Wells Fargo is getting slammed with all kinds of penalties over shady business practices. Currently prohibited from growing its business as investigators look into its practices, the bank has restructured itself after it was implicated in widespread auto insurance and mortgage lending abuse in the summer of 2017. It’s also still coping with an earlier scandal involving local branches opening fake accounts for customers.

Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency suggested Well Fargo pay $1 billion to “resolve” the governmental probes into those issues. That changed today when the bureau filed a consent order announcing it was time for the bank to pay up.

The fine applies to the mortgage lending issues, as well as Wells Fargo’s past practice of charging thousands of auto loan customers for insurance they didn’t need and often didn’t even know about. The move caused some borrowers to default on their loans, resulting in their vehicles being repossessed. The consent order mandates that the bank remediate those customers.  (Read More…)

As April 20th dawns without a wage deal with its workforce, General Motors’ troubled Korean division could be well down the road to bankruptcy.

GM Korea, which recently announced the closure of an assembly plant amid a continued loss of sales and money, needed to reach a deal with its 16,000 workers by today’s date in order to gain assistance from the South Korean government. The division builds the Chevrolet Spark, Trax, and Buick Encore for U.S. customers. Since revealing its restructuring plan back in February, GM Korea failed to gain much-needed wage concessions from its aggressive labor union.

Without this, bankruptcy might be the only option, the automaker claims. (Read More…)

General Motors’ Cadillac division started the week with one president, but ended it with another. In dropping former brand chief John de Nysschen, GM either rid itself of an executive who, as Lee Iacocca would put it, wasn’t cutting the mustard, or revealed itself as an impatient and overbearing automaker that held unrealistic expectations for its goal of a quick brand turnaround.

There’s only two camps in this face-off and, perhaps unfairly, you’ll need to pick a side. (Read More…)

Josh writes:

I’ve asked you a few questions over the years, and the answers have always been excellent. Well now… I’ve yet another: about a month ago I picked up a rather humble ’99 Fleet Car White Saturn SL1. Despite an intermittent “Service Engine Soon” idiot light (which I suspected to be the typical rather crusty EGR valve, and was right), rear power windows I was warned by the owner “to not put them down,” it was clean overall, had traveled only 110k miles in its lifetime, and was a one-owner car. I paid the sum of $1,100 cash money and became the proud new owner.

It has four new tires (that match!), doesn’t piss any of its fluids or smoke, and has cold air conditioning. And three cheers for damned near 40 mpg. On to my question: when the engine idles, it sounds “squeaky.” Not squeally, like belt squeal… but squeaky. And it’s more than just a squeak when it idles, it’s present while driving. I can hear the squeak while I drive down the highway even! (Read More…)

In today’s automotive naming culture, “300 Sport” cannot possible mean there’s a 3.0-liter engine under the hood. Too obvious. No, much like the Mercedes-Benz C300, the 2019 Jaguar XE 300 Sport will not budge above two liters of displacement.

It will, however, budge well above the priciest 2.0-liter XE’s MSRP. Luckily, you’ll probably never need to know about this, as the XE’s lacklustre U.S. sales suggest this introduced-in-Europe trim will remain on the east side of the Atlantic. (Read More…)

Controversial decisions that ruffled the feathers of dealers and brand faithful alike defined the Johan de Nysschen era at Cadillac. Project Pinnacle left the brand’s dealers in revolt, forcing changes and delays in the streamlining, brand-boosting strategy. Meanwhile, many still feel Cadillac is not a marque for Manhattan — the brand’s new home — and that a keeping-up-with-the-Germans product strategy takes the division too far away from its heritage. GM executives may not share those sentiments.

For de Nysschen, the decision to place GM Canada head Steve Carlisle in charge of Cadillac is purely a business decision. He admits he didn’t fulfill the requirements laid out by his superiors. (Read More…)

Polestar is building the cars Volvo can’t rationalize for its core demographic — high-powered electrics not intended for the general populace. While the brand has tweaked its Swedish autos in the past, Geely’s acquisition of Volvo Cars has seen Polestar evolve into a standalone division with its own unique performance lineup. But its stables are currently empty, at least until Polestar 1 enters into production.

In the interim, the Volvo subsidiary will continue showing the 600-horsepower coupe off to whet the appetites of the global market. That includes the United States because, as of last month, you can preorder one for yourself for $2,500. But production won’t begin in China until next year, and Geely doesn’t want that factory to go to waste. So Polestar will likely trickle out information and multimedia relating to its first model for the entirety of 2018.

