Sam Adams Light. Porsche Cayenne GTS. Same deal. Both the American light beer and the German "sport truck" are fundamentally flawed concepts– made palatable by knowledge, passion and invention. Did I say palatable? I meant enjoyable. You can quaff copious quantities of Sam Adams' 124-calorie-per-bottle beverage without thirsting for "real" beer. By the same token, you can drive the snot out of the 405hp GTS without asking your companion "Dude, where's my Boxster?" In both cases, if you didn't know better, you wouldn't, and you wouldn't care. But if you do, will you?

The strike at Alliance Interiors, where they make carpets for GM's Lambda CUV triplets, is over after 16 days. The Detroit Free Press reports the new contract was approved by 96 percent of the workers and includes pay increases and 401(k) retirement accounts. However, the workers can't go back to their jobs yet, as another strike at the Lansing Delta Township plant where they build the Lambda mom-mobiles means GM doesn't need any of their carpets right now. Union officials think the GM strike will also be settled soon. Meanwhile, the AP [via Mlive.com] reports that the strike at American Axle may be nearing resolution. Workers say local officials have given them some details: shutting down forge operations in Tonawanda N.Y., $11/hour wage cuts for production workers and $6.50 cuts for skilled trades and $90K bribes buydowns spread over three years (to help workers ease the transition to the lower wages). If a worker agrees to sever all ties with the company, they'll get $140k over two years. Workers will probably approve the deal, as many of them are feeling the financial stress of the two-month-long strike. 

Wondering why politicians are considering bailing out the D2.8 to the tune of billions in subsidies and tax breaks? Wonder no more. The Center for Responsive Politics [via The Detroit News] reports that the auto industry spent a record $70m bribing lobbying congress last year. The General lavished $14.3m on its legislative campaigns, with Ford's Capitol (capital?) efforts racking-up $7.2m. Toyota dedicated $5.9m to its lobbying team. Much of the money was spent [unsuccessfully] fighting recently-increased CAFE standards. A GM spokesman justified this a noble battle as "proportional to the potential competitive and economic impact that proposed legislation could have on our business." It's not like their $14m could have been better spent heading off other competitive challenges or paying an executive's salary and bonuses. Anyway, don't expect CAFE hikes to diminish GM's enthusiasm for politics. They've already spent $4.1m on lobbying this year, not including $25k spent on The Governator's re-election campaign (in unfulfilled hopes that he'd "hasta la vista, baby" to California's new emission standards). Ain't democracy grand?

While GM bleeds cash at home, its overseas business continues to fare pretty well. Auto Motor und Sport reports that GM's European Opel division posted a record 572k sales in the first quarter of this year, earning a pre-tax profit of $198m. Although profit is its own reward (and apparently an actual priority for GM), GM is rewarding its German branch with a $9b investment over the next five years. $2.5b of the cash will go towards renovating Opel factories in Rüsselsheim, Kaiserslautern, Bochum und Eisenach. The remaining $6.5b will help Opel bring 17 new passenger cars (and three new commercial vehicles) to market by 2012. And now the bad news: Opel's European market share declined from 9.7 to 9.6 percent. Opel GM-Europe boss Carl-Peter Forster says never mind, pointing to hbis employer's 11.6 percent Russian market, where car sales jumped by 78 percent in the first quarter. "Russia will be Europe's largest car market by next year at the latest," says Forster. With Opel providing several of GM's most popular U.S. products (Saturn Astra and Vue), GM's investment could well keep the sinking ship afloat for an extra quarter or so. Just kidding. On both counts.

Kia wants to cut back on its reliance on ye olde cash on the hood and increase its brand awareness in the U.S. To that end, the Korean automaker is launching a new ad campaign today that "continues to emphasize the thriftiness of its product line in times of escalating gas and food prices." BrandWeek reports that one ad shows a Kia Spectra in front of a gas station while a narrator proclaims: "Now, more than ever, you want to get the most for your money." And an ad for the Kia Sportage claims the CUV is priced "about $6,000 less than the Toyota Rav4 Limited; or, to put it another way, a whole year worth of groceries less." Kia's marketing director is suitably upbeat about the downbeat American economy. "It's not all doom and gloom; in fact we believe the opposite," says Tim Chaney. "People are still shopping for cars, albeit less than before, and we are in a good spot." Chaney took over as marketing maven back in February when his predecessor, along with CEO Len Hunt, "were let go." Time will tell if this new team can pull Kia's image out of the background noise.

