Back in September, I wrote a piece lamenting the death of Honda’s high-perofrmance hallmark, the twin-cam VTEC 4-cylinder engine. It was just the sort of article many of you are fed up with: a lengthy piece filled with flowery prose and Honda fanboy-ism sprinkled with a condescending explanation of the auto industry’s inner workings. Miraculously, it was fairly well-received. But I’ve had a change of heart.
The head of Volkswagen’s Works Council may soon be paying a visit to workers at Chattanooga to discuss the prospect of a works council. Reuters reports that Bernd Osterloh will be headed down south for a “dialogue” about representation. The UAW will not be present at the talks, but representatives of both VW and IG Metall, Germany’s largest labor union, will be in attendance.
Despite the UAW’s absence, the union and IG Metall have their respective ties, with UAW head Bob King acting as IG Metall’s labor representative on Opel’s supervisory board. The meeting is also occurring as the anti-union camp digs in its heels with a campaign aimed at thwarting the UAW’s organization drive.
The diesel powered version of the Mazda6 will be delayed until April of 2014 in the United States, and if you believe Mazda, the delay is meant “to accommodate final emissions testing and certification.” But prior reporting by TTAC on the matter shows that this is far from the only hiccup faced by Mazda with its oil burners.
The W-Body Chevrolet Impala, a TTAC darling, made way for an all-new Epsilon II version this year, and TTAC was initially skeptical about the changeover. But being such fans of the outgoing Impala meant that we’d have to review the car. Twice.
The newest generation of GM trucks have barely hit the showrooms, buttalk of the next generation trucks getting a major weight reduction is already surfacing.
Mitsubishi’s booth at the Canadian International Auto Show was a surprisingly well populated – the Evo and the new Outlander were drawing most of the attention.
Looking neglected was the new unnamed compact, which Mitsu touted as being a hit in Thailand and Japan. With only 70 horsepower on tap, this one might be a bit too wimpy even for small car friendly Canada.
Why does this Bentley have a hashtag on the license plate? Maybe this will become a new trend in locales where license plates can fetch millions of dollars…which also happen to be big markets for ultra-luxury brands.
Sadly, the coolest car of the show won’t be sold here. Transmission maker Aisin brought along this Dihatsu Copen – it makes a Fiat 500 look enormous.
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