Flags are lowered at half staff at the FCA headquarters in Turin, Italy, Wednesday, July, 25, 2018. Sergio Marchionne, a charismatic and demanding CEO who engineered two long-shot corporate turnarounds to save both Fiat and Chrysler from near-certain failure, died Wednesday. He was 66. The holding company of Italian automaker Fiats founders, the Agnelli family, announced Marchionne had died after complications from surgery in Zurich. At Fiat Chrysler Automobiles headquarters in the Italian town of Turin, flags flew at half-mast, while in Rome the parliamentary committee for labor and finance observed a minute of silence.Alessandro Di Marco / The Associated press Welcome to our weekly round-up of the biggest breaking stories on Driving.ca from this past week. Get caught up and ready to get on with the weekend, because it’s hard keeping pace in a digital traffic jam. Here’s what you missed while you were away. Fiat Chrysler pulls out of merger proposal with Renault After being unable to agree on terms of the deal, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has withdrawn its proposal for a 50/50 merger with Renault. The agreement could have formed the world’s third-largest automaker after VW and Toyota, but according to FCA, the French State, which owns 15 per cent of Renault, was showing signs of hesitation (likely stemming from Nissan’s hesitation), prompting FCA to release a statement saying, “It has become clear that the political conditions in France do not currently exist for such a combination to proceed successfully.” Honda CR-V damages Tracy Morgan’s $2-million Bugatti minutes after it’s delivered Tracy Morgan’s Bugatti Veyron in a fender-bender with a Honda CR-V Twitter @J_MOSK Talk about comedic timing. Mere moments after comedian and former SNL cast member Tracy Morgan got behind the wheel of his new (though technically used) Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport convertible, the $2-million vehicle was struck and scraped at an intersection by a Honda CR-V. The driver of the CR-V was allegedly on her phone while trying to make a right turn from the left lane. Nobody was hurt, so feel free to laugh or cry. FCA North American exec files “whistleblower” suit over SEC probe Reid Bigland (Dario Ayala/THE GAZETTE) In other scandalous automotive news, Reid Bigland, FCA’s head of U.S. sales and top boss in Canada, is filing a “whistleblower” lawsuit against the automaker for allegedly cutting his pay by 90 per cent after he gave testimony in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into FCA sales reporting practices. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages, claiming the company unjustly cost Bigland over US$1.8 million in bonus and stock payout. The drastic measures firefighters take to put out and keep out a Tesla fire Sure, we all love a good electric car fire — it’s the new best thing to watch on the Internet (sorry goats in pajamas). But what about for the firefighters who have to extinguish them after the content gold has been captured? Less entertaining, especially considering the cars have been known to reignite up to six days later—a stunt traditional gas-powered cars can’t pull—often requiring fire squadrons to submerge the heavy vehicles in tanks of water for days at a time.  BMW demands full payment after Youtuber modifies his financed M4 BMW fan and Youtuber Rickardo “Ricky” Senior, who had a hybrid turbo, upgraded exhaust and methanol injection added to his recently financed BMW M4, bumping up the horsepower figure to over 700, recently learned the hard way why making changes to a product you don’t fully own can be unwise. Because while he views the mods as “upgrades,” BMW sees them as just the opposite, claiming he’s breached the terms of his Personal Contract Purchase and demanding he pay up in full, and soon. “If I don’t make the payment for this car by next week, they’re threatening to recover the vehicle and probably auction the car off and bill me for the remainder of what’s left of the debt,” he told his Youtube, LivingLifeFast. Let’s all learn from Ricky’s ordeal. Europe to ban Camaro SS and Chevy Corvette sales Europe has spoken. The hearty American 6.2-litre LT1 V8 engine found in the C7 Corvette and sixth-generation Camaro SS simply will not do! To satisfy new emissions goals, both the European Union and the U.K. will instate a ban on sales of any Chevy with the V8 as of August 31, 2019. Sales of the used cars will still be permitted. European availability for the upcoming C8 remains up in the air.  Quebec has been going HAM with the vanity plates. These are our faves so far This Porsche makes us wonder what is DADTOY1 Montreal Vanity Plate Spotting / Facebook It’s been just nine months since the province of Quebec changed the rules to allow for the use of vanity plates, and since then over 26,000 of the $250 pieces of rectangular metal have been sold by the SAAQ. It seems Quebec drivers have a lot to say in 7 characters or less. Some of our
Origin: News Roundup: Double dose of FCA controversy, banged up Bugatti, and Teslas fires that just won’t go out