Gas tax holiday, shocking pain at the pumps, trucker strikes protests, all time record oil prices. You flip through a newspaper, and despite a presidential election, immigrant rights marches, people getting sent home from American Idol and oh yeah, a war on two fronts, there is little talk of anything but our (possibly) imploding economy and the fact that it costs Mrs. Johnson $120 to fill up the soccer team's Sequoia. One conclusion to be drawn: the media likes scaring people. Remember last week's the oddball reports on a possible American food shortage ('Sam's Club would only let customers purchase four 50-pound bags of gourmet rice at a time')? The other conclusion is that American's don't have a lot of money, $4 a gallon stings and they're driving less. I'm not. In fact, due to my passive aggressive approach to personal finances, I'm driving more. But, I did notice today that traffic on the 5 near downtown Los Angeles was particularly light. Maybe others are driving less? Are you?

It's kinda hard for me to get my head 'round the fact that anybody reads TTAC. I know that sounds strange. But you've got to remember I started this website with exactly no readers. And for the first couple of years, there wasn't a comments section. These days, I still read every comment. Yup, all of them. So I kinda sorta know TTAC's Best and Brightest are out there, somewhere. But it still freaks me out when the people we write about, like Business Week's David Kiley, comment on our coverage on the site. Our server stats tell me automakers and their camp (and not in the original Batman TV series sense of the word) followers are reading us. But it's different to get actual online under-the-post feedback from the horse's… mouth (sorry David; I couldn't resist). Which reminds me. Will someone, anyone from GM please respond to our [collective] work? The Truth really does set you free. Ask someone who owns one. 

Volvo's set itself a lofty, laudable goal: banishing all deaths and injuries from Volvo vehicles by 2020. That's right, the company that invented three-point seat belts, crumple zones and side-impact airbags is looking to recapture it's lost Grim Reaper-aversive mojo. Reuters reports the main development upon which Volvo is banking: a radar/sonar system which provides early-warning information (to the car) so that it (the car) brake and/or steer out of trouble, reducing impact speed to about 10mph. Volvo's long-term goal: building an "uncrashable car." As Volvo safety team leader Jan Ivarsson says, "We as a community will not accept that we have injuries."At least not in Volvos. PC pollyanna utopianism aside, why would Ford dump a ton of money into Volvo's safety rep if it's trying to sell the Swedish safety swamis? Unless, of course, this is just a "buy us please" PR exercise. Perish the– I mean, as if.

Toyota's iQ city car is coming to Europe next year, competing in the "small but premium" category. (Translation: Toyota's pricing the not-so-mighty midget be priced between Fiat's 500 and BMW's MINI.) But the folks at Autocar UK thought that Toyota was too smart to develop a unique platform for just one car, so they asked "senior sources" if there was more iQ to come. Too right, mate. ToMoCo will also use the iQ platform on a (somewhat) larger car, which will compete with VW's forthcoming up! city car. Meanwhile the iQ will not be offered in hybrid trim; Toyota's boffins reckon a hybrid drivetrain would be too heavy. Thus the Yamaha-sourced one-liter, two-cylinder motorcycle engine (what, no R1 mill?) equipped with start-stop technology, and a diesel. Sometimes the highest IQs favor the simplest solutions. And the worst jokes.

It's been a while since we reported on Plastech's bankruptcy. But things are starting to get interesting once again. The Chrysler interior supplier and its creditors recently agreed on three options for bringing the troubled (as in that's MY tooling) partsmaker out of bankruptcy. Plan A: sell the whole kit and caboodle to one of its biggest customers, Johnson Controls (JCI).  Plan B: liquidation. Plan C: restructure and emerge as an independent company (never gonna happen). Meanwhile, Plastech's bankruptcy judge is set to rule on an $87m short-term finance plan (bankrolled by JCI and the Detroit automakers) to keep the lights on. Even though Plastech lawyers say the firm "won't make it past today" without the cash, there are (as ever) issues. For one thing, it doesn't cover up to $10m in administrative costs. For another, the UAW (them again!) says the plan doesn't include "funding for severance payments and other labor expenses related to the closing of any plants." Which reminds us that Plastech is, in fact, closing its Shreveport, LA plant and "one or two others." Bad juju. 

