Several European countries are introducing severe taxes and penalties against vehicles with high CO2 emissions (read: SUVs). Auto Motor und Sport reports that Porsche Cayenne S buyers in the Netherlands will have to pay a luxury tax of about €38k at purchase. Finland's surcharge plans are relatively moderate at €26k, as are France's €10k– especially when you compare them to Norway's penalty of 54 friggin' thousand Euros. That means the Cayenne S is effectively twice as expensive in Norway as in Germany. The UK's €38k surcharge for Porsche's turbotractor is nothing to sneeze at, either. France also plans to introduce a yearly CO2 tax which, for the Cayenne, will amount to €3k; Austria is following suit with €5k per year. According to CSM Worldwide (a consultancy), the market for SUVs is collapsing in several European countries. This year, sales of large SUVs were down 46 percent in France and down 40 percent in Spain. It looks like Porsche has a bit more legal action in store; merely going to court against London's road-pricing autocrats won't cut the mustard. Perhaps Porsche was smart to buy those VW shares after all. 

The Nikkei [via Business Week] reports Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) new car sales have improved slightly in the first quarter of 2008. But the number of automobiles on Japanese roads has fallen for three months straight (down 0.2 percent last quarter). That's the largest cumulative dip since record-keeping began in 1963. The Japanese government predicts traffic will peak by… 2010. Japan's population is slowly declining. More importantly, the cost and hassle of car ownership in the densely-populated island nation is driving people to alternatives. Imagine paying $400 per month on a Tokyo parking spot, and you're beginning to get the picture. As world governments milk the four-wheeled cash cow in the name of planet saving, expect more lower and middle-class motorists to be priced right off the roads. Japanese consumers bought some 282,600 Electric bicycles last year, up some 40 percent in the last five years. sts priced off the roads. In one of the worst first quarters for auto sales in recent memory, the U.S. scooter market jumped 23 percent, according to the L.A. Times. The times, they are a-changing.

MSNBC reports on dismal sales of the overhyped Dual Mode Yukotahoe Hybrid, currently running hundreds of units per month. Given its $50k+ price tag and complete lack of wiggle room on price (especially compared to its non-hybrid counterparts), this comes as little surprise in the extremely price-sensitive US market. Unfortunately GM and their hybrid transmission factory, projected sales were 10-15k units this year. That's not quite as bad as TTAC's whipping boy (the Cadillac BLS), but underutilized capacity is a Very Bad Thing in this economic climate. What does this mean for the upcoming Saturn Vue Dual Mode Hybrid? It's estimated $30k price tag just might be the sweet spot. Or not. GM's losing ground in the hybrid SUV race on a daily basis. In the Yukotahoe Hybrid's price range, Toyota's already sold 5,553 Lexus RX 400h's this year. And in the Vue's venue, they've sold 8,889 Highland Hybrids. Even Ford is leaving them in the dust, with 7,132 Escape and Mariner Hybrids out the door since January 1.  

Chrysler's "Refuel America" promotion guarantees $2.99/gallon gas, diesel or E85 for three years. The deal was originally set to expire on June 2. The Detroit News announces that the struggling automaker's extending the offer through July 7. It sure sounds like a good deal… you get a gas card that's linked to your Visa or MasterCard credit card (no debit cards). When you buy gas, your card is billed at $2.99/gallon and Chrysler pays the rest – within certain limits. The cap is capped at the amount of fuel needed to go 12K miles based on the EPA combined mileage for your vehicle. If you try to use your gas/E85 card to buy diesel, or have a diesel card and try to buy gas/E85, you're charged "full pump price plus a $2 service fee per transaction." If gas drops below $2.99, you'll be charged at the lower price BUT the purchase will count against your annual allotment. Once you exceed your annual allotment, you'll be charged the full price until the next year's allotment kicks in– but if you don't use all of this years' allotment, the remainder is forfeited when the new allotment is activated. Oh, and if you follow all the rules and buy a Dodge Durango (the thirstiest car Chrysler sells excluding the excluded SRT models and Dodge Viper), you'll save around $600 a year, depending on local gas prices. Oh, did I mention you may have to forfeit other, more valuable incentives to qualify? Someone, somewhere is laughing.

Jeremy Clarkson's strident, xenophobic and bombastic opinions aside, he's a rare bird, a true master of the craft. Case in point: former car salesman and failed Top Gear presenter Jason Dawe. "How to test drive a car properly" begins in the great Clarksonian "I'll get to the car bit when I bloody feel like it" tradition, trying to amuse us with tales from the mattress department. (Snoring is sooooo funny.) And then… "How can you possibly get a proper feel for a new car when you find yourself driving around the local industrial estate with an over anxious salesman sat beside you bellowing into his mobile and indicating the next turn back to the garage? Rental offers a very simple solution, with a lot of the main fleets offering a huge choice of vehicles. The chances are that if you have your eye on a car, your local rental agency will be able to get it for you. And hire doesn’t have to be expensive – ignore the published tariffs and do some bargaining – you might be surprised at the deals with which you could end up. For the sake of spending just a couple of hundred pounds for a week’s rental, you could save yourself thousands if you find the car isn’t for you." I suppose if you're looking for the car that isn't for you, a rental is as good a place as any in which to look. And now a word from our sponsor– I mean another word from our sponsor: "Avis confirm that rental experiences influence new car buying decisions. On handing back the rental car 44% of UK renters said they were slightly or much more likely to add the model to their next new car shopping list." So Jason, which is it: slightly or much more likely? 

