Authority as Daimler's top shareholders. Some China analysts see a potential Daimler investment as a coup for BAIC, similar to BAIC's 2009 purchase of old Saab platform, engine, and transmission technologies, that would give it access to technologies it wouldn't have to develop on its own and hastening the development of its own cars. A deal is also seen as potentially opening up export possibilities for the Chinese company. Other analysts aren't sure that BAIC would get any useful technology, noting that that last deal between the two gave BAIC the outdated E-Class platform, but none of Mercedes' headline tech. If a deal is done, BAIC will join Dongfeng Group and SAIC as Chinese automaker investors in western automotive companies.

Aston Martin tipped for F1 return with Red Bull, Mercedes

Aston Martin could be plotting a return to Formula One for the first time in over half a century. And not as a backmarker, either. That is, at least, if the latest rumors materialize. While most automakers that participate in F1 do so as either a team owner (like Ferrari and Mercedes) or as an engine supplier (think Renault or Honda), the rumored Aston Martin deal would take a different approach. According to Autosport, the proposal would have the Red Bull Racing team run Aston Martin branding – but not its engines. Those would be provided by Mercedes, just like the engines in the British marque's upcoming slate of road cars. In that regard, the deal would not be unlike the one which Red Bull currently has with the Renault-Nissan Alliance, which sees the team running Renault engines and Infiniti branding. Andy Palmer was a pivotal figure in brokering that unusual arrangement when he was working for Carlos Ghosn, and is now tipped to be brokering a similar deal in his new capacity as Aston Martin's CEO. Though Aston has found glory in sports car racing (including Le Mans and its various associated series), it was never much of a contender in grand prix racing. It competed in a handful of races in 1959 and 1960, but never achieved results worth bragging about. Aston was rumored to be plotting a return when David Richards sat as chairman of the company, having run Aston's racing program as well as Honda's F1 team previously. Those rumors, however, never materialized. Whether this time 'round gains any traction remains to be seen - Aston Martin declined to either confirm or deny the reports when reached for comment by Autoblog. Red Bull has been growing increasingly dissatisfied (and increasingly vocal about its dissatisfaction) with Renault engines over the past couple of seasons. Though the two parties won four back-to-back world titles together, things took a noticeable step backward after the new turbo engine regulations took hold for the 2014 season. Nissan/Infiniti and Red Bull are contracted to continue collaborating until the end of next season. After that is when the new Aston deal could take hold, and Mercedes is reportedly keen on the idea so that it could add another customer to its F1 engine supply business and offset the costs of development. That could effectively prove the end of Renault in F1 (at least for the time being). Aside from Red Bull, the French automaker currently supplies only that outfit's sister team Toro Rosso.

UK workers strand car on island of asphalt to keep working

Generally speaking, when you illegally park your car, you're likely to get ticketed and towed, but there is probably at least one motorist in Scotland who wishes that was the case. After workers had blocked off a portion of the parking lot for the Edinburgh Waverley railway station, the driver of this Mercedes-Benz S-Class reportedly moved some of the barriers to park in one of the empty spots.
Rather than having the vehicle towed, the work crew simply tore up the asphalt around the leaving just the one parking spot intact, and as you can see in the image above (posted to the Twitter account of Harold Norstad), the crew even built a small asphalt ramp so the car could get off its blacktop pedestal. Since this happened last week, there's no word as to whether the car was eventually moved or towed for the resurfacing work to continue.
Let this be a warning...