Isuzu: Out of Business Next Year

Isuzu Motors Ltd. will get out of the U.S. consumer-vehicle market next year. Its exit comes as no surprise as the automaker has seen a steady sales decline for years, causing many to wonder how -- and why -- Isuzu and its roughly 200 dealers were hanging on.

Isuzu said in a statement it will end sales of the Ascender SUV and its pickup trucks, both supplied by General Motors, in January 2009.

Isuzu's vehicle sales have fallen 93 percent in eight years. The Japanese automaker will post a loss of about $37 million related to its exit from the U.S. over the next two fiscal years.

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Is the Prototype Honda Pilot a Disturbing Sight?

By Dale Buss

If the next-generation Pilot that Honda actually produces looks pretty much like the prototype the company displayed at the recent Detroit auto show, the new version may not do much to address the model’s sinking popularity.

The reason: In a styling-conscious market where sleek crossovers rank as some of the hottest vehicles, the blocky 2009 Pilot might fit like a square peg into a round hole.

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GMC Gets First In-Game Super Bowl Ad

By Dale Buss

GMC will air its first in-game Super Bowl ad Sunday when the General Motors division shows off its new Yukon hybrid in a 60-second commercial during the second quarter of Fox’s broadcast of the game.

GMC Marketing Director Steve Rosenblum told AutoObserver the division has “had plenty of ads during the pregame shows” on previous Super Bowl Sundays “but we haven’t had one in-game as far as I can remember.”

GM’s announcement that GMC would occupy its single in-game slot Super Bowl Sunday ended an internal derby of sorts for what brand or products would land the spot.

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Ferrari Reports Sales Record for 2007

Ferrari reported its 2007 sales worldwide grew 14 percent in 2007 compared with 2006, to about 6,400 cars. It was a record result for Ferrari.

Company executives said sales were especially robust in emerging markets. In the Asia-Pacific region sales grew by 50 percent, in the Middle East by 32 percent.

In 2007, Ferrari also created a U.S. branch of its financial services unit and invested significantly in its facilities. The company plans to invest $30 million in its facilities this year.

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Maserati’s U.S. Sales Soar in 2007

Maserati, which only recently returned to the U.S. market after a long hiatus, touted a 20 percent increase in U.S. sales for 2007. Sales were buoyed by the popularity of its newly restyled Quattroporte and the addition of an automatic transmission to the model.

The U.S. is now Maserati's largest market.

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Cadillac To Sell CTS-V Overseas

In unveiling the Cadillac CTS-V at the recent Detroit auto show, General Motors announced it would -– for the first time ever -- sell the performance sedan outside of North America.

The 2009 Cadillac CTS-V will be sold in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

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Gas Prices Rise; Hybrids Win Big, Says Edmunds Study

By Bill Visnic

If you’re one of those cynical types who think people are buying hybrid-electric vehicles mainly to demonstrate their environmental hipness, results of a new fuel-price study by Edmunds.com indicate hybrid buyers may not be nearly so superficial:

They’re buying hybrids to save gas.

Edmunds analyzes the number of visits for every vehicle in the market to that model’s Vehicle Details page at Edmunds.com. It correlated those visits to extrapolate what would happen if the price of gasoline rose from its $3.01 price in December to a theoretical $4 per gallon.

Bottom line: Online vehicle shoppers flock to hybrids. And flee traditional midsize SUVs.

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Volkswagen To Build Powertrains in North America, Report Says

Volkswagen has said it will build an assembly plant in the United States, a decision that could come this year. Now the German automaker appears to be looking at powertrain production in North America as well.

The German magazine Automobilwoche reported over the weekend Volkswagen plans production of engines and transmission in North America to reduce its exposure to the U.S. dollar exchange rate.

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Chevy Volt Web Site Generates Buzz

A Web site for fans of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, which GM hopes to have in production by the end of 2010, says it has now collected the names of more than 10,000 people who want to buy one of the cars, according to Edmunds’ Green Car Advisor.

In an item posted on its site Saturday, GM-Volt.com said it is logging more than 100,000 "visitors" a month and has a "waiting list" that has surpassed the 10,000 mark.

The site was started by New York physician Lyle Dennis within days after GM introduced the Volt as a concept car in January 2007 at the Detroit auto show.

