Is the oil bubble about to burst? Oil prices have fallen below $100/barrel and my dad, who is an oil engineer for Occidental Petroleum, has said prices will probably level off again in the $65/barrel neighborhood. That's where the big oil companies are predicting prices will go during the next six months to a year, too. Whoever predicts when the big fall will happen can make a lot of money playing the market. Demand and supply have been stable for about 6 months. That means oil is trading on speculation only and when they run out of suckers to buy expensive oil, the price will drop to more reasonable levels.

Yesterday, Justin and I caught wind of GM Car Czar Bob Lutz' private pow-wow with bloggers attending the New York Auto Show on GM's dime. Christopher Barger, GM's Director of Global Communications Technology, barred our way. "It's invitation only," Barger announced. "Thirty-five is the limit." I asked Barger if he was TTAC-aware. "Sure, you guys hate us." So I waited in the hallway and collared Maximum Bob. I introduced myself and asked permission to attend. "Do we know these people?" Lutz asked. "Do we like them?" "It's up to you," a stunned Barger replied. We were in. 

You read it right. Bloomberg reports Scion's brand manager, Jack Hollis, revealed in an interview yesterday that they're looking at expanding their lineup of rebadged Toyotas trendy economy cars. Showing Toyota is beginning to read from the GM brand management manual, he asked, "Should it be a youth truck, a youth SUV, an environmental car, a smaller car? We're studying right now to see which would be the greatest priority." He explained their rationale: "There are more leading-edge people we can attract that may not be attracted yet to these first three products." In spite of Scion's dropping sales (down 25 percent last year, 6.7 percent last month), he also said they would keep targeting "trend-setting" customers instead of just going for higher sales volume.  

The IAM has backed down, at least for now. Reuters reports that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers withdrew its bid to organize Toyota's Cambridge, Ontario plant after they found out they didn't have enough signatures to force a vote. When the IAM filed for the vote, they said they had "well over" the threshold of 40 percent of the total work force required by Canadian law to hold a vote. But then Toyota filed a modified list of employees showing they have 4,025 workers instead of the 3,100 the union claimed they had. Global Insight analyst Aaron Bragman warned "it would not be in Toyota's interests for the plant to unionize" because it could affect future Canadian investments by Toyota and the other Asian automakers. Regardless, the IAM said they'd continue their efforts to unionize the plant.

"We are undoing the mess we had in the 1980s when every brand had everything, they all looked the same and they were all priced the same." So says GM's Product Jeffe Bob Lutz, quoted in The Wall Street Journal. The winner of TTAC's first annual Bob Lutz award went on to say their brands are emerging with their own identity, with "Buick standing for American luxury, Cadillac for total luxury and Pontiac getting back to its quality built roots." So let's run down the GM lineup and see where they stand: Pontiac is selling Cobalts and Holdens. Saturn is selling Opels. Saab is selling TrailBlazers (with the ignition key between the seats). Buick, Saturn, GMC and Chevrolet are all selling the same CUV with overlapping prices. Saturn, Chevy and Pontiac are all selling the same mid-sized car at about the same price. Cadillac is selling squared-off Corvettes and blinged-out Avalanches and Tahoes. Everything GMC sells is duplicated in the Chevy lineup. They're talking about introducing a Chevy-priced "entry level" Cadillac. Yep. Looks to me like GM has a firm grip on their brand identities. Too bad they don't have a firm grip on reality.

Autoweek 's Richard Truett reports that General Motors, feeling squeezed by ever-tightening fuel economy standards and ever-rising gas prices, is considering offering a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine for the base trim of its upcoming 2010 (for this week, anyway) Camaro. Speaking at the NY Autoshow, GM Vice-Chairman and daily TTAC newsblog fodderman Bob Lutz said he feels that the RWD drivetrains available from the Solstice GXP and Sky Red Line would make an excellent fit in a Camaro. Of course, the last time GM tried the i4/Camaro recipe, we ended up with the "Iron Duke" in slower-than-molasses 1982 Camaro. It's not so much the number of cylinders or the power output that bothers me – indeed, a 260 HP Ecotec is more powerful than some V8's of yore – but the turbocharging. To me, American muscle means a big, lazy, rumbling naturally-aspirated torque bomber with even power and torque-curves. I don't think I could ever get used to a Camaro with the exhaust note of a Cobalt SS.

As a member of Gen X's muscle car faithful, I hate seeing Reagan-era hot rods victimized by a previous owner's neglect. And our Lincoln's easily subverted air suspension is Exhibit A: mangled air hoses and missing front springs. It's a LeMon Head's worse nightmare, and finding a reliable (i.e. not cracked) pair of air bladders on the cheap ain't no picnic. So is a Fox-tastic conversion to boneyard T-bird coils in the future? Not a bad idea, after I address that crushed radiator support. (At least one of the Lincoln's problems is solved by the ubiquitous BFH.) But still, the well-worn 5.0 purrs like a kitten at idle. And stabbing the throttle brings howls reminiscent of a three-headed dog at the gates of Hades. This is way too much fun.

Honda officially showed the second generation Fit to the world today, For a B-segment car, it's something of a looker. Power rises to a useful 118 horsepower from a new 1.5-liter engine, and the optional automatic transmission (befitting a car that will spend time in congested urban areas) gains a cog (for a total of five). Honda's also hoping to convince buyers of its cheapest car to spring for high-profit-margin items like the optional navigation system. Interior plastics are improved, and the flexible seating returns. Honda calls the latter "Magic Seat." While useful, if this is Honda's impression of magic they should probably stop going to prestidigiation performances at the airport motel. Honda forgot to release the Fit's crucial MPG figures. Since these are the most important stats for this car (besides price), you'd have thought Honda would have remembered not to remember to forget.

