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Trump reportedly says he wants to wipe German cars off the U.S. map

BERLIN/FRANKFURT — A report that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pursue German carmakers until there are no Mercedes-Benz rolling down New York's Fifth Avenue dented shares in the luxury car manufacturers on Thursday. An excerpt from German magazine Wirtschaftswoche's article, which cited several unnamed European and U.S. diplomats but did not include any direct quotes, could not be independently verified, while a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Berlin referred questions to Washington. The news and current affairs magazine said Trump had told French President Emmanuel Macron in April that he aimed to push German carmakers out of the United States altogether. Macron's administration in Paris declined to comment on the report. The Trump administration last week opened a so-called Section 232 trade investigation into vehicle imports, which could result in a 25 percent tariff on cars on the same "national security" grounds Washington used to impose metals duties in March. This could destroy exports by German carmakers, which control 90 percent of the U.S. premium market and are the biggest European Union exporters of cars to the United States. BMW owns Rolls-Royce, while Daimler has Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen controls Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche and Audi. Daimler, BMW and Audi declined comment. Porsche was not immediately available for comment. BMW shares were trading 0.5 percent lower at 0939 GMT, while Daimler and VW's shares were down 1 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, underperforming Germany's blue-chip DAX. Trump has railed against German carmakers before. And in early 2017, in an interview with German newspaper Bild, he said he would impose 35 percent tariffs on imported cars. At the time, the president called Germany a great car producer but said that the business relationship with the United States was an unfair one-way street. Germany's auto industry association VDA says its members exported 657,000 vehicles to North America last year, with total exports of vehicle components, cars, engines, as well as second-hand vehicles totaling 31.2 billion euros in 2016. Imports from the United States to Germany amounted to 7.4 billion euros, meaning a trade deficit of 23.8 billion euros the VDA's latest available figures show. However, German brands also have huge factories in the United States, where they built 804,000 cars last year, VDA said, providing jobs for U.S. workers. Berlin has reacted angrily to the U.S.

Top Gear drag races VW Golf R against McLaren 675LT and Porsche 911

Top Gear's latest quarter-mile drag race in the collects three very different performance vehicles: the 296-horsepower Volkswagen Golf R, 424-hp Porsche 911 Carrera GTS, and 666-hp McLaren 675LT. While each of these cars sit near the top of their segment, they each come from totally different rungs of the sports car price ladder. Spoiler alert, the Golf R doesn't win. But the final results illustrate the diminishing returns of price and performance. For example, the McLaren is only about a second quicker than the Porsche to 60 miles per hour, but the 675LT costs over 2.5 times more that the GTS. Related Video:

German judge 'inclined to dismiss' hedge fund lawsuit against Porsche

Last year, around two dozen investors, including hedge funds, leveled a 1.4 billion euro ($1.95 billion at the time) lawsuit against Porsche in connection with the automaker's attempted takeover of Volkswagen in 2008. The Stuttgart Regional Court dismissed the case. Around 19 of those plaintiffs are heading back to court to appeal the ruling and still hope to get 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion). However, according to one German judge, the chances for success aren't any better this time around. "On balance it's our view that we consider the lawsuit, or the appeal, to be unpromising for several reasons," Gerhard Ruf, a judge in Stuttgart, said to Reuters. "We are inclined to dismiss the case." The court's ruling on the appeal will be announced on March 26. The investors' case hinges on Porsche's strategy surrounding the botched takeover. The sports car maker said that it wasn't trying to control VW, when in fact it was. These hedge funds had bet against Volkswagen stock, but the share price surged when Porsche's plan inevitably came to light. Investors have sued the sports car company multiple times since then in attempts to recoup billions of dollars. However, none of the lawsuits have been successful, whether attempted in the US or Germany. Former Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and and CFO Holger Haerter might still stand trial for the alleged stock manipulation, though. News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Matthias Rietschel / AP Photo Government/Legal Porsche Volkswagen lawsuit hedge funds porsche lawsuit