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Lewis Hamilton scores a record 80th pole in Japan, Vettel ninth

SUZUKA, Japan (Reuters) - Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton seized a record-extending 80th pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday, timing his sole flying lap to perfection while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel managed only ninth. The Mercedes driver, in dominant form all weekend at the Suzuka circuit, pumped in a one minute 27.760 second lap on the super-soft tires while it was still only just spitting with rain. Vettel and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who went out on intermediate tires in the final part of qualifying with the track still dry, lost time coming back in to fit the super-soft tires. The German then made another mistake on his first flying lap and was unable to get another one in as the intermittent drizzle turned into a full-blown shower that drenched the track. Meanwhile, Hamilton – who along with team mate Valtteri Bottas had gone out straight away on the super-soft tires to beat the rain – was lighting up the timing screens. "The team have done an amazing job this weekend, and the call that we made for Q3 was probably the most difficult," said the Briton, joined by Bottas on the front row after the Finn completed a second successive Mercedes front row lockout. "It's so difficult when the pressure is on to make the right call but that's the big difference between us this year and that's why we're the best and the team deserve it," added Hamilton. Vettel trails his fellow four-times champion by 50 points in the standings with just four races left after Japan. His hopes are fading fast and he needs a huge stroke of luck now to reignite his challenge. "Obviously it's not the position we deserve to be in," said the 31-year-old. "I think we have better speed than ninth but we'll start there and see how it goes. "Anything can happen tomorrow. Tomorrow is a new day." RICCIARDO FUMES Vettel's misfortune allowed 21-year-old Dutch driver Max Verstappen to qualify third for Red Bull. "We have a bigger chance now to be on the podium," said Verstappen, doubting that he would need to worry too much about the others' title battle: "Is it still a battle? I'm not sure," he said. While the Dutchman celebrated, teammate Daniel Ricciardo was left hoarse with anger after a power unit problem sidelined him during the second phase of qualifying before he had set a time. The Australian, as a consequence, is set to start 15th. "I just can't catch a break," said Ricciardo, who is leaving Red Bull for Renault at the end of the year.

The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.

Your guide to vehicle subscription services

They might be extremely limited in scope because of location availability, but vehicle subscription services are a growing trend that most luxury manufacturers are jumping on. Plans are expensive, but you're paying for much more than just the car typically. We highlighted four of the larger plans with a few more listed at the end. Care by Volvo Volvo launched its subscription service last year with its brand-new XC40. It was the only vehicle available for a time, but subscribers can now get an S60 sedan as well. Subscriptions are for two years, with the monthly price including insurance, a concierge service, wear-and-tear item replacements and all maintenance. You'll be able to drive 15,000 miles per year with whichever Volvo you choose, and although there are no options to extend that mileage, you can swap cars after a year. Pricing for the XC40 is $650 per month in base trim, while an S60 can be as expensive as $850 for the R-Design. Volvo's plan is to offer more cars soon through the service, but it's relatively limited compared to others right now. Porsche Passport Porsche has two levels in its subscription service: Launch and Accelerate. Launch will cost $2,000 per month and give you access to the Cayman, Boxster, Macan and Cayenne. All of those but the Cayenne can be had in "S" trim as well. Accelerate is where the fun really starts. For $3,000 per month you can choose from a fleet of 911s, including the S, 4S, Cabriolet and Cabriolet S. If those aren't enough, you can also get the Panamera 4S, Macan GTS and Cayenne S. There are no mileage limits and you can change vehicles as often as you'd like. Also included in the price is insurance, repairs, detailing and any maintenance. It might be extremely expensive and limited to Atlanta only, but this subscription service is second-to-none for what you get. Audi Select Audi just launched its subscription car service, and it's offered in one version for a flat fee of $1,395 per month. For that you'll have access to five different cars including the A4, S5 Coupe, A5 Cabriolet, Q5, and Q7. Not a bad range of vehicles, but it would've been neat to see the recently updated A7 in there too. Maybe in time. Like the others, insurance and maintenance are wrapped up in the price. Audi is allowing for unlimited miles and two car swaps per month here. In addition to that, you'll get two days of free rentals through Audi's Silvercar rental agency should you go on a trip.