Clilck here for Pixamo Gallery 

Gentlemen racers will be delighted to hear that MINI is thinking about, going to, we'll tell you tomorrow during the OFFICIAL LAUNCH, run a MINI Challenge race series stateside, And here's the chariot its participants will be flogging: the MINI John Cooper Works Challenge MINI. The world's fastest factory-authorized, non-street legal MINI boasts 208 horses @ 6000 rpm, with an extremely useful 192 ft.-lbs. of torque @ 2000 to 5100 rpm. She'll top out at 147 mph and offers a delightful overboost feature. In race trim, the extra oomph lasts 15 seconds. As MINI never met an accessory it didn't want to sell at an enormous profit, look for some of the race mods to make their way into the street iterations. If they're not there already.

Click here for Pixamo gallery 

At a special session for bloggers– accessed by TTAC after RF's personal appeal to Maximum Bob– GM Car Czar Bob Lutz said he's "given up on a thirty-thousand dollar Volt." In fact, even priced closer to $40k "we're not going to make a dime on the Volt for years." Lutz dismissed any concerns about profitability, labelling the electric – gas hybrid "an eco-flagship." The new pricing strategy: a tax credit or rebate to get the consumer's out-of-pocket expenses in the "lower thirties." While millionaire bankers and movie stars have flocked to the Prius for its earth-saving cred, the real reason for its strong sales numbers: the price starts in the low twenties. So Lutz' dream– that consumers will pay $35k+ for a grocery-getting Volt– seems a little… futuristic.

Think Maximum Bob has maximum final say at GM? Uh, no. In response to a blogger's question about the lack of paddle shifters on the G8, Lutz responded "The marketing guys didn't want it. Some things we don't necessarily agree with, we have to do." Welcome to WTF country. Marketing input is absolutely critical, but Lutz and GM's golden circle of executives shouldn't be allowing the "marketing guys" to nix anything. Did they have access to a survey showing people were offended by paddle shifters? Did the gear lever manufacturer lobby interject about the threat paddle shifters posed to their business? Otherwise, it's a shock that they are able to give GM's "Car Czar" a headache and even twist his arm into doing anything.

Speaking at The New York Auto Show, GM Car Czar Lutz defended his view that anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is a crock of shit [not paraphrasing]. When manicmommies.com blogger Kristen Brandt asked Maximum Bob why GM didn't make a vehicle for breeders who want to save the planet, Lutz launched into an anti-AGW tirade. Maximum Bob said the recent 2008 International Conference on Climate Change (see video: Global Warming Snow Job) supposedly signals a turning point in the scientific community's opinion of AGW. "Don't worry about saving the planet," Lutz tut-tutted. "Trust me: the planet is going to save itself." "I didn't want to sound like a tree-hugger," the all-expenses paid blogger demurred. "Then don't sound like one," a bellicose Lutz replied. In other news, Bob is still hopeful the tree-hugger's four-wheeled poster child– the Chevrolet Volt– will be ready by the end of 2010.

Yesterday, Mexico celebrated the 70th anniversary of the nationalization of the their oil industry, but the 80th year event may be grim. Although Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) produced an average of 3.1 million barrels a day of crude oil last year, the Houston Chronicle reports their proven reserves are now only 9.2 years of crude production. At a ceremony in oil-rich Tabasco, President Felipe Calderon called for more private investment, proclaiming the fate of Pemex the defining issue of his generation: "To transform Pemex is to strengthen Mexico." Pemex doesn't have the technological resources to drill into promising, but ultradeep, fields in the northern Gulf of Mexico, close to U.S. and Cuban waters. Mexico needs these fields to replace declines at Cantarell. Jesus Reyes Heroles, CEO of Pemex also spoke, admitting that Mexico's proven hydrocarbon reserves fell 5.1 percent last year. Reyes Heroles said Pemex replaced 50 percent of proven reserves last year, compared with 41 percent in 2006, but was still short of reaching 100 percent replacement. As is everyone.

The nice thing about security guards at auto shows is that they know very little about security and can't guard shit. As Justin and I were looking for the aforementioned free lunch (which indeed there is no such thing as), we headed into a conference room. "Are you with Toyota?" the guard demanded (in the sense of idly inquired). A simple "yes" and there it was: the new Scion Haku concept. The California sunset (TM) orange car looked like a chopped xB, with bells on. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. So… then I met Matt Hardigree of Jalopnik, who'd been given a magenta-colored press pass (PR) by mistake. I sent Matt back into the room to grab some shots of the top secret Scion, with the understanding that we'd post them simultaneously. Done. TTAC. Making friends wherever we go. 

Today's query is of the decidedly non-scientific variety (unlike yesterday's…). For the second time in as many days, there I was cruising in the fast lane when suddenly I had to brake from around 75 mph down to 63 mph. The freeway curved enough for me to see what the hold-up was. It was a damn Toyota Corolla. I'm not fibbing, either. Twice, in consecutive days, a Corolla was lollygagging in the left lane, wrecking it for everybody else. Yesterday, the horrible irony was that there were two Corollas in the next lane happily trudging along at maybe the speed limit. Meaning I was trapped. Today, there was a Datsun B210. It took a while, but I managed to get free and clear. The day before? Trapped like a rat. A slow rat. I posit that the Corolla, and the mentality that drives a Corolla, causes the most traffic. You?