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Fisker Eyes Detroit To Build Hybrid Sports Car

Fisker Automotive, which unveiled its Karma luxury sports car at the Detroit auto show earlier this month, said it is considering building the plug-in hybrid in the Detroit area.

Former BMW and Volvo exec, Vic Doolan, now Fisker's director of retail development, told the Detroit Free Press the Southern California company is attracted to Michigan for its experienced workforce, unused production capacity, and supplier network.

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Ford Boosts Overtime for Escape, Mariner Production

Union workers at Ford's Claycomo, Mo., plant have agreed to increase their mandatory overtime work so the automaker can boost production of its popular Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner and their hybrid versions without adding another shift.

They also agreed to increase overtime for the redesigned 2009 F-150 pickup truck.

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Ballard Sale of Automotive Fuel-Cell Assets Approved

Ballard Power Systems Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, said shareholders have approved the previously reported transaction to sell the company's automotive fuel-cell assets to automakers Daimler AG and Ford, Dow Jones reported.

The hydrogen fuel cells said 97.8 percent of shares voted were in favor. The transaction is expected to close January 31. The company said the transaction would lower its risk profile and enable it to concentrate on growth in the fuel-cell market.

Chris Guzy, Ballard’s chief technology officer, told AutoObserver in November the new Daimler-Ford ownership moves commercially viable fuel cells for cars closer to reality.

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Private Equity Isn’t Big Job Killer, Report Says

Tell the people at Chrysler, whose employer is now private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, this one: Private-equity firms aren’t the big job killers people have thought they were.

Private-equity deals don’t kill as many jobs as previously thought but they don’t create any either, according to, what The New York Times, called “perhaps the most extensive study” on whether the company buyouts by private-equity firms create jobs or result in more layoffs.

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January Auto Sales: 2008 Off to a Slow Start, Edmunds.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- January new-vehicle sales are expected to be down a bit from January a year ago and significantly lower than December 2007 sales, according to Edmunds.com’s forecast.

Auto sales (retail and fleet), to be reported by manufacturers Friday, likely will come in at 1.05 million units. That's a 2.9 percent decrease from January 2007 and a 23.8 percent drop from December 2007. It would put the seasonally adjusted annual rate at 16.1 million units.

"Car sales were remarkably slow in January, probably in part because of dramatic stock market fluctuations that flustered consumers at a time when the housing market and other economic uncertainties were also making headlines and causing stress,” sid Jesse Toprak, Edmunds’ executive director of industry analysis.

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Fiat Celebrates Debt-Free Year

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne last week celebrated Fiat’s first year ended since 1998 with no  debt, but criticized investment ratings services for not giving the Italian company its due, according to the Financial Times.

Fiat ended the year with 13 percent higher revenues and a rise in net income.

Marchionne, who has presided over “an astonishing turnround” from near bankruptcy, said he was “somewhat disappointed” Moody’s Ratings service had last week confirmed its same sub-investment grade rating, the paper reported. He said the ratings agencies were “now stretching the limits of credulity.”

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BMW Eyes U.S. Sales Of 400,000 Cars A Year: Report

BMW aims to increase its sales in the U.S. to 400,000 vehicles a year from 336,000, according to a German Auto Motor und Sport magazine report picked up by Reuters.

“Today Europe is still our main market with a share of around 60 percent, followed by North America with 24 percent and Asia with 11 percent," the magazine quoted Stefan Krause, BMW's head of sales and marketing, as saying.

“Looking at countries, the United States with 336,000 units overtook Germany as our main market already a few years ago. And it is there that we see the absolutely strongest growth worldwide,” Krause said.

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Economic Slowdown and TV Writers’ Strike are Wild Cards for Auto Marketers

By Dale Buss

The decision-making process at Hyundai went naked in recent weeks as the company’s marketing staff openly mulled the possibility of withdrawing its planned Super Bowl advertisements -- and then quickly decided to keep the spots.

And although Hyundai’s action maintained the status quo for Fox’s mega-broadcast Feb. 3, the debate also illustrated how two wild cards -- the intensifying sales slowdown and the prolonged TV writers’ strike -- are becoming bigger challenges for automotive marketers these days.

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New Delhi Auto Expo Recap: A Look Back at India’s Automotive Future

By Nick Kurczewski

NEW DELHI, India -- “It’s a great time to be in India,” said Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, managing director and CEO of Daimler India, immediately following Mercedes-Benz’s press conference at the New Delhi Auto Expo.