Fast sedans and loose Tweets | Autoblog Podcast #555

On this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Associate Editor Reese Counts. Reese has been traveling a lot, and the two discuss his recent first drives of the 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT four-door and the 2019 Audi Q3. The pair also talk about the 2018 BMW X2 that's been in the office this week. Also on the agenda is the SEC's lawsuit against Elon Musk, Ola Kaellenius replacing Dieter Zetsche at Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac's move back to Detroit and the upcoming reveal of the 2019 BMW 3 Series at the Paris Motor Show.Autoblog Podcast #555 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT four-door 2019 Audi Q3 2018 BMW X2 Elon Musk lawsuit New Mercedes-Benz CEO Cadillac is heading back to Detroit The new 3 Series debuts next week Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes

Lewis Hamilton cruises to victory at the Singapore Grand Prix

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Britain's Lewis Hamilton eased to victory from pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday as the Mercedes driver extended his championship lead over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to 40 points with six rounds remaining. Hamilton held off a mid-race challenge from Red Bull's Max Verstappen to register a record-equaling fourth triumph at the floodlit Marina Bay Street Circuit track, while Vettel finished third to slip further behind in the title race. "Great job everyone, what a weekend... keep pushing, keep pushing, we've got this," Hamilton told his team over the radio soon after crossing the line at the end of the 61st lap. Hamilton's 69th overall victory was his seventh of the season and it was built on the foundations of a stunning qualifying lap on Saturday, when he stormed to pole in a car deemed inferior to the Ferraris and Red Bulls on this circuit. For Vettel and Ferrari it was another disappointing weekend after the car showed plenty of pace through all three practice sessions, the German's cause not helped by a questionable strategy and a poor pitstop. Hamilton won this race from the third row a year ago when Vettel, Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen collided before Turn One but there was no repeat of such drama this time after the drivers got off to a clean start at the head of the field. There has, however, been a safety car period in every race in Singapore since it joined Formula One in 2008 and it was deployed on the opening lap after Sergio Perez pushed his Force India team mate Esteban Ocon into a wall after Turn Three. "Sorry guys there was no room," Perez told his team over the radio. Vettel got past Verstappen before the safety car emerged and slotted in behind Hamilton, but his race unraveled when the German pitted first on the 14th lap but got stuck in traffic and overtaken by the Dutchman when he made his stop for fresh tires. BACK MARKERS Hamilton was cruising up front but suffered a mini-crisis on the 38th lap when he got stuck in a queue of tail-enders, which allowed Verstappen to get right up behind him. The Dutchman had a look up the inside as Hamilton struggled to pass the back markers but the Briton just stayed ahead and was able to pull clear all the way to the checkered flag once he had a clear track ahead of him. "It definitely got a little bit interesting toward the end with the back markers as you could already feel the draft from the cars when you were five and six seconds behind," Hamilton added.

Car dealers, factories and ports close in the path of Hurricane Florence

Hurricane Florence has caused CarMax to close four stores in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The closed locations are in Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Winterville and Virginia Beach. It is possible for the company to close more stores, reports Automotive News. Daimler and Volvo have also shuttered their manufacturing facilities in the region to prepare for Florence. The storm is expected to reach North Carolina and South Carolina today or tomorrow. Automotive News says every coastal car dealer it reached on Tuesday was closing, and others not in the projected landfall area were monitoring the situation. There are approximately nine million vehicles in operation in the area that Florence is expected to hit, with a vehicle density of 162 vehicles per square mile. It is likely that not as many vehicles will be lost as during hurricanes Harvey and Irma, as population is less dense; areas affected by those storms had over 300 vehicles per square mile. The chief economist of Cox Automotive told Automotive News that some 20,000 to 40,000 vehicles could end up flooded if Florence keeps its path; however, recent reports have indicated Florence has weakened to a category 2 hurricane on Thursday. Tesla has again unlocked more range for some of its older models to make evacuation easier; the same was done a year ago in preparation for Hurricane Irma. As well as automotive manufacturers and dealers, automotive transport providers are readying for the storm and clearing cargo away. The container and auto terminals at Port Charleston will be closed from Thursday to Saturday, affecting part shipments to the BMW manufacturing facility in Spartanburg; BMW's spokespersons have said no production disruption is expected. Parts are delivered via railroad to Spartanburg by Norfolk Southern, which is also suspending operations for the time being. Vehicle hauler United Road has moved its rigs to safer regions and suspended deliveries, and car carrier vessels are trying to make it away from the storm's path in time. Related Video: News Source: Automotive NewsImage Credit: NASA via Reuters Auto News Plants/Manufacturing BMW Mercedes-Benz Volvo Car Buying

