Autocar UK reveals the forthcoming high-performance sedans from BMW and Mercedes Benz. The new MB E63 AMG will be a "clean slate design," with only the monstrous 6.2-liter V8 returning from the current model. The uber-E's Nürburgring-tuned suspension– wider front track, a unique steering ratio and active damping (as well as a possible electronic rear differential– demonstrate AMG's newfound emphasis on handling. While the new E63 will share components from MB's C-class, don't expect the AMG derivative to come cheap though (as if). The UK price tag is over $100k. While Mercedes wrings-out its E63 at the 'Ring, BMW is busy developing its 2011 M5. The current M5 V10 engine will return, albeit bored out to 5.5 liters. Yes, but– "[the new M5] is also likely to get a direct injection, turbocharged unit, to reduce emissions. BMW is considering bringing stop-start technology and a part-time alternator (branded "regenerative braking") to the uber-5. But perhaps the best news: the Boyz from Bavaria are ditching the SMG, which RF dubbed "the world's worst gearbox." M5 fans will choose between a new six-speed manual gearbox or the new seven-speed M DCT double-clutch transmission. 

Has BusinessWeek been reading TTAC? Writer Michael Frank's assessment of Saab and Volvo sounds extremely familiar… Frank places Saab's problems right where they belong, stating GM "hasn't let Saab do anything creative, let alone steer itself in any direction other than toward total irrelevancy, for a good decade." But what's wrong with Volvo? "[L]ike famously angst-ridden compatriot filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, Volvo fears sexy… its slammed and ultra-turboed R-edition cars… are, for all intents and purposes, neutered and dead [because] Volvo is worried about fuel economy." The biggest problem for both, though: they've lost their brand distinction. As we've pointed out, Volvo no longer holds the upper hand in safety. Turbocharging is no long a Saab distinction. He wants something new from both automakers but concludes, "Oh, right, neither Volvo nor Saab has a new story to tell. And until they do, neither carmaker will have much of a future." To which all we can add is "Amen."

Pistonheads reports that Suffolk police are leading the charge to ensure that all UK motorists are banned from driving. OK, that's not the goal– even if it isn't entirely unimaginable. As befits the British Nanny State, the police are trying to ticket as many speeders as possible to stop them from killing themselves. Or others. Yes, we've been down this road (at the posted speed limit) before. But I think it's important for TTAC's Best and Brightest to appreciate the Suffolk Po-po's full commitment to public safety. Pistonheads reports that the constabulary nailed 94 percent more mobile scofflaws between April 21 and 27 than they'd collared during their previous six-day high water mark. We're talking 854 selfish bastards vs. 264 'scrotes. Assuming the absolute minimum possible fine for all [who bloody well should be] concerned– £44 or $86.2749– The Suffolk Old Bill added £37,576 ($73,668.63) to the county coffers. If they could maintain that pace (£6,262.66667 per day), they'd raise £2,285,873.33 ($4,481,316.10) in a year. But that's not the point, is it mate? Speaking on behalf of "you should see what I've scaped off the pavement" police everywhere, Sgt Steve Knight said a "significant" number of motorists have "failed to grasp the concept" that speed kills. "Motorists really have no excuse," he said. 

Forgeddabout that unstable idle. (We're pretty unstable when we're idle too. Alternatively, unstable idles are the devil's plaything.) The new Mercedes SLC looks to be what the Mercedes McLaren wasn't: affordable. Wait, that's not it. While I'm busy thinking of a witty repost, play the video and contemplate the joys of burning a gallon of gas every couple of miles with your tail wagging like a miniature Schnauzer that just eviscerated a large rat (no animals were harmed in the making of this metaphor). Pistonheads' passive construction workers [via Motor Authority; you know how that goes] tell us that the SLC "is likely to be a direct successor to the McLaren SLR and is expected to be fitted with an AMG 6.2-litre V8 producing almost 700bhp." But who's listening when that monster motors' mauling the tarmac? Never mind all that when did TTAC start promoting gas guzzling hypercars while criticizing gas-guzzling hypercars stuff. When did Mercedes decide it was OK to crib the font end design from a 1979 TVR 3000 S? And how the Hell do you get out of a gullwing supercar in a supermarket parking lot? [Frank: very carefully.]