Dr. Aulbur’s optimism is well founded.  Thanks to continued double-digit growth in India’s automobile sales - not to mention huge investments being poured into the country’s manufacturing capability - India could soon surpass China as being the biggest and brightest automotive star on the horizon.    

But this economic boom has its perils, and at times the New Delhi Auto Expo seemed a microcosm of India itself.

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New Delhi Auto Expo: Hydrogen’s Three-Wheeled Future in India

By Nick Kurczewski

NEW DELHI, India -- Squeezing into the non-existent passenger space of a vehicle built for one turned out to be the easy part. The driver, seated in the center, and directly behind what looked to be a set of motorcycle handlebars, attempted to fire up the engine once again. A sputter, a grumble from the exhaust, one or two feet of forward motion, and then nothing. 

The bright blue three-wheeler came to an abrupt stop.

India’s hydrogen-powered future faces similar false starts and the occasional stumble.  But the fact that the world’s third largest economy (in purchasing power) has a roadmap for hydrogen in the first place – not to mention a Ministry of New and Renewable Energy – might come as something of a surprise to those who expect the country’s emissions regulations to be woefully outdated.

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Porsche Financial Results Cause Tears of Joy

Porsche reported Friday it expects double-digit revenue gains in the first six months of its fiscal year on the strength of Cayenne sales, expected to double to more than 20,000 units in the first half.

Porsche's Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking said the semiannual results are "expected to reflect our optimistic expectations." In a company statement cited by Dow Jones, Wiedeking added, "Barring the unexpected, we should again achieve a result where it will be difficult to suppress tears of joy."

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Spyker Predicts Sharp Rise in Sales and Production

Dutch luxury sports-carmaker, Spyker Cars NV, predicts sales will rise “sharply” in the first quarter of 2008, now that it has eased production problems and increased the flow of parts from suppliers, Bloomberg News reports.

It won’t take much for a sharp rise; Spyker delivered a whopping four sports cars in the fourth quarter, the company said.

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GM Go-Fast Guy to Lead New Hybrid, EV Development Team

By Bill Visnic

DETROIT – General Motors Corp. this week put its top performance-vehicle development engineer in charge of a new global team oriented to going fast in another fashion: speeding development of GM’s new hybrid-electric and so-called “extended-range” electric vehicles – and the critical battery-storage technology to enable those next-generation vehicles, like the Chevrolet Volt.

Robert Kruse, executive director of vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicle and batteries, is running the new engineering team. Kruse, most recently head honcho at GM’s Performance Division, is well-regarded in the GM empire and should be an ideal engineer-executive to direct GM’s efforts to implement high-tech, electrically oriented powertrains.

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Nissan-Renault's Ghosn: Fuel Costs Will Stay High

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Don’t expect low fuel prices to drop again anytime soon, Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn told Dow Jones on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Friday.

“The assumption is fuel prices will remain high," said Ghosn.

Ghosn is at the conference to tout Nissan’s commitment to bring out a mass-market, zero-missions electric vehicle by 2010. Consumers will be attracted to the car not just because it saves money on gas but because it is environmentally friendlier, too, said Ghosn.

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Subaru Boxer Diesel Is One-of-a-Kind

By Peter Nunn

MALAGA, Spain -- Never one to run with the crowd, Subaru has just released the world’s first 2.0-liter Boxer Diesel engine in European versions of the Legacy and Outback.

A Boxer Diesel?

Think of it as a brand-new, clean sheet, four-cylinder horizontally opposed turbodiesel engine, developed completely in-house by Subaru and conceived exclusively for European markets.

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Wal-Marts Proposes Selling Hybrids at Its Stores

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reportedly has discussed with automakers the possibility of selling hybrids and plug-in hybrids at its stores, according to a report on Bloomberg News Thursday.

"Maybe there isn't room for Wal-Mart in this right now," Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott said in a speech to store managers and suppliers in Kansas City Wednesday, according to Bloomberg. "But something tells me that there may be some role for us in the future.''

Scott didn't identify the carmakers, other than to say they were "major'' companies.

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Nissan Needs "Interesting" Cars, Wants To Reinvigorate Maxima

By Bill Visnic

DETROIT –- Tom Lane, Nissan Motor Co. corporate vice president of the product strategy and product planning division, wasn’t much in a mood to mince words when AutoObserver spoke with him at the Detroit auto show. He says Nissan needs more small cars.

