Is Cerberus about to Strip 'n Flip GMAC? According to Bloomberg, the floundering finance company will announce that they're closing 75 percent of their regional auto-lending centers in the U.S. and Canada. That means 12 of the 16 GMAC's U.S. centers and three of four Canadian GMAC centers will bite the dust. In a letter to be delivered to GM dealers, GMAC VP Barbara Stokel said the move was part of an effort "to make structural cost reductions to restore our competitive position." The remaining offices will be in Dallas, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Chicago and Toronto. You can't help but notice the conspicuous absence of an office location on the west coast. Is this an indication of how little business GM dealers are doing in that area? Or does it mean the Dallas office is so good it can handle the entire western half of the country? My money's on a little of both.

Lil' Abner once featured a car that ran on smog. Unfortunately it needed fossil fuel cars to provide enough smog for fuel. The New York Times reports F. Jeffrey Martin and William L. Kubic Jr. are proposing Green Freedom, a scheme, err, concept, to remove carbon dioxide from the air and turn it back into methanol, gasoline or jet fuel. "Everything in the concept has been built, is operating or has a close cousin that is operating," claims Dr. Martin. But (there's always a but) the process requires a great deal of energy. Producing 750,000 gallons of smog-based gasoline a day would require a a $5 billion conversion plant. Oh, and a dedicated nuclear power plant. The process would only be profitable when refined gasoline hits $4.60 a gallon (been to Europe lately?). Venture capitalists will be lining up for this one.

We all watched in… well, it wasn't exactly awe, as the city of Tulsa unearthed a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere that their ancestors had stuck in the ground 50 years earlier. While it was a neat — but doomed — exercise in civics, a mint '57 Belvedere ain't all that, monetarily speaking. However, had a perfectly preserved 1957 Chevy popped out of the ground, we'd be talking real money. And had the city waited a decade and (properly) mummified Carroll Shelby's 427 Cobra Super Snake, Dwight Foster and Robert Carney (the men who "won" the water-logged Belvedere) could move into a suite on top of the Bellagio and bet tens of thousands on black. Every night. For years. That's because that Shelby fetched $5,000,000 at Barrett-Jackson last January. My question to you is, which 2008 American car do you bury for 50 years so that your grandchildren might one day be ne'er-do-wells? We'll get to other countries tomorrow.

"We will build one car in three different sizes."  It's good to know that Audi, the world leader in design, subscribes to SDP (sausage design philosophy). As we can see from the first press shots of the new Audi A4 wagon, the new A4 wagon looks a lot like the sedan with extra space in the back. (Although Audi hasn't officially announced it, rumors has it that the second row of seats will fold down to enhance cargo space.) Audi is also pleased to announce the arrival of its new "Audi Music Interface." As you might expect (nobody expects the unexpected from Audi), AMI owners can connect their iPods to the car's stereo system. This puts Audi's entertainment options on a par with the Ford Focus (does it have voice control like the Focus? I don't think so). Other "news:" Audi will be building the A4 wagon with a torquey 3.0-liter diesel stumping-up 240 horses and 370ft.-lbs.of torque. Is that engine coming to the U.S.? Let's put it this way: if there had been any such announcement, you'd have heard me proclaiming it from my house in New York. Which you can't, because I'm asleep from boredom with the new A4 wagon.

Porsche reckons their UK sales are threatened by London's congestion charge hike, which will add £4k to the annual cost of Cap City Porker ownership. The Times Online reports that the Sultans of Stuttgart are giving the Mayor of London 14 days to respond to their protest before applying for a judicial review. Porsche argues that the extra congestion charge for cars in their emissions bracket is patently unfair, and not just to rich Yuppies. "Thousands of car owners driving a huge range of cars will be hit by a disproportionate tax," argues Andy Goss, managing director of Porsche Cars GB. "[It's]is clear will have a very limited effect on CO2 emissions." While not specifically playing the class warfare card, Mayor Livingston's office responded with predictable populist pap, weighing-in against the "tiny minority" driving high CO2 emitting automobiles in London. "No-one is allowed to throw their rubbish in the street and Porsche should not be allowed to impose gas-guzzling, polluting cars on Londoners who do not want them." So, off to the Old Bailey then…

Station wagons with manual transmissions are quickly going the way of the fedora. In fact, there are more gas-electric hybrids for sale stateside than row-your-boat wagons. If you want an all-wheel-drive model, the number plummets. Which makes me wonder: what's the point of the Subaru Outback five-speed?