I know: it's been bugging me too. I mean, here we have "the world’s best-selling hybrid," a "must-have accessory for carbon-conscious show business players." A PC-mobile that's "cleaner than a smoking Beetle [and we know what it's been smoking, too]. Quieter than a roaring [where's the caps lock key when you need it] Mini. Able to leap through car pool lanes with a single occupant." And yet and Hollywood's going gaga over a multi-phallic race car from 1967. Sure, Speed Racer features a few vehicles described by The Old Gray Lady's picture captioneers as "post-petroleum cars." But c'mon! The Prius is… God! Well, it was/is His chariot. "God drove one, briefly, in 'Evan Almighty,' a [Bruce Almighty come lately] comedy that struggled at the box office when Universal released it last summer." Must've been the Prius. I'm not saying Michael Cieply's article reads like a press release for Toyota, but, as regular readers will know, I am. Why else would he include this little ditty (a.k.a. apologia)? "According to a Toyota spokeswoman the Prius goes from zero to 60 miles per hour in 10.1 seconds, but could go faster if, like the Lexus hybrid, it were tuned for performance rather than efficiency." And now, back to blogging real news. 

The New York Times reports that Toyota reports (and we report their reporters reporting the report) that Toyota's profits sank by 28 percent. "For the year to March 31, 2009, the Japanese automaker forecasts net profit to fall 27.2 percent to 1.25 trillion and operating profit to decline yen 29.5 percent to 1.60 trillion yen, breaking a seven-year string of record results." That's a whole lot of yen. And make no mistake: ToMoCo is hurting. Stateside sales of the new Texas Tundra are up 24.8 percent year-to-date– but that's less than 7k units. And despite several hot-selling products, overall U.S. sales are down 3.3 percent (789,447). This after Toyota put the pedal to the metal on production, building big ass factories worldwide. Equally painful in that "be careful what you wish for" kinda wayl, worldwide market growth has sent commodity prices through the [optional sun] roof. Not to mention the fact that all that Detroit-sourced kvetching about Japanese currency manipulation has proven to be so untrue it literally hurts (the dollar's down 10 percent on the Yen). Still, these guys are strong enough to weather the storm. The Times concludes by pointing out that Toyota is still valued at about $180b, and compares that to Daimler and VW combined. We'd like to point out that Yahoo!Finance puts GM's "enterprise value" at $32.94b. 

We've don't pay that much attention to automakers' charitable contributions. While we're pro pro bono and love largess, we get hundreds of press releases each year, all touting contributions to causes from adult literacy to wounded veterans of Ford Granadas. Cynics might suggest that these payments are all drawn from carmakers' PR budgets, but we couldn't possibly comment. Well, in this case, we will. After Toyota's $20m contribution to the Audubon Society stirred-up a hornet's nest of questions surrounding SUVs and global warming, ToMoCo has announced the donation of $1m– and five vehicles– to the Florida Everglades National Park. This new donation is also targeted to "environmental education initiatives" rather than, say, culling gators. This is about as obvious as greenwashing gets, but moral relativists have already clicked through. And we agree: it's better for the Everglades to get some dough from Toyota than not. Victor vado share a little spolium. 

U.S. Presidential Candidate Barack Obama recently called the Ford Granada "the worst car Detroit ever built," providing us with his answer to a question that every American pistonhead asks himself at least once in a while. The Free Republic has its own list of "worst American cars" including such luminaries as the Chrysler TC by Maserati and the Chevette. MSNBC's poll of automotive excreta lists the Vega as the worst ever. But Obama's busy with campaigning, and it's been a long time since the Illinois Senator learned to drive in his grandfather's Granada. So, the question goes over to you, the Best and Brightest. Has a nastier hunk of metal than the "tin foil" Granada rolled off Detroit's production lines? I'd say the Caddy Cimarron should be up there, but then the Volare/Aspen twins have to be in the running too. Worst ever? I'll say the X-body Chevy Citation. What say you?