More importantly: “I would like to have more interesting small cars.”

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Harley Shares Squealing Like a Pig

By Bill Visnic

The stock price of Harley-Davidson Inc. slid like a greased pig this week to near 5-year low, as even this longstanding media and financial-community darling of transportation-sector companies appears to have yielded under many of the same economic factors stifling the auto industry.

Harley’s stock price has dropped nearly 50 percent over the past year, and last week influential Citigroup downgraded Harley stock to a “sell” rating, predicting fourth-quarter sales that could be 12-14 percent lower than last year, and the company recorded a heavy sales and profit decline.

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Ford Narrows Losses in 2007

By Michelle Krebs

Ford announced Thursday morning that it lost  $2.7 billion in 2007, but that loss  was significantly less than the record $12.6 billion lost in 2006. Yet, Ford is bracing for a tough 2008 by further cost-cutting.

"Each of our automotive operations is improving, and we are encouraged by the progress, which validates our strategy and plan," said Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally in a statement. Mulally and Ford CFO Don Leclair will host conference call briefings with the media and investment community later Thursday morning.

Despite year-over-year improvements, Mulally noted in the press statement, "The U.S. economy is slowing and the outlook for the auto industry remains challenging."

To that end, Mulally said Ford will cut costs further in North America. Word is the automaker is negotiating with the United Auto Workers union to eliminate another 10,000 plus jobs, details of which are expected soon.

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Mitsubishi Launches New Ad Theme To Leverage Its Recent Sales Momentum

By Dale Buss

Mitsubishi Motors America has hatched a new advertising theme under the slogan, “It’s go time!” hoping that the new campaign will boost its already-accelerating sales performance and help distinguish it from the rest of the second-tier import brands in the U.S. market.

“Mitsubishi has some terrific momentum in the sales area, so we’re looking for a new campaign and theme line that could capitalize on that momentum,” Jim Lesser, chief of the Mitsubishi account at ad agency BBDO West, told AutoObserver.

Mitsubishi’s 2007 sales in the United States were up 8.8% over 2006, an uncommon success story in an overall down market. 

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Toyota-GM Tie for No. 1 in Global Sales

By Michelle Krebs

Toyota and General Motors have tied for the No. 1 spot for global vehicle sales, according to sales figures reported by both companies.

GM, which has held the top spot by itself for 76 years, said Wednesday morning that it had sold 9,369,524 million vehicles globally in 2007, according to preliminary sales figures.

Toyota reported last week it sold 9.37 million vehicles last year. A company spokesman said the automaker will not report figures in any further detail.

So it appears the two automakers have tied.

"The race is too close to call," said Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis, in a conference call with media and analysts Wednesday morning. He admitted he didn't know who won the race, having no access to Toyota's detailed numbers. "Of course we'd like to win."

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Toyota Shares Plummet; So Do Honda, Nissan Shares

As the global stock market plunged on worries that the U.S. is in recession, shares of Toyota fell the most they had in seven years in Tokyo trading, Bloomberg News reported.

Toyota stock plunged 7.2% to 4,880 yen at the 3 p.m. close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Tuesday. Honda shares slipped 6% to 2,915 yen. Nissan’s stock declined 6.4% to 922 yen.

While Bloomberg noted the threat of a recession in the U.S. spurred the decline in the global stock market, the stocks of Japan carmakers were also hurt by the Japanese yen’s strengthening against the U.S. dollar to its highest level in almost three years.

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GM Introduces Buick Hybrid in China; Second One Coming

General Motors introduced its first China-made hybrid car during a ceremony in  Shanghai Tuesday.

The Buick LaCrosse Eco-Hybrid is made by GM's joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

Available at dealerships sometime this year, the LaCrosse hybrid model achieves fuel economy of 8.3 liters per 100 kilometers. In comparison, the non-hybrid version gets 9.8 liters/100 km, the statement said.

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Renault Develops an Electric Vehicle for Israel, and a Small Car Strategy for the World

By Nick Kurczewski

PARIS -- Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn sees Israel as the perfect test bed for selling electric vehicles, due to the country's small size and its residents' driving habits.

Renault has announced an ambitious project to market electric vehicles in Israel by 2011. Powered by a lithium-ion battery pack developed by Nissan, the car will have a range of 60 to 100 miles between recharges. The fully-electric vehicle will be built in Europe and sold in Israel, before eventually arriving in Asia, Europe and the U.S.