Picture this: Toyota outsells GM and Ford combined. Chrysler is long gone, having sold their factories to a foreign automaker. Meanwhile, GM and Ford import all their products from low-wage countries except for large sedans, whose drooping sales figures are propped-up by fleet sales. Imports fill the top eight spots for retail sales. In the face of massive imports and a strong currency, the Big 3 (Toyota, GM, Ford) informs the feds that they’re considering ceasing all remaining domestic automobile production. Welcome to the Down Under (and out) car market of Australia.

Not to steal Sajeev's thunder, but there's already a TTAC team member competing in The 24 Hours of LeMons. Me! Come May in Altamont, California (pleased to meet you…) myself, Jalopniker Murilee Martin, Dubspeed Driven's Jack Baruth and a bunch of hot rod builders will be trying to go the distance in a V8olvo. That's a Volvo DL with a Ford 302 HO shoved into it. Murilee and I spend countless hours (and I'm not kidding — countless) arguing over which car to get. He was gung-ho over Datsun Zs while I wanted the torquey V8 goodness from a first generation Q45. Then a $100 Volvo materialized and the rest will one day be history. Assuming I can find a pair of fire retardant underwear. One last thing, our car will be rattle-canned black and feature the ability to blast death metal down the main straight. Sponsorship opportunities abound…

Saab is releasing teaser pictures of a new car. But it's not a production model. They're teasing you about a concept car skedded for Geneva. The images have drummed-up a fair bit of attention and press (ahem, Blog about Autos). Considering Saab's lack of credibility on concepts, that's amazing. Do you remember the 9-4X crossover? How about the Aero X sports car? What about the 9-3X concept? And earlier there was the 9X crossover coupe. Now Saab is trumpeting another all new concept car, a new model, a new direction, and a new change of socks. "Insider sources" tell some auto pubs that the concept previews an upcoming Saab 9-1X model (a VW Golf sized car). I'll believe it when I see it. In the interim, maybe Saab wouldn't be in so much trouble today if they had actually built all three of the aforementioned beautiful concepts (and made them AWD) rather than just grafting the grille onto Ye Olde 9-3.

[Pixamo slide show of past Saab concepts here.] 

Alfa Romeo's press corps have sent out three high resolution photos of the second most beautiful car currently in production. The Alfa 8C Spider is the convertible version of the presently released 8C Competizione coupe (with the 450-horse, 4.7-liter V8). As always with Alfas, it's not about stats. It's about how I-need-a-box-of-tissues gorgeous. And since Alfa 8C Spider isn't a track car, there's no shame in lopping the roof off so can revel in its aural sex appeal (you must click here). The 8C coupe version was a run of 500 cars (84 going to the U.S.). You can expect a similarly limited production for the Spider. Which is just as well; if there was a remote possibility of owning one, I'd be contacting the Devil to sell my soul, again. [ED: Justin's studying for the bar.]

[Pixamo slide show of the 8C Spider and Coupe here.]

Scion sales finished 2007 24.8 percent below 2006. Last month, the once and future Gen Y brand dipped 12.6 percent. According to Brandweek, Toyota's sending three-person teams (including two "muscle men") into "hipster neighborhoods" in ten U.S. cities to promote the Scion xB RS 5.0. As the car only comes in Gold Rush Mica, they'll be making the scene in campaign-branded armored cars, handing out Scion-branded skullcaps in boxes made to look like gold bars, with cards that have the URL for a Scion microsite (and the pass code to access it). Whether this unorthodox approach will improve sales is anyone's guess. Meanwhile, analysts reckon Scion's facing external competition from the Fit and MINI, and internal threat from the Toyota Yaris. Looking a bit closer at Scion's overall sales figures, it seems Scion's promoting the wrong model. Even though the xB's sales were off last year, they appear to be recovering this year with a 17.2 percent jump in January. The tC, however, was down 19.3 percent last year, down a further 33.2 percent below last January's totals. Perhaps Scion should pay some real muscle men to prowl cubicles and offer secretaries shoulder rubs and a link to a tC-intensive webpage. 

