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Weekly Recap: Ferrari, Ford and Porsche power up for Geneva

Monday was Groundhog Day. Tuesday, apparently, was Sports Car Day. The Ferrari 488 GTB, the Ford Focus RS and the Porsche Cayman GT4 all debuted within hours of each other ahead of their rollouts at the Geneva Motor Show. Three sporty machines, three vastly different approaches – and a lot of implications for enthusiasts. That's a day worth repeating. It also illustrates the opportunities automakers see in the performance market, which is expected to grow in the coming years. Ford estimates the segment has expanded 14 percent in Europe and surged 70 percent in North America since 2009. The Detroit Auto Show was evidence of this, and performance cars of every stripe debuted, including the Acura NSX, Ford GT, Alfa Romeo 4C Spider and several others. This isn't a fad. Performance cars aren't going away. The question is why? Stricter CAFE standards are looming in the United States, as are tighter emissions regulations in Europe. And no one expects gas prices to remain low in America. None of this matters for sports cars, and automakers are increasingly using them to elevate their images. That's why Dodge rolled out two 707-horsepower Hellcats last year. It's why Ford has decided to resurrect the GT for road and track. It's why in the depths of bankruptcy, General Motors continued work on the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, not to mention the Z06. "Great brands are made one car at a time," Ford of Europe president Jim Farley said at the reveal of the Focus RS. Still, companies make those cars for different reasons. View 5 Photos Mainstream brands like Ford and Dodge want to build cars that get people talking, excite their bases and drive more potential customers into the showroom. They probably don't buy a Focus RS or a Hellcat, but suddenly the regular Focus hatch looks a bit hotter, and that V6 Charger seems to be just a touch more muscular. The halo of performance is alive and well in the eyes of automakers and their customers. "It's one of the most effective catalysts for ingenuity and innovation," said Joe Bakaj, vice president of product development for Ford of Europe. That also leads to a trickle-down effect. Some of the technologies inevitably make their way to other products. It's hard to think the new all-wheel-drive system in the Focus RS that distributes torque front to rear and side to side won't be used in other vehicles. It's different for Ferrari and Porsche.

Carlos Ghosn was on verge of release — so prosecutors file new allegation

TOKYO — Japanese prosecutors added a new allegation of breach of trust against Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn on Friday, dashing his hopes for posting bail quickly. Ghosn and another former Nissan executive, Greg Kelly, were arrested Nov. 19 and charged with underreporting Ghosn's income by about 5 billion yen ($44 million) in 2011-2015. They also face the prospect of more charges of underreporting Ghosn's income for other years by nearly 10 billion ($80 million) in total. The breach of trust allegations were filed a day after a court rejected prosecutors' request for a longer detention of both men. The new allegation only applies to Ghosn, and Kelly could still be bailed out. A request for bail by Kelly's lawyer is pending court approval, according to the Tokyo District Court, but his release will have to wait until next week since the request was still in process after office hours Friday. Prosecutors in a statement Friday alleged that Ghosn in 2008 transferred a private investment loss worth more than 1.8 billion yen ($16 million) to Nissan by manipulating an unspecified "swap" contract. Ghosn also profited by having the company transfer a total of $14.7 million to another company to benefit himself and that company's owner, who helped in the contract manipulation, prosecutors said. Shin Kukimoto, deputy chief prosecutor at the Tokyo District Prosecutors Office, refuse to say if the two transactions were related or how Ghosn illegally profited. He also declined to identify the collaborator or whether the transactions were made overseas. Ghosn and Kelly are only charged with underreporting Ghosn's pay over five years, in violation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. They have not been formally charged with an additional allegation of underreporting another 4 billion yen ($36 million) for 2016-2018, for which their first 10-day detention was to expire Thursday. Prosecutors have been criticized for separating the allegations as a tactic to detain Ghosn and Kelly longer. They say Ghosn and Kelly are flight risks. The maximum penalty for violating the financial act is up to 10 years in prison, a 10 million yen ($89,000) fine, or both. Breach of trust also carries a similar maximum penalty. The conviction rate in Japan is more than 99 percent for any crime. Ghosn was sent by Renault in 1999 to turn around Nissan, then on the verge of bankruptcy, and he led its rise to become the world's second-largest automaker.

Nissan expands regional airbag recall to 45k Sentras [UPDATE]

UPDATE: Nissan's official statement about this recall expansion has been added below. Nissan is expanding its regional Takata airbag inflator recall for the passenger side of an estimated 45,000 Sentras from the 2004-2006 model years in high-humidity states. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has not yet published the specifics of the broadened campaign, but Nissan spokesperson Steve Yaeger told Autoblog that the company submitted a Defect Incident Report to the agency yesterday, April 16. According to Reuters, the expansion followed a case in March where a women in Louisiana was injured by a ruptured airbag in a 2006 Sentra. Yaeger clarified this to Autoblog via email by stating, "This action is not in response to lawsuit filed yesterday. [The] recall was initiated before that came to light." As required under the law, affected owners should be notified within the next 60 days, he indicated. Nissan was already recalling nearly 700,000 vehicles for the faulty inflators. While millions of owners from multiple automakers were affected by the potentially dangerous parts last year, the safety campaigns haven't quite finished yet. Honda expanded its own nationwide campaign to add 100,000 more units in March. Related Video: Nissan Statement Based on new field information and in consultation with NHTSA, Nissan Group is taking further action to expand the previously announced Takata Inflator Regional Recall to include additional Model Year 2004-2006 Nissan Sentra vehicles in the affected areas of the U.S. and its territories. If you receive a recall letter please take your vehicle to a Nissan dealership to have the recall work performed at no cost. The company urges anyone who owns any vehicle that is potentially affected by the Takata's recalls to enter their vehicle's identification number (VIN) on NHTSA's site https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/ or Nissan USA and Infiniti USA web sites. The web sites will be updated with newly affected vehicles in approximately two weeks. Nissan and Infiniti are committed to a high level of customer safety, service and satisfaction and are working with NHTSA, Takata and our dealers to promptly address this issue.