The car will be badged as a Renault or Nissan depending on each market.

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GM: Don’t Write Off V-8s Just Yet

By Bill Visnic

DETROIT – Yes, in a tactical move that speaks volumes about the current environment in the automotive industry, General Motors recently halted the development program of an all-new, overhead-cam V8 for premium cars.

But the company’s powertrain boss cautions the move doesn’t necessarily write the epitaph for the V8 at GM – or the auto industry at large.

Tom Stephens, GM’s Group vice president, global powertrain and quality, says in an interview with AutoObserver at the recent Detroit auto show that current regulatory and market trends – not to mention customer preferences – are skewing acutely to increased fuel economy and less environmental impact. The impact of the transformation cannot be conscientiously ignored, he says.

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Detroit Muscle Cars Generate Millions for Charity

Iconic muscle cars from Detroit automakers faced off at the 37th annual Barrett-Jackson Collect Car Event held in Scottsdale, Ariz., over the weekend, raising nearly $2 million in charity.

The first 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 raised $1 million; a 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR sold for $550,000; and a 2008 Dodge Challenger went for $400,000.

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Detroit Auto Show: The Best, The Worst of Show

By Jane Nakagawa

The 2008 Detroit Auto Show makes me think of Japan, in that it is the tale of two cultures.

It’s common to hear stories of how easy it is for young foreigners in Japan to fill their apartments with TVs, rice cookers, and a myriad of other consumer electronics that middle-class Japanese have thrown away. This is because the Japanese are eager to own the latest and greatest thing, and even if something doesn’t need replacing, they have no problem getting rid of it.

Conversely, Americans are more practical. There is something buried deep into the psyche of every red-blooded American that makes us believe, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  The pickup truck has been the number-one selling vehicle for over 10 years, but signs of a breakdown in its appeal are starting to show, and there was evidence of it on the floor of the Detroit auto show.

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GM: 46,000 Workers Offered Buyouts

General Motors is looking to take advantage of its new contract with the United Auto Workers union by offering buyouts to 46,000 of its blue-collar employees in the U.S. – roughly two-thirds of its hourly workforce.

GM is hoping at least half of those offered the buyouts would accept them. And if GM needs to replace outgoing workers, it can do so in some cases by paying about a third less in wages and benefits than the current workers make, based on the UAW contract agreed to last fall.

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Detroit Auto Show Hangover: Impressions from Press Days

By AutoObserver Staff

DETROIT – The Detroit auto show party’s over – at least for the media; it only just begins on Saturday for the public. The confetti, which came in the form of cattle droppings this year, is cleaned up. The cars and trucks are locked so the public won’t steal radio knobs.

So what did we come away with? Automaker execs always ask: what did you think of the show? What did you like? What didn't you like? What did you think of this or that?

After another spin around the floor, here are some unvarnished impressions of the show from AutoObserver’s writers:

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Early Word on Malibu: Customers Okay With Smaller Engine

By Bill Visnic

Another sign the automotive times are a-changin’: Customers grabbing up General Motors Corp.’s all-new ’08 Malibu midsizer don’t mind a couple less cylinders.

Speaking to reporters, GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner says some early data on engine take-rates for the Malibu show customers opting as much for the car’s smaller 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine as they are for the Malibu’s grunty and sophisticated 3.6-liter dual-cam V-6.

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Michelin Challenge Design Rewards "Smaller, Safer, Better" Concepts

By Jane Nakagawa

DETROIT - Each year the Michelin Challenge Design exhibit at the North American International Auto Show showcases specialty vehicles and technology from around the globe in support of a specific design theme. This year, 272 entries were received from 51 countries. Visitors to Cobo Center will see three full size models, eight scale models and 18 drawings, all representing this year’s finalists.

The theme for 2008 is “Smaller, Safer, Better.”  Designers were challenged to come up with innovative solutions to reconcile the inverse relationship between convenience and crash worthiness of small vehicles. How ironic it must have been for the eight-person international jury as they reviewed the entries in this land of abundance.

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Federal Panel Calls for Serious Gas-Tax Hike

By Bill Visnic

The Associated Press reports this week a special panel is recommending a significant increase in federal gasoline tax that would more than double today’s rate. If fully phased-in, the new tax rate could add 40 cents to the price of a gallon of fuel.

