Lotus has been developing the Kia Soul’s suspension for UK road conditions since 2008, lending even more appeal to Kia’s new hot box. “The result of our partnership with Lotus is a more composed ride which we think is much more suitable to what our roads can throw at Soul, and additionally, it is also a more exciting car to drive,” Paul Philpott of Kia UK tells Carscoop. This is the first time Kia has tuned a car specifically for the UK market. It is, however, not the first time the US market been left out in the cold while others get the Lotus-fettled hotness. Perhaps our new president could do something about this?

One of the myriad unintended consequences of America’s bailout bonanza is the prospect of an international trade war. Though the WTO moves slowly, the European Union often takes a firm line on American subsidy regimes. And a report in Automotive News Europe [sub] indicates that the EU is prepared to take a firm line on automotive subsidies, as it has in the past with steel and agricultural protective measures. “Europe cannot just look on if someone offers subsidies and market forces are dispensed with,” declares German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “We have to watch carefully what the new president of the United States … will do with the American automotive industry,” growls EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen. But what’s this? Auto Motor und Sport reports the details of France’s latest 300m Euro effort to rescue the Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen’s supply chains.

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There are three types of beater: cheap, cheaper and push start. A cautious consumer can’t let brand snobbery blind him to the truth about a car. Case in point. A low mileage leathered-up Olds Silhouette minivan. In Gold. Sure it’s the epitome of GM mediocrity, equipped with more parts bin pieces than a Junkyard Wars jalopy. But, in this case, the owner stabled the Silhouette in the great indoors. A ream of paperwork highlighted the undeserving loving care the machine received. So I bought the old Olds for $2200. I’ll be financing it for a little over four grand. Hey, it’s a living.

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When Ford unloaded Land Rover on India’s Tata Motors, commentators didn’t see a whole lot of future for the brand. Sure, Landies are known worldwide for bearing the white man’s burden in places where he was eventually kicked-out and replaced by ruthless, genocidal despots. But the western world’s new-found fascination with automotive CO2 levels (of all things) didn’t bode well for Britain’s stilt-borne barges. Even before the transfer, Land Rover has been busy appeasing [both] 4X4-loving tree huggers by hanging-out the greenwashing– paying for carbon credits, stocking the cafeteria with organic cauliflower cheese, that sort of thing. Under its new masters, the planet-friendly spin continues. A press release this morning reveals that Landie’s Gaydon training facility has been converted to Eden Project II.

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It’s the last day of our redesign our non-existent logo competition, and the submissions have been anything but non-existent. TTAC’s Best and Brightest have answered the call in force, demonstrating a depth of design talent that would shame, well, me. Given the volume of submissions, I’ve created a new category: Logo Contest (no points for creativity there). If you want to see all the designs, simply click on “News,” then select “Logo Contest” from the drop-down menu. As promised, TTAC’s crack [smoking] staff will wade through all the work to find the ten or so that best encapsulate The Truth About Cars’ editorial stance and style. Then we’ll put them to a popular vote. Meanwhile, thanks to all those who invested their time, effort and passion into this contest on our behalf. (Excluding the selfish gene theory.) It’s reassuring to know that the TTAC brand resonates so well with its owners.

Yesterday, we learned that court-appointed bailiffs are knocking on the doors of UK motorists who’ve failed to pay their fines, and driving them to the cashpoint machine. Now we read that Her Majesty’s government plans to seize and crush uninsured motorists’ vehicle, even if they’re parked. “The Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) would work with insurance companies to identify uninsured cars [using mobile number plate recognition cameras], Reuters reports. “Letters will be sent to owners found without insurance, threatening them a 100 pound penalty notice, rising to as much as 1,000 pounds if they are taken to court. They would also face the seizure of their car, which would be sold, or destroyed if of low value. ‘These tough new measures will leave uninsured drivers with nowhere to hide,’ said Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick.” The Powers That Be justify the crackdown smackdown with sobering stats. “The government says uninsured and untraced drivers kill 160 people every year and injure 23,000 others. As well as the human cost, uninsured driving adds an extra 30 pounds a year to every motorist’s insurance, adding up to 400 million pounds of additional premiums.” So really, it’s all about saving lives and reducing the burden on innocent motorists. Who knew?

So, this is how it’s gonna go, eh? Chrysler’s going to dress-up the cratered car company long enough to use federal funds to stay alive long enough to strip and flip the company’s assets. Sweet. For some. More specifically, if Fiat’s grabbing 35 percent of Chrysler, can we, the taxpayers, have our $4b back now please? Nope. “The alliance does not contemplate that Fiat would make a cash investment in Chrysler or commit to funding Chrysler in the future.” Jeez. Couldn’t they at least contemplate it? Anyway, a joint statement (don’t bogart that BS, my friend) explains the thinking “The alliance, to be a key element of Chrysler’s viability plan, would provide Chrysler with access to competitive, fuel-efficient vehicle platforms, powertrain, and components to be produced at Chrysler manufacturing sites. Fiat would also provide distribution capabilities in key growth markets, as well as substantial cost savings opportunities. In addition, Fiat would provide management services supporting Chrysler’s submission of a viability plan to the U.S. Treasury as required.” That last one’s kinda weird. What “management services” are required to write a viability plan? Emptying the waste baskets?