The AP (via NPR) reports that Ford plans to put six-speed automatic transmissions (AT) into 98 percent of its North American vehicles by 2012. Ford's seductively-named "6F35" transmission is the technological fruit of a $720m joint development effort between Ford and GM. Ford claims the new automatics– debuting in the ‘09 Escape and Mercury and Lincoln clones– offer four to six percent better fuel economy than their current four- and five-speed equivalents. Craig Renneker, Ford's chief engineer for the slushboxes, admits that "these technologies are all about fuel economy." No, wait! Ford VP Barb Samardzich is a bit more PR-savvy: "They also deliver improved acceleration and smoother shifting," she adds. Anyway, you can thank the 35mpg fleet average CAFÉ standards for the additional cog. "With today's high gas prices, the decision to deploy these across virtually
the entire Ford lineup comes at a good time."

Barack Obama is something of a car guy. According to The Detroit News, one of Obama's (likely numerous) regrets about running for President: the Secret Service won't let him drive. "It's a drag because I actually enjoy driving." But it wasn't always so. "The car I learned to drive on was my grandfather's Ford Granada," Barack told Indianapolis radio station WFBQ. "It may be the worst car that Detroit ever built… This thing was a tin can. [Detroit was] trying to compete with the Japanese. They wanted to keep the cars big, so they made them out of tin foil… You basically couldn't go over 80 (miles per hour) without the thing getting out of control." Their perfidy didn't end there, though. "Detroit ended up making investments in SUVs and large trucks because that's where they perceived a competitive advantage," Obama told Meet the Press. "And that's where they felt they could make the most profit… I think it was a mistake for them not to plan earlier, and now we're seeing a huge growth in fuel-efficient cars that is benefiting the Japanese automakers and Detroit is getting pounded." For all of Obama's Motown-mauling, the Senator from Illinois' one with the the industry's belief that the gas tax is probably a good thing. Still, Hillary's desperate offer of an industry bailout probably makes her the top Dem choice for industry types. We're waiting to hear her take on malaise-era metal. 

File this one under "News that will not shock Justin Berkowitz." For the fourth straight year in a row, the propeller people from Bavaria have taken home Engine of the Year honors as decided by… motoring journalists. Who decides on which motor journalists get to vote? Who knows? Anyhow, this is the second year in a row that the 335i's dark bread und white sausage has taken home the award. And why the hell not? BMW has simply eliminated turbo lag, a trick they couldn't even manage in their own twin-turbo V8. And the power is awesome. I once asked a BMW engineer about the possibility that they underrated 3.0-liter twin-turbo's power to save the face of the then out-going E46 M3. He was aghast. Nein! That would be unethical, immoral and many other non-nice things. Who would do such a thing? I explained the history of American muscle cars, the notorious underrating of horsepower and my German friend looked nauseous. Either he's a hell of an actor, or completely in the dark. I saw a 335i dyno 275 horsepower at the wheel. Figure a 15 – 20 percent driveline loss and you're talking at least 330 horses, maybe more. But hey, who's complaining? 

Autoblog reports that some gas pumps refuse to display the latest price per gallon because their manufacturers never thought the price would get so high. In the gas-price equivalent of a Y2K problem, Washington state has at least 12 pumps which cannot display more than $3.99 per gallon. These pumps have gear-driven, mechanical processors and readouts. The mechanical marvels require a factory retrofit to handle gas prices over $4/gal, whereas modern, computerized pumps are more than happy to charge you whatever keeps the tax revenues rolling in the market demands. The retrofit can cost station owners up to $8500. In many cases, the parts are unavailable at any price. The state's weight and measures authority is allowing station owners facing this problem to simply multiply gallons pumped by the price of gas, provided that price is clearly posted. TTAC's resident "people who were alive in the 70's" inform us that this was also a problem in the bad old days, when gas prices also rose higher than pumps could count (whaddaya mean it's $1.09 a gallon??). Their old-timey-yet-effective solution? Set the machines to half-price and then just multiply by two. Brilliant!