In addition to the continually escalating price of gasoline and a burgeoning environmental consciousness in all consumer-goods sectors, the proposed gas-tax increase could be another factor that accelerates automakers’ need to “remix” their U.S. product lineups toward more fuel-efficient offerings.

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Senator Wants Funding Help for Fuel-Economy Increases

By Michelle Krebs

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., told AutoObserver Wednesday that one of her top priorities, now that the new energy bill is passed, is to procure federal funding to help automakers meet the recently passed more stringent fuel economy standards.

"I'm laser-focused" on the issue, Stabenow said. In particular, she said she wants to see funding for development of lithium-ion batteries, currently produced by overseas companies yet a critical element to make future hybrid and range-extending vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, viable. Having U.S. battery makers is a national security issue, she said.

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GM Launches Partnership With Coskata To Pursue Its Ethanol Dreams

By Dale Buss

WARRENVILLE, Ill. –- Here in a cluster of tiny laboratories, in a nondescript one-story office building, in a cookie-cutter industrial park in suburban Chicago, scientists and engineers –- as of Sunday, officially partnered with General Motors –- may be coming up with one of the most feasible solutions yet to the wrenching problem of global dependence on oil for gasoline.

It’s called cellulosic ethanol. It’s created by proprietary strains of bacteria that convert farm waste, wood chips, old tires, landfill plastic and a whole bunch of other organic materials into ethanol. The process was licensed and is being commercialized by a startup called Coskata Inc.

Specifically, the promise is that Coskata plans to produce enough cellulosic ethanol here by later this year to begin fueling the GM test fleet at the Milford (Michigan) Proving Grounds. And if that works, Coskata projects that it could be running its first commercial-scale plant, producing 50 million to 100 million gallons of ethanol annually, by 2011 –- including the two years it will take to build the plant.

“This can revolutionize the transportation-fuel business,” said Bill Rowe, a three-decade veteran of the water-treatment and process-chemical industry who now serves as Coskata’s CEO. “Just as important, it’s a speed-to-market play.”

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Chevy Malibu, Mazda CX-9 Win Top Awards

The Chevrolet Malibu is the 2008 North American Car of the Year, and the Mazda CX-9 is the 2008 North American Truck of the Year.

The winners were announced Sunday at a news conference at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit’s Cobo Center.  However, the auto show does not give the awards.

It looked like General Motors could have a second-year sweep of the awards since it had four of the six finalists, but the Mazda soundly defeated the Buick Enclave and the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid. On the car side, however, GM took the most votes for the Malibu and the Cadillac CTS, with the Honda Accord coming in a distant 3rd.

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Ford, Dodge Unveil New Trucks

A new chapter in the truck wars begin Sunday when, at the Detroit auto show, Ford officially unveils its redesigned 2009 Ford F-150 pickup truck, the best-selling truck for three decades, and Chrysler reveals the revamped 2009 Dodge  Ram pickup.

Chrysler, known for dramatic vehicle introductions like man-made blizzards and Jeeps crashing through glass, likely wins for most dramatic entrance. Word is the Dodge Ram will be introduced on the streets of Detroit amidst a Red River-style cattle drive.

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Mercedes Stalks Better Returns, Pins ’08 on Smaller Crossover

By Bill Visnic

DETROIT – Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz unit, which despite a beaten-down market managed its 14th consecutive record sales year in the U.S. and gutted out a 2 percent worldwide sales hike, wants to improve its return on sales to an ambitious 10 percent by 2010 “at the latest,” says Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler’s board of management and Mercedes Chief Executive.

“Thanks to the hard work of the previous few years, we’re starting out this year from an excellent position – in terms of efficiency, quality, service and unit sales,” Zetsche says at a reception here prior to the opening of the Detroit auto show.

He says for ’08, the company will get behind two all-new products: the GLK compact crossover and the CLC coupe, a 2-door hardtop based on the mechanicals of the recently launched, all-new C-Class.

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And the Winner Is…White!

By Jane Nakagawa

DuPont has published its latest report about trends in color choices for vehicles, something it's been doing since 1952. For the first time in seven years, white/white pearl outranks silver. According to DuPont, this seemingly benign development is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to color trends.

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Unabashedly American Design

By Jane Nakagawa

Now that Toyota has become the second-largest selling carmaker in the U.S., it appears that the Japanese brand is on the way to becoming the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, surpassing General Motors. In every competition, there are winners and losers, and in this case, slow and steady looks set to win the race.