Mercedes-Benz EQC vs. Jaguar I-Pace vs. Tesla Model X: How they compare on paper

The Mercedes-Benz EQ line is officially alive and kicking, with the reveal of the EQC electric crossover. It joins a segment that, while still in its infancy, seems ready to take off. Mercedes lists as the EQC's competitors the Jaguar I-Pace, The Audi E-Tron Quattro and the BMW iX3. While we've seen all of these, at least in concept or pre-production form, only one — the Jag — has actually been launched in production form. We've seen a concept and subsequent spy shots of the iX3, and the Audi EV will get its official specs publicized later this month. One electric SUV Mercedes didn't specifically call out was the Tesla Model X. As such, we've decided to compare on paper the Mercedes-Benz EQC 400, the Jaguar I-Pace S and the Tesla Model X 75D: All three are dual-motor EVs, though the Tesla is the longest and tallest. The EQC has the most power, but it and the Model X's 4.9-second 0-60 times fall short of the I-Pace. It also has the lowest top speed and electric driving range. (Mercedes sent us an updated range figure, but it's using the generous and largely outdated NEDC cycle; we're still waiting on an EPA rating.) We'll be interested to see how much the Mercedes weighs. Mercedes hasn't divulged the price of the EQC yet, but we imagine it'll fall pretty near to the $70,000 mark. As for Audi, we'll revisit this comparison after those details are made available on September 17. If you're interested in some other EV comparisons, we have a couple others that we published to compare the I-Pace to premium Teslas, as well as against other less-expensive EVs. If you want to learn more about these EVs, and compare them with other cars, be sure to check out our Car Finder and comparison tools. Related Video: Featured Gallery Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 EV Crossover View 28 Photos Green Jaguar Mercedes-Benz Tesla Crossover SUV Electric Luxury Comparison jaguar i-pace mercedes-benz eqc

Dealers mobilize to protect their margins from automaker subscription services

Six individual auto brands — Lincoln, Cadillac, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo — have established or are trialing a vehicle subscription service in the U.S. Three third-party companies — Flexdrive, Clutch and Carma — run brand-agnostic subscription services. And three automakers — Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and General Motors — have also launched short-term rental services. Dealers, afraid of how these trends might affect their margins, are building political and lawmaking campaigns to protect their revenue streams. So far, three states are investigating automaker subscriptions, and Indiana has banned any such service until next year. It's certain that those three states are the first fronts in a long political and legal battle. Powerful dealer franchise laws mandate the existence of dealers and restrict how automakers are allowed to interact with customers to sell a vehicle. On top of that, Bob Reisner, CEO of Nassau Business Funding & Services, said, "Dealers and their associations are among the strongest political operators in many states. They as a group are difficult for state politicians to vote against." In California earlier this year, the state Assembly debated a bill with wide-ranging provisions to protect against what the California New Car Dealers Association called "inappropriate treatment of dealers by manufacturers." One of those provisions stipulated that subscription services need to go through dealers, but that item got stripped out when dealers and manufacturers agreed to discuss the matter further. In Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a moratorium on all subscription programs by dealers or manufacturers until May 1, 2019, to give legislators more time to investigate. Dealers in New Jersey have taken their campaign to the state capitol, asking that the cars in subscription programs get a different classification for registration purposes. Automakers run the current subscription services and own the vehicles. Sign-ups and financial transactions happen online or through apps, leaving dealers to do little more than act as fulfillment centers to various degrees, with little legal recourse as to compensation amounts when they're called on to deliver or service a car. That's a bad base to build on for business owners who've sunk millions of dollars into their operations.

Aston Martin Vantage vs. Mercedes-AMG GT C Review | Translating German into English

GROssBRITANNIEN — No car matches the new Aston Martin Vantage as closely as the Mercedes-AMG GT, the two sharing both their 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 and electrical architecture while competing for the same market niche. So, of the many challenges Aston Martin faced when developing it, ensuring that the Vantage had a unique identity must have weighed more heavily than any other. The added spice to this confrontation is the GT's status as halo model for AMG. Meanwhile, Aston Martin's brand identity, built on the sharp-suited machismo embodied by a certain big-screen spy, is a make-or-break issue for the company. The identity problem has fascinated me since the AMG deal was first announce in 2013. So exploring the Vantage on British roads with the GT literally filling the mirrors is a big deal. Now, finally, we have directly competing products with which to explore the theory. And there's much to like in both, not least of which is that common powerhouse of an engine. While they don't share a platform, both use the classic front-engine, rear-drive, transaxle layout, with traditional driving manners to match. Some quick number-crunching as an appetizer: The AMG GT C you see here has the dry-sumped M178 derivative of the V8, with 550 horsepower and 501 pound-feet of torque, driving the rear wheels through a transaxle-mounted, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and fully active electronic locking differential. It's 179 inches long, weighs 3,748 pounds and will clear 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds en route to 197 mph. The Vantage has the wet-sumped M177 version of the same engine, as featured in countless AMGs and shared with the DB11 V8. It makes 503 hp, 505 lb-ft and drives the rear wheels through a transaxle-mounted, eight-speed automatic gearbox and fully active electronic locking differential. Sounding familiar? It's comparable in overall length but a couple of inches longer in wheelbase, and weighs pretty much the same as the GT C, give or take a few pounds. It hits 60 in 3.5 seconds and tops out at 195 mph. Both have adaptive dampers and a variety of driver modes, both are built from aluminum and both are at the sportier end of the GT spectrum. The two U.K.-market cars you see here cost just more than $180,000 with options. Pretty darned close, then. Numbers are one thing.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.