This week, we were treated to a video of it attacking a snowy rut during some extreme winter testing inside Sweden’s portion of the Arctic Circle. Interestingly, the car in the video is camouflaged. But we’ve already seen the 2-door sports hybrid uncovered at the Geneva Motor Show — and it just us, or does the Polestar 1 look a little bit like Lincoln persevered with the LS and eventually spawned a coupe variant?  (Read More…)

Really, what else could Hyundai do? Hybrids aren’t the sole domain of traditional sedans anymore, let alone cars in general, and with green competition on the rise, something needed to be done to sweeten the pot.

The 2018 Sonata Hybrid, arriving roughly a half year after the mid-2017 debut of the refreshed 2018 gas-only model, offers buyers an extra 2 mpg on the highway, but that isn’t enough to fend off competition from the likes of Toyota and Honda (among others). As sales of almost all midsize sedans roll downhill, it’s growing harder and harder to justify a large price premium for green technology. Sonata volume declined 27.7 percent in the U.S. over the first quarter of 2018.

Interested in the new Sonata Hybrid? Put some cash back in your wallet, and try not to think about the Honda Accord Hybrid. (Read More…)

General Motors is updating its on-board digital marketplace to allow customers to purchase fuel without ever having to leave the vehicle. You’ll still have to leave the confines of the vehicle to actually pump the gas, unless you live in New Jersey, but the exchange of money is handled entirely by the world’s first “in-dash fuel payment system.”

What a time to be alive.

The new service is available via the Shell widget, which is already featured on GM’s Marketplace app (providing directions to the nearest Shell station). The corporate collaboration allows respective patrons to select a nearby Shell station, use the map to navigate there, park, select a pump, fill up, and drive away. Payment is automatically charged through Shell’s Fuel Rewards program.  (Read More…)

The investigative parade continues in Germany. Prosecutors investigating Volkswagen Group’s diesel-emissions scandal have now turned their attention to Porsche. Roughly 10 facilities owned by the automaker in Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg were searched by around 160 investigators.

Stuttgart-based prosecutors claimed to be interested in three specific individuals suspected of fraud and fraudulent advertising as it relates to the manipulated emissions-control systems of diesel passenger cars. The office clarified that Porsche CEO Oliver Blume was not among them, however.  (Read More…)

Ford Motor Company claims its 3.0-liter Power Stroke diesel V6, due to appear under the hood of the F-150 starting in May, blows the competition out of the water in terms of fuel economy. The automaker now cites an EPA-estimated 30 mpg highway figure for its light-duty diesel pickup, beating Ram’s 3.0-liter EcoDiesel in pump-passing power.

The real test, however, comes later this year, when General Motors debuts its own light-duty Duramax mill — a Flint-built diesel inline-six of unannounced power and efficiency. (Read More…)

Today’s Rare Ride is a reader submission by one Eric T. Perusing Craigslist in Frasier Crane’s hometown of Seattle, he came upon this quite uncommon Volkswagen Passat wagon. It’s a variant never sold by American dealers, but available on the Canadian side of the border in very limited quantities.

It’s all-wheel drive, has a manual transmission, and is supercharged.

(Read More…)

Honda quietly unveiled the Small RS Concept hatchback at the Indonesia International Motor Show.

This concept is basically a mini Type R. It has a large rear wing, LED daytime running lights, gloss black accents, a small air intake in the hood, side skirts, wing mirrors, creases along the sides, a rear diffuser, and unique tailpipes.

Black wheels and orange paint round out the look.

No word on technical specs just yet.

(Read More…)

A phone that could only have been lost through the intervention of some kind of malevolent, omnipotent force leads us to today’s question. We’re not concerned with missing cellular devices, of course, no matter how much this author now loathes O’Hare airport — no, there’s a good chance many of you have had the same thing occur with a prized, or perhaps not so prized vehicle.

Which of you have known the pain of seeing your vehicle on the side of a milk carton? (Read More…)

After weeks of unpleasant trade talk and posturing between Washington and Beijing, China’s lead economic planner announced the country would be easing limits on foreign ownership of automotive ventures. While an official metric was not posted, it will be less than the current 50-percent cap non-Chinese automakers have been limited to since 1994. But, for all we know, China may be seeking to scrap the mandate entirely.

We did, however, get a timeline. On Tuesday, the People’s Republic announced it would remove foreign ownership caps for companies making fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles this year — followed by commercial vehicle manufacturers in 2020 and the rest of the car market by 2022. (Read More…)