Toyota’s decades-long pursuit of QDR (quality, durability, and reliability), plus consistent brand building has made the company the darling of business schools as well as consumers. Yet the good news for Detroit is that there is another round to this race, and even the best of companies has an Achilles heel.

And with the 2008 Detroit auto show on the horizon this week, it’s a good time to talk about it. Because it all has to do with design.

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Kid Rock as a Car Dealer?

By Michelle Krebs

Kid Rock, pictured rehearsing for his performance at the GM Style gala on Saturday night, almost had a different career than music.

His father wanted him to be a car dealer.

In the early days of his career, Kid Rock’s father, Bill Ritchie (Kid Rock’s real name is Bob Ritchie), desperately wanted his son to settle down into a real career in the family car business.

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Buick Seeks to Extend Enclave’s Magic – But Will It Reach?

By Dale Buss

By attempting to spread the design and sales impact of the highly successful Enclave crossover throughout the rest of the Buick vehicle lineup, General Motors executives are trying to borrow a page from the old Walt Disney Co. playbook.

And the future of Buick likely depends on whether they succeed.

Disney executives used to talk about “pixie dust” – metaphorically collected from the colossal success of their theme parks – as the company’s particular brand of Midas touch that graced practically everything they did from the Eighties through the Nineties.

Buick hopes that “Enclave design and quality cues” provide comparable contagious magic for them.

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Nissan to Build Chrysler a Small Car for South America

Chrysler LLC and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced Friday they have signed an agreement for Nissan to supply Chrysler with a new car -- one based on the Nissan Versa sedan -- for limited distribution in South America beginning 2009.

The two companies have also agreed "to maintain an open dialogue to explore further product-sharing opportunities," the automakers said in a statement.

"This kind of tactical partnership allows us to maximize product offerings yet minimize costly investments, such as new plant infrastructure, tooling and R&D," Chrysler LLC President and Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda in a statement. "This partnership will give Chrysler nearly immediate access to vehicle segments in which we do not currently compete."

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Tata Introduces New Indica -- Quietly

By Nick Kurczewski

Luckily not every new small car wearing a Tata badge sparked a media feeding frenzy here at the New Delhi Auto Expo.  While the star of the Tata Motors stand is undoubtedly the $2,500 Nano, the revised Indica hatchback is just as vital to the Indian company’s long-term financial health.

As Tata’s best-selling passenger car – and one of the most popular cars in India – any revision to the supermini-sized Indica hatchback has to be taken seriously.  The changes to the current version have been minimal, though they should provide noticeable improvements in terms of refinement and power.

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Q&A: India’s Tata Motors Chief Ratan Tata

NEW DELHI, India -- Hounded by journalists and chased for interviews all day Thursday, Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group and Tata Motors, has become an instant celebrity now that his company has delivered on its promise of delivering a production-ready vehicle priced at only $2,500.

The Tata Nano will be the world’s cheapest car when it goes on sale later this year in India. Ratan Tata promises that other markets will follow within two or three year’s time.  Sitting down with the foreign media, Ratan Tata answered questions pertaining to his revolutionary small car, the hurdles that lay ahead, and whether the Nano will ever be sold in Europe or the United States. AutoObserver correspondent Nick Kurczewski, covering the New Delhi Auto Expo this week, excerpts some of that briefing:

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Sustainability Mystique Unraveled by Inforum Panel

Leaders from strategic auto industry sectors will discuss future sustainability trends in the auto industry at a breakfast meeting hosted by professional women’s network, Inforum, in conjunction with the Detroit auto Show on Wednesday, Jan. 16.

Michelle Krebs, editor of Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com, will moderate the “Beyond Green: Unraveling the Sustainability Mystique” panel discussion. Panelists will be: Charlene Wall, leader of Strategic Business Development for BASF Corporation; Sue Cischke, senior vice president -- Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering, Ford Motor Company; and Catherine Greener, vice president -- Consulting, ACT NOW.

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Automakers Hope Sparks Don’t Fly After Latest Laptop-Battery Flareup

By Bill Visnic

In a story posted on Edmunds’ Green Car Advisor, automakers voice their concern that recent laptop computer battery fires don’t lead to safety concerns for batteries in hybrid cars.