Motor Authority has a preview of the 2009 Mk VI Golf, which was set to debut at the Geneva Auto Show earlier this year. The new Golf will debut at Paris this fall, after VW CEO Martin Winterkorn ordered a strategic review of the Golf/Scirocco/Tiguan. The next generation of Golfs will boast a new range of engines, including a 1.6-liter TSI making 200hp (for the GT version) and a 2.0-liter four making 260hp (for the GTI). Given the lag between European and American introductions, and the already-delayed release, the neue Golf's stateside debut could now be several years away. Whether the raw, inefficient 2.5-liter mill currently offered in the base North American-market Rabbit will make an unwanted return is likewise a matter of speculation. In any case, the new Golf exhibits the evolutionary design changes one expects from this model. (Zen masters reveal that VW isn't done developing a Golf until it "looks like a Golf.") Mk VI shares much of the heft and proportion of the Mk V, with only mild updates to the headlights, grille and rear quarter. Perhaps if VW had gone just a bit further, the new hatch could have enjoyed the slightly fresher yet still-evolutionary looks of the Mk VI GTI photochopped by our own Andrei Avarvarii. 

Automotive News (sub) reports that ToMoCo is increasing prices on 11 Toyota and Lexus models by the end of the month. The hot-selling Yaris will see a $200 jump in base price, The sedan ascends to $13,085 while the hatchback's sticker rises to $12,210. The Prius' price will reverse its downward trend, adding $400 to the Moroni, for a new base MSRP of $22,160. The FJ Cruiser will see the biggest increase, adding $500, for a new base price of $23,730. All Toyota-branded vehicles will increase by comparable amounts– with a few notable exceptions (Sequoia, Tacoma, 2009 Corolla and Matrix). Lexus models will increase even more (expect to pay an extra $900 for an LS460) except for the new IS-F, which will remain unchanged. Why the price bumps during a period of weak sales? "Price changes were made to keep up with current economic conditions and the rising cost of major components," A ToMoCo spokesman demurred. "Materials in global markets have gone up. We have made an effort to absorb some to the cost while still protecting our price position." Hmm, weak sales and rising costs? Get the band back together, 'cause it's looking like good ol' stagflation all over again. 

Peter DeLorenzo, the TTAC-aversive self-styled Autoextremist, has posted his Wednesday rant. Sweet Pete begins by claiming "It's all over but the hand-wringing for Pontiac." We would have gone with "bar the shouting," but true dat. DeLorenzo blames Pontiac's problems on GM's divisional confusion, it's lack of car culture and a dearth of Pontiac advertising. "Unless they can back those products with enough marketing and advertising horsepower," the former ad man insists, "It ultimately doesn't matter." Meanwhile, the Autoextremist's extreme adoration of GM Car Czar Bob Lutz shows incipient affection alienation. "The one thing that Lutz has misjudged since he began his tenure at GM is that he never did 'get' Pontiac. His idea that Pontiac should be the "affordable BMW" is flat-out wrong… Pontiacs should be raucous, distinctly American cars with real attitude, appealing to people who enjoy marching to a different drummer and who like to go their own way." Even so, DeLorenzo takes GM's beancounters to task for failing to follow the Motown Messiah. Sweet Pete says Maximum Bob has only succeeded in energizing a "network of True Believers." From there, it's the usual GM product renaissance shtick, DeLorenzo's potted version of Pontiac's history (so to speak) and a plea for restoring the former Excitement Division to it's imagined former glory. You know, GM should put DeLorenzo in charge of Pontiac. No, really. Why the Hell not?