Now that The Big 2.8 have paid the mother of all bribes (a.k.a. a $29.9b health care VEBA) to the United Auto Workers, now that the automakers can pay their workers lower rates, they're supposedly going to start "insourcing" parts production. The Freep takes one example– Ford's decision to produce instrument panels for the Taurus and Lincoln MKS in-house in Chicago– and calls it a trend. Yes, well, Sarah Webster says the move to take back parts production will hurt suppliers; The Big 2.8 use it as [another] stick to beat them up on price. And even if Webster's wrong about insourcing, outsourcing will continue– to Mexico, China, India, Ant frickin' Arctica. This. Is. Madness. The relationship between a manufacturer and its suppliers must be one of friendship, good will and mutual profit. To hammer down your suppliers on price to the point of bankruptcy and then move your business elsewhere is to cut off your nose to spite your shareholders. Wait, here's the key bit… eventually. At 4pm today, a federal judge will rule whether Chrysler can remove mission critical tooling from its supplier. No matter which way this goes, the chickens are coming home to roost. 

"Talking in circles" must be an executive training course at GM. You'll find a perfect example at GMNext, where GM's chief of American sales operations, defends GM against charges of greenwashing. To that end, Brent Dewar held an on-line question and answer session– make that an "evade the question" session– with no less than 50 online journos (TTAC's invitation got lost in the email). Even the condensed version is dizzying. When asked when we'd be seeing E85 available across the country, Dewar launched into a tale of his six year stint in Brazil– without answering the question. One participant asked Dewar point-blank about GM exploiting the E85 loophole in the CAFE standards. His response? "As I just mentioned it is a huge opportunity now. The problem is we are often American centric. This is not a CAFE loophole, but a solution. We did this in Brazil. Cafe in south america means coffee…" The complete transcript is on line, if obsfucation is your cup of cafe tea.

My father was always shocked that cars still ran on internal combustion engines. First patented in 1886 by Karl Benz, the automobile really hadn't changed that much in 100 years. Just like Benz's Fahrzeug mit Gasmotorenbetrieb, the coolest car in 1985 burned gas to move, rode on rubber and required that the driver exert force to stop. My dad would quickly contrast the history of the car with that of the airplane. Orville and Wilbur Wright made history on December 17, 1903 by flying a box covered in canvas three feet off the ground at 6.8 mph for 12 seconds. Compare that to December 22, 1964 when the SR-71 Blackbird debuted with a novel defensive maneuver; if the enemy fired a missile at you, speed up. My dad felt that cars should be rocket propelled, rocket braked and computer controlled so as to prevent accidents. Yet companies like Continental can't release new-tech brake-by-wire systems (which offer 15% shorter stopping distances) because consumers are afraid. And we're still sucking oil out of the ground and burning it. And riding on air-filled rubber tubes. My question to you is, where should we be?

10News.com reports that someone used a heavy-duty construction loader to drop a 1966 Chevy Nova through a Vista, CA store’s roof. Firefighters discovered the car while investigating a tripped alarm at the industrial park. California Sliding Door Window and Screen suffered water damage from a water line broken by the falling car. The red Nova was parked in the lot next to the building before it was used as a hole punch. “You don’t see a call like this, uh, very often,” said a police officer at the scene. In an associated video, 10News reporter Juliette Vista refers to onlookers as “lookie loos,” and gets this quote from a bystander at the scene: “Either it was a really expensive prank, or somebody’s mad at someone.” Someone’s been watching CSI; you know, other than me.