The latest such incident, reported earlier this week, was with a computer outfitted with a lithium-ion battery manufactured by Korea’s LG Chem – one of two battery makers General Motors Corp. has charged with developing the lithium-ion battery pack for a production version of its tirelessly-touted Chevrolet Volt hybrid-electric vehicle.

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Cerberus-Chrysler: “Reality Bites” Says The Economist

Five months after Cerberus Capital Management was handed the company (for nothing, in effect) by Chrysler's former parent, Daimler, there are growing fears that the acquisitive private-equity group may have bitten off more than it can chew, The Economist magazine writes in this week’s edition.

The British publication notes three main problems facing Chrysler’s new management team with little or not time to solve them:

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GM’s Turnaround: A Glimmer of Hope, Fortune Magazine

Fortune magazine suggests there’s reason to be optimistic about General Motors’ future in an article written by auto veteran and long-time GM watcher Alex Taylor and entitled “Gentleman, star your turnaround.” The subtitle is “Rick Wagoner’s overhaul of GM is producing cooler cars and a glimmer of hope.”

GM CEO Rick Wagoner tells Fortune what he’s been saying often in recent weeks is that 2008 will be another tough year for the automaker. He cites the same headwinds as his counterparts at other companies cite: weaker economy, high commodity, steel prices and energy prices. "Frankly, more headwinds, especially from the first two, than I would have hoped. We're going to be in soupy water for a while," Wagoner told Fortune.

Still, he added, he feels good about GM’s progress.

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For $500 more (or .2 Lakh), Indians Can Buy a Bajaj Auto -- Maybe Someday

By Nick Kurczewski

NEW DELHI, India -- A dismal grey paint job didn’t help this concept car’s chances.  Neither did the fact that the Tata Nano, unveiled less than 48 hours later and priced $500 cheaper, ended up looking much more serious and production-ready. 

On Tuesday, Bajaj Auto pulled the covers off of what is informally known as the “1.2-Lakh” concept car here at the New Delhi Auto Expo.  Best known as India’s second largest manufacturer of scooters – and the maker of those ubiquitous three-wheeled tuk-tuks that roam New Delhi’s roads – Bajaj Auto, possibly partnering with France's Renault, is looking to expand from the two-wheel market and into the realm of small city-cars.

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Tata Nano: The World’s Cheapest Car

By Nick Kurczewski

NEW DELHI, India -- On Thursday morning, Jan. 10, Tata Motors rocked the automotive world with the unveiling of its hugely anticipated “1-Lakh” car at the New Delhi Auto Expo.

Huge crowds had gathered around the Tata Motors show stand more than three hours before the car’s official launch at 11:30 a.m. (New Delhi time). 

And then the car that has been called "The People's Car" was revealed. The $2,500 Nano hatchback goes on sale in India later this year, and exports are planned within three years time.

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GM Appointments Bolster International Growth Spots

Having just reported record sales outside of the U.S., General Motors has made some employee appointments to bolster fast-growing regions, especially Russia and Turkey.

Chris Gubbey, appointed chairman and managing director, GM Holden Ltd., in Australia only months ago, becomes GM Europe vice president and managing director, responsible for GM Russia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).

GM, like most automakers, is scrambling to expand in Russia to keep up with growing vehicle demand there.

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Maruti Suzuki A-Star Shines at New Delhi Show

By Nick Kurczewski

NEW DELHI, India -- Flashing lights, an elaborate stage, thumping dance music, and not one but three show cars on display; Maruti Suzuki’s press conference at the New Delhi Auto Expo was a none-too-subtle reminder that this Indo-Japanese company controls over 50% of the Indian passenger car market.

Maruti Suzuki was the first company in India to mass produce passenger cars and is known for having revolutionized the Indian auto market.  Models like the 800 and recently discontinued Zen brought cheap motoring to millions of first-time car buyers.      

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German Giants Battle for Slim Slice of Small India Luxury Pie

By Nick Kurczewski

NEW DELHI, India -- Like three playground bullies fighting over control of the sandbox, German luxury makes Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi are going head to head in the Indian market. 

The strange thing is, even with double-digit percentage growth in luxury vehicles, annual luxury car sales for the entire Indian market will barely surpass 4,000 units for 2008.

Why battle over such a small market? 

Based on interviews with the executives who run the German luxury marques' operations in India here at the New Delhi Auto Expo, the answer has a lot more to do with strategy than it does stubborn pride – though don’t discount the latter completely. 

(