A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Aston Martin's new limited edition million pound flagship breaks cover
The new Aston Martin flagship model is called the One-77. There is still only limited information but sources say the One-77 will be powered by a 7-litre V12 inside an aluminum and carbon fiber chassis. The 0-100km/h time is expected to be around 3.5 seconds, while its likely its top speed will exceed 322km/h (200mph). Just 77 of the cars will be produced, priced at around £1 million each.
Ferrari cancels dealer contracts
Ferrari has cancelled the contracts of all its European dealers. The move is part of a global overhaul of its network announced last week. One German dealer, quoted in Automotive News Europe, said "Most of the dealers in this country still don't know whether they will get a contract back".
A spokesman for Ferrari would not comment further on the issue in relation to Northern Ireland dealer Charles Hurst.
BMW to top Lexus US sales
BMW threatens to end the eight-year reign of Lexus as the best-selling luxury brand in the US. The German car brand topped Lexus sales in July for the third time in 2008. BMW trailed Lexus' annual total by 3,466 sales by the end of July, but is rapidly closing in. A key addition to BMW's US range was the arrival of the 1-Series to US shores in March: that gave the brand an additional 7,400 sales.
Irish VW chief to go after 43 years
Bob O'Callaghan, chief executive of the Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda division of Motor Distributors Limited in Ireland is to retire from the post. O'Callaghan has worked with MDL for 43 years and held his current role since 1995.
Car sales in China to fall by half
China's car market, the world's second largest, is losing speed more quickly than expected due to a slowing economy, rising fuel prices and natural disasters, raising the prospect that sales growth could halve this year.
Growing by at least 20 per cent a year for the past three years, China has been one of the few bright spots for car manufacturers as they struggle with a slump in US and European markets.
But sales growth in July slowed to a single-digit rate for the first time in two years.
"It's slowing down more than we anticipated," said John Bonnell, director of JD Power Asia Pacific Forecasting.
"Our forecast from the beginning of the year was about 15 per cent growth, or about 6.2 million passenger vehicles. We just revised our forecast down to about 5.95 million units."