Brabus is the German uber-tuner that's made its name taking oversized engines from AMG Benzes and wedging them into smaller, lower-down-the-line models. It's also known for keeping the dark Satanic mills in situ and making them even bigger. And so comes word that the new mega-motored 2008 Brabus SL will be called the R230. Hang on; wasn't there a Benz by that name? And didn't Brabus tune it? You guys really are the Best and Brightest! Anyway, this nose-heavy monster sports (in the ironic sense) a custom turbocharged 6.3-liter V12. Ready? It's got 730 horsepower and 811 ft.-lbs.of torque. Thanks to the five-speed automatic transmission, the industry standard sprint from rest to 60 mph will only occupy four seconds of your valuable (if you can afford this) time. Hey! You just might outrun a stock Corvette! Okay, that was cruel. But true. Also true: AMG will soon offer an SL Black Series with 700-something horsepower AND a factory warranty. And then Brabus will tune that. Madness.

In the quarterly conference call to offer excuses discuss the latest financial report– the one where GM lost $3.5b in Q1— CFO Ray Young reassured someone that GM has no plans to kill any of their eight North American brands in North America. Advertising Age [sub] reports he's standing behind the recent reorganization that divvied-up the brands amongst four marketing chiefs. Young called it it "the right way to go." However, the CFO termed their North American operation's losses last quarter as "unacceptable." (Yeah! Someone should be fired! Oh wait…) GM's North American market share is now down to 21.7 percent, compared to 22.5 percent a year ago. In the global market, The General's share dropped 0.5 percent to 12.5 percent. Without North America's numbers, their share went up 0.1 percent to 9.6 percent. So, instead of addressing the problems at GMNA, the General will "beef up" its overseas activities and put "our foot on the accelerator… and jam it through to the floor" in emerging markets like Russia and India. They'll probably succeed, too. After all, it's a lot easier to peddle utility grade beef to someone who's starving than to discerning diners in the restaurant district.

In 1970, gas was cheap, horsepower was king and Dodge introduced a slightly stretched rebodied Barracuda they called Challenger. It offered huge engines that delivered pavement-scorching acceleration. After just four model years of poor sales, The Dodge Boys pulled the plug. Fast forward 38 years. Gas is expensive; the average car buyer is more interested in fuel economy than horsepower. Dodge has introduced a slightly cut-down Chrysler LX they call the Challenger. It offers a huge engine, pavement-scorching acceleration and they've pre-sold the first 6.4K. The Detroit News— and practically every other automedia outlet– have lavished the Challenger redux with praise. But then again, the media loved the big-engined 1970 model when it first hit the market. I predict the same rapid demise for the new Challenger. There are just so many baby-boomers wanting to relive their 20s; a 34-year gap means the model has no relevance to younger buyers. Even with a V6, demand will be extremely low. In fact,should Chrysler avoid C11, I give the Challenger two years. Good for collectors, bad for Chrysler. They failed to learn from Ford's "re-imagined" Thunderbird and direct their time, talent and money into developing a small car– instead of trying to recapture past glory they never really had. Next up: the Camaro!

The United Auto Workers (UAW) just lost their bargaining power in their strike against American Axle. When the strike shut down the plants supplying GM's truck and SUV plants, the union thought GM would put pressure on AA to settle quickly– so the automaker could get the lines running again. Not so. GM used the shutdown as an opportunity to purge its supply pipeline of a glut of slow-selling trucks. Then they "found" axles elsewhere to continue production of their better-selling models. Even after two months, GM still isn't feeling much pain from the strike. Instead, they've announced they're going to cut truck production drastically, meaning American Axle's Mexican operation can produce enough axles to [almost] meet their need while other suppliers take up the slack. To use an old military saying, the UAW has shit in their own mess kit. Even if they accepted all of AA's demands for salary and benefit cuts, there won't be a job for many of them to go back to. Looks like Ron Gettelfinger will have a lot of 'splaining to do, especially as they make a push to organize Toyota's operations.

Worldcarfans reports that Nissan's new GT-R has logged the second fastest-ever lap time around the infamous "Green Hell." "GT-R chief test driver Tochio Suzuki [ED: how ironic is that?] completed the famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany in just 7 minutes 29 seconds. According to our records, this puts the GT-R in second place for fastest laps by unmodified production cars just behind the Pagani Zonda F which posted a time of 7 minutes and 27 seconds last November. The time completely destroys the GT-R's previous best lap of 7 minutes 38 seconds achieved last year in slightly damp conditions." Not to mention what it does to the Porsche Turbo's rep; a car that "only" laps the the 'Ring in 7:40. All that said, is it fair to compare the U.S. street legal $70k (without markup) GT-R to a Euro-spec-only $741k (ish) car that barely achieves double digit production numbers? In short, who's your Daddy?