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Well, he should know. I mean, when the head of the United Auto Workers (UAW) says GM can’t satisfy Congress’ conditions for a second major suckle on Uncle Sam’s teat, you gotta listen. Big Ron Gettelfinger is the guy who has to agree to an equity-for-health-care-payment swap as one of the two major conditions for the cash. “Honestly,” Ron Gettelfinger says, signaling the spinmongery to come. “Most people that have looked at this from a realistic standpoint would say this timeline is almost unattainable. I said myself that I hope this wasn’t set up to intentionally fail… People have no idea of the magnitude of what they were asking these companies to do.” Or to paraphrase John F. Kennedy, ask not what the UAW can do for GM, ask what Congress can do for the UAW. Or to not paraphrase John F. Kennedy, “We’ve done everything we said we were going to do up to this point,” Gettelfinger maintained, assuming that no one will attempt to substantiate a single union “give back.” “We have ongoing discussions with the companies — but nothing formalized in any way shape or form.” No surprise, then, that Gettelfinger said there’d been “no real progress” on a new agreement. The charade continues– until the congressional deadline of February 17. And beyond!

Automotive News [sub] reports that GM is preparing to spin off its Saab brand, since its “strategic review” has failed to turn up any interested buyers. “Saab has been negotiating with GM and the Swedish government about becoming a more independent company, initially as part of GM,” explains a mysterious GM source. According to Saab’s union president Paul Akerlund, “under this [plan], the Saab board will be more like a normal board, and less dependent on what happens on GM’s European strategy board. They will make their own decisions.” Still confused? GM will still be the owner, but Saab will have its own budget,  says Akerlund. Presumably only long enough to attract an interested buyer, though. “You have to make sure there is a company that GM can sell,” says Stefan Lofven, president of Sweden’s IF Metall union. “That means a company that is a separate entity where people can look at the balance sheets and you know what you are buying.” As in not GM, where top executives are “losing patience” with Saab. So instead of “GM life support” as Lutz so uniquely puts it, Saab gets production of the new 9-5 and an undetermined amount of cash (ha!) to retreat to the motherland and court buyers in peace.

Remember the Converj concept Caddy rolled out for the Detroit show? You know, the good looking Volt coupe? The one that was held up as a reason to bring PNGV back from beyond the grave? Anyway, you probably had your hopes up for a quick production run. After all, GM’s Car Czar Bob Lutz hath already proclaimed that a production Converj would look “exactly” like the concept. So it’s official, right? Right? When Automotive News [sub] actually asks the question, Lutz’s maximum takes a moment to aknowledge the presence of reality. “Ready to go? Well, first we have to prove to ourselves that we have the money,” Lutz says. “And then that it’s a high enough priority to displace something else, and that we can actually make money on the vehicle, and that there is potential customer interest and so forth. We haven’t done any of that work yet.” So now we know: “proving to ourselves that we have the money” is step one (post-concept) for GM product development. With an estimated debt load of $60b and a market cap of you-depress-yourself-with-the-math, that process of “proving to ourselves that we have the money” must make for some entertaining material. Reality series!

While perusing the comments on the capsule SRT8 review, our own Karesh’s stood out, Specifically this part, “During media days at NAIAS I told every manufacturer who cared to listen (and a few who did not) that the largest unfilled hole in the market is a 3,000-pound RWD compact sedan with a base price in the mid-twenties.”There’s been talk for a while now about the joint Subaru-Toyota RWD Coupe (basically an AE86 replacement) that would sell for around $21,000 and have the drift kids pooping their pants with excitement. Sadly for them (and Hanes), it’s looking more and more like Toyota will be shelving that particular cheapie coupe until at least 2012, if not scrapping it altogether. So that particular hole in the market remains. Especially as the BMW 1-series is a joke in base trim and the twin-turbo edition is over $40,000. So yeah, I agree with Michael that right now a cheap, rear-driver coupe is the market’s gaping hole. You?

As Robert wrote earlier, GM is piling on the incentives to move metal in a January market that seems to be moving like molasses. And though GM and its finance units are benefiting from the largess of the federal bailout bonanza, their decision to delay incentive payments in December is putting the squeeze on its dealer network. Especially as they’re forcing dealers to buy more inventory in order to qualify for incentive cash. Automotive News [sub] reports that GM’s $4b loan “provided a short-term relief,” but  “it didn’t fix the issue,” according to GM’s Mark LaNeve. La Neve tells AN that he isn’t planning on altering the incentive schedule. So, although payments have resumed, they are now two weeks behind schedule. And he doesn’t know when they’ll return to the normal schedule; it all depends on when tranche deux of the federal sugar shows up. Meanwhile…

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I’m almost due for my next car. Well, in six months. Which might as well be tomorrow. My GTI will go back to Volkswagen so that some poor clod can own it out of warranty. And this leaves me shopping for a replacement. This is where I’m in trouble. Not only do I have car-lover’s ADD, but I am picky about cars I actually will drive and don’t want anything too common. Even though I’m a jerk, I won’t drive the official car of jerks everywhere. So that means no 3-Series.  Did I mention I prefer a hatchback or wagon? All this hemming and hawing has left me thinking about a Volvo or Saab. The trouble is, despite stories of the better experiences (“My Volvo V70 has gone 400,000 miles with only routine maintenance), whatever I buy will be weird, and therefore will break down. It’s not the breaking down I mind so much, but the cost of parts and repairs. The trouble is, I’m not unhinged enough to actually think an Alfa or a Citroen makes sense to buy. So what I really want is an Alfa Romeo or Citroen with Honda build quality. And if you take away the breaking down, you take away quintessential European-car character. What this means is that I’m crazy, but not crazy enough.