The bio-fuel industry has an answer for critics who consider the whole food-for-fuel business a dangerous, back asswards proposition: second generation bio-fuels! Ethanol v2 proponents believe that a new range of non-food crops is the "answer" to kvetching. Only it isn't. The New York Times reports that "biologists and botanists are warning that they, too, may bring serious unintended consequences. Most of these newer crops are what scientists label invasive species — that is, weeds — that have an extraordinarily high potential to escape biofuel plantations, overrun adjacent farms and natural land, and create economic and ecological havoc in the process." If that's not enough to put you off the idea, how about some specifics? "The giant reed, previously used mostly in decorations and in making musical instruments — is a fast-growing, thirsty species that has drained wetlands and clogged drainage systems in other places where it has been planted. It is also highly flammable." Willy De Greef, incoming secretary general of EuropaBio (an industry group) says hakuna matata; "biofuel farmers would inevitably introduce new crops carefully because they would not want growth they could not control." Geoffrey Howard, an invasive species expert with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is not impressed. “We’ve had 100 years of experience with introductions of these crops that turned out to be disastrous for environment, people, health.”

With all this media talk of a gas electric plug-in hybrid clean diesel hydrogen fuel cell future, someone forgot to tell Mercedes that the horsepower war is over. Sure, the new BMW M3 has a 414hp V8, trumped by the Audi RS4’s 420hp eight pot. But who gives a shit? The new automotive arms race: building and selling enough small, high-mileage, low-profit vehicles that various government agencies will let you sell large, low-mileage, high-profit vehicles. Meanwhile, the Mercedes C63 AMG.

The harsh realities of a mature US automotive market are wrecking havoc on the plans and finances of all the players. The Wall Street Journal reports that 15 million units is about the best the industry can hope for in '08. That's back to the future, 1990s style. Even market share-gobbling Toyota senior executives admitted they have "about a full plant's worth of excess capacity in North America– not including the Tupelo plant due to open in 2010." Holy excess capital expenditures Batman! The master of production planning has hit the wall. Bottom line: the US is a stagnant, mature market where new cars are competing for replacement business, not growth. Meanwhile, more manufacturers are threatening to enter the US market. The Chinese and Indians (Tata) are chomping at the bit, and Alfa-Romeo has announced plans to return… soon. Analysts forecast a return to growth in the decade ahead. Still, clearly, not everyone's going to make it.

The following was posted anonymously on a UAW website. The facts of the matter have not been substantiated. I'm re-publishing it for two reasons. First, no one is talking about the potential (or actual) quality problems created by the squeeze on domestic suppliers, or the QC impact of recent and ongoing union strikes and stoppages, or the ongoing threat to auto workers' collective skills posed by job reclassification and employee buyouts, or (as in this case) the piss-poor corporate culture that still lingers within The Big 2.8's empires. Second, I'm inviting our front line readers to come into the light and tell it like it is. If you want to drop the dime/let the chips fall where they may, I guarantee your anonymity.

"We had a fire extinguisher get backed into by a forklift blowing up and covering light bars. So they make us clean them off with water still leaving the residue on there not notifying chrysler this problem even happened. Then friday morning someone forgot to lock parts on a truck going to chrysler so here we go all the parts fly of the trailer to the ground about a 5 foot fall these were break calipers rotors and a couple other parts not notifying chrysler of the damage.. just thought u want to know.. I wouldnt buy a car from this plant i see to many bad parts going over to chrysler and half the time it is not good.  so Ill update u with any other foul ups we have. What they dont know wont hurt them as the motto goes."

Just-auto [sub] reports that Morgan Stanley's head of automotive research doesn't have anything very nice to say about Chrysler's immediate prospects. But, surprisingly enough, Adam Jonas faced the delegates of an Automotive News European conference and told them that Cerberus will make an obscene amount of money [paraphrasing] when they break up the company and sell its parts. "I am actually bullish on the longer-term outlook for Chrysler. They have what a lot of people want. There is brand – particularly Jeep – and technology, design capability and US-based, dollar-based capacity that can hit the market relatively quickly." Say what? Oh, hang on. Morgan Stanley. That would be the company whose "Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) department… excels in domestic and international transactions including acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, recapitalizations, spin-offs, exchange offers, leveraged buyouts and takeover defenses as well as shareholder relations."

Concerned that demand for "green cars" could be fueling marketing gimmickry more than real improvements, Auto Express UK ran a test of seven supposedly low-carbon cars (full results not available online) with interesting results. The Times Online reports the test revealed that several vehicles perform much worse in the real world than their manufacturers claim (and repeat ad nauseum in marketing material). One such offender is the VW Polo BlueMotion, which was launched as "Britain's cleanest car" with a claimed C02 output of under 100g/km. In the Auto Express, the Polo failed to achieve its lofty benchmark, and received low scores. Honda's Civic Hybrid has a claimed C02 emission of 109g/km, but in testing it delivered 171g/km, enough to bump it into a higher carbon tax category. The Lexus GS450h claims an impressive 35.8 mpg, but delivered only 26.7 mpg in Auto Express' tests. Ford's ECOnetic 1.6 diesel Focus returned about 45 mpg, a good 20 mpg off the 65.6 mpg claimed by the manufacturer, although carbon output is decreased compared to standard Ford diesels. In short, carbon emissions and fuel efficiency are almost universally overestimated and hyped in marketing efforts. While EPA ratings are often better than anyone receives on the road, we don't base vehicle taxes on carbon output. With tax incentives in place for less-polluting cars, Britain's government will probably want better verification of actual C02 output levels going forward.

With the nastiest auto biz strike of the year (so far) almost, not quite behind it, American Axle is looking away from its eponymous home country for future business. Automotive News (sub) reports that the axle supplier has already established itself in developing markets like Brazil, China, Mexico and Poland, and is looking to expand in Thailand and India. Thailand is the second largest pickup market after the U.S., and American Axle is looking to take over axle supply there for locally produced Chevy Colorado pickups. While company officials declined comment, GM is AA's biggest customer, and as AN points out, "the company does not build foreign plants without the promise of future business." With the Thai pickup market set to increase seven percent this year, and American truck and SUV sales already down 28 percent on the year, this has "inevitability" written all over it. In India, AA's first plant is just coming online, and there's already talk of a second. AAM Sona Axle Private Ltd, the joint venture with Sona Koyo is building a new corporate headquarters in Pune, India and there's talk of building a greenfield plant to supply Tata Motors. With at least two U.S. plants set to shut down in the wake of the the AA-UAW agreement, the American Axle name is beginning to develop a bitterly ironic ring. Is a generic supplier name-change (Visteon, Delphi, etc) in the offing?

While FoMoCo puts lipstick on Volvo in hopes of a quick sale, it's quietly bringing several Ford Europe models to the U.S. in the hopes of reinvigorating small car and crossover sales. The Ford Fiesta imminent arrival is no secret, but Automotive News [sub] is reporting that Ford's next U.S. Focus will be European engineered on the global C1 platform. Ford's C-Max and Kuga– a pair of C1-based crossovers reflecting minivan and SUV influences (respectively) in the segment– will join their Euro brethren on this side of the pond. AN Europe [sub] spoke with Ford America President Mark Fields, who confirmed the importation schedule. "We really have to have the right cadence (and) marry up the cadence of freshenings between Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America," says Fields. "Leveraging scale by using common suppliers, you can't have one part of the world freshening a vehicle and assuming a year later another part of the world will do that." The range of FoMoCo's "Kinetic Design" kids heralds the demise of the current, lamentable Ameri-Focus and aged Escape. And not a moment too soon. But is it soon enough?

Green Car Congress reports on a recent test of the Merritt Unthrottled Spark Ignition Combustion (MUSIC) engine by Powertrain Technologies. "MUSIC is an un-throttled, high thermal efficiency, lean-burn, spark ignition system that uses an indirect combustion chamber to produce charge stratification by means of controlled air management" the unelected reporters reveal. In laypersons terms, a trick cylinder head with an external combustion chamber and twin injectors were fitted to a 2.0 Ford Duratec engine, allowing more efficient fuel-air mixtures and (diesel-like) unthrottled operation from idle to full load. There's no sense in trying to break down the technology any further, because it's complicated enough to make HCCI look like the Flintstone car. The upshot: the MUSIC engine delivered 20 percent better efficiency than a standard Duratec in the urban cycle, with an even better 42.5 percent improvement at near idle speeds. The downside? Power is cut nearly in half, delivering only 50 hp (from a two liter engine) at 4k rpm. Developers claim their results could improve with better injection equipment, but add the cost and reliability issues and you have a yourself a hefty engineering to-do list before this technology hits the streets. 

I've been reading through the comments y'all are gracing my Audi A5 review with. Roughly half of you seem to feel that the latest from Mr. d'Silva's studio is so good looking, that's its fancy price, drowsy mechanicals and counterintuitive controls pale when compared to its sensuous shape. The other half offer up the quite logical chestnut, "Bah. 335i ." I of course, reserve the right to sit on the old fence. Yes, the 335i trumps the (as tested) A5 in every meaningful way — and costs less — but holy dog food, Batman! In coupe form, the 335i is the ugliest car in production. Just… ick. But then look at me. I drive a station wagon version of the world's second ugliest car (a bright blue flying vag WRX) because it is such a practical car. And (again) look at me. I'm young (ish), single (ish), childless (probably) and relatively affluent (compared to Turkey). I should be driving a Boxster or a Miata or an Elise. But, you can't run to Target for paper towels and mops in those cars now can you. Can you?