The interior on the right belongs to the 2011 Honda Civic. The interior on the left belongs to the new 2012 Civic. Apparently they just left the older one out in the sun for a while, causing it to melt and sag.

In what may be one of the most important Supreme Court rulings for the car industry in some time [full opinion in PDF here], the highest court in the land has found that compliance with minimum federal safety standards is not a defense against personal injury or wrongful death suits brought in state courts. The case in question involved a 2002 accident in which Than Williamson was killed when a Jeep Wrangler hit her family’s 1993 Mazda MPV. The Williamson MPV had only lap belts because shoulder belts weren’t required by federal law until 2007. A California court has already barred the lawsuit from coming forward, arguing that federal regulations supersede any local rulings, and that then-legal seatbelts should protect manufacturers from personal injury liability. But in the wake of another ruling involving pharmaceutical companies, it seemed that the court might overturn that ruling, which it now has.

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Analysts are reporting that GM could announce full-year 2010 profits of over $5b tomorrow, although Q4 profits may have dipped to $1.06b. That would make its full-year results the best since a $6b profit in 1999, but Q4 results could be the second-worst since emerging from bankruptcy. Why the slowdown? Analysts give Bloomberg a number of possible explanations, including

• GM’s spending on cars including the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid and future products may lead to higher costs similar to those that restrained profits at Ford and Daimler AG.
• Automakers are paying more for materials such as steel and are struggling to pass the costs to consumers amid a “somewhat weak” economy
• Restructuring unprofitable European operations

Of all these dynamics, however, CEO Dan Akerson’s rush to revamp GM’s lineup and expand the applications of the Volt’s drivetrain could end up driving the most cost. Though GM is making a healthy profit again (and not paying taxes on it), an overly-ambitious speed-up in product cadence could combine with rising costs to slow The General back down (as they have already done to some extent at Ford). In any case, we will certainly have a better picture of GM’s financial performance tomorrow, when the firm’s results are announced.

Having penned the original Golf, possibly the most influential modern global compact car, Giorgetto Giugiaro and his Italdesign staff are revisiting the theme of forward-thinking, compact and subcompact hatchbacks for its new owner, Volkswagen. A sleek, C-segment three-door may hint at the look of future Golfs, but if so it’s a peek well into the future, as the Golf VII debuts later this year with a decidedly more evolutionary look. Ital’s designs shrink the front fascias of both cars to the width of their narrow headlights, improving aerodynamics and allowing a relatively open greenhouse… VW’s designs have been headed in this direction since the Duplo-block Golf III, and Giugiaro’s boys may be planning the stylistic endgame. Even the more upright subcompact concept has the same minimalist brow and unexpectedly curve-dependent, organic design language.

In any case, VW has not yet commented on the designs, so we don’t really know where they fit into the brand’s future. Still, it’s cool to see the house that penned the original Golf taking on the same design brief, decades after the original helped define a whole segment.

Let’s face it: if you’re considering an Aston-Martin, you’ve got pretty refined taste. You’ve got the resources to scoff at the mere 470 horsepower offered by the DB9, but you aren’t enough of an ostentatious bore to jump for a 510 horsepower DBS. What to do? Luckily Aston has heard your subtle yet distinctive cry for help, and is exhuming its Virage nameplate just so you can enjoy a thoroughly respectable 490 horsepower in your coupe or roadster. Because any more would be obnoxious and any less would just be pathetic.

You’d think that a place with “taxation without representation” on its license plates would pay close attention to fiscal decisions, but according to a fascinating Washington Post story, when it comes to cars, all bets are off. District of Columbia Council Chairman Kwame Brown has claimed for months that his leased Lincoln Navigator was simply issued to him by the District, but thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, it has been discovered that Brown simply bullied his way into a $1,900/month “fully loaded” Navigator lease that had to be sourced all the way from Kansas City.

The story might just seem aggravating if you may be asked to pay for D.C.’s $440m budget shortfall, but it’s also a fascinating insight into government vehicle sourcing. We’ve covered some strange government vehicle purchases before, but we’ve never before seen exactly how politicians go about securing their unnecessarily flash rides. The key: just insist on the best and don’t take no for an answer. Read the whole thing. [Hat Tip: Brady Holt]

Though it appears that it may take even more government stimulus to achieve President Obama’s goal of putting one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015, online auto juggernaut Edmunds has come out against existing EV tax credits in a commentary by CEO Jeremy Anwyl. Anwyl’s argument is rooted in the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy‘s finding that the tax credit-qualifying Chevy Volt is only the 13th-greenest vehicle on the market while its greenest, the natural gas-powered Honda Civic GX, remains unsubsidized. Anwyl argues

The problem is this:  When the government picks a technology, it crowds out development of other, potentially promising alternatives, like the natural gas engine used in the Honda Civic GX (above). LNG is not a new technology.  I had friends who converted their vehicle to natural gas back in the Seventies.  But how much are we hearing about it today? Or what about hydrogen fuel cells?  A few years back, they were the stars of the major auto shows.  Were any fuel-cell vehicles on display at the recent Detroit auto show? No. Every automaker was busy touting EVs.

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Lamborghini was clearly hoping to tease its fans with a long, drawn-out release of pictures of its new Murcielago-replacing Aventador, as pictures of the supercar’s greasy bits were released today. But, in the era of global media, even the most-complicit outlets can accidentally let loose images of new supercar hotness… and that’s apparently what happened with the latest Lamborghini.  EVO Magazine’s Croatian edition leaked the first image of the Aventador to Car and Driver, and it’s now making its way across the web. But really, aren’t the pics featuring the Aventador’s carbon fiber tub, pushrod suspension and other non-styling features the more interesting photos?

Initial reports of a diesel version of the Chevy Cruze coming to the US market cited GM management sources who apparently told workers at the Cruze’s Lordstown, OH assembly plant they would begin building the diesel-powered Cruze for the 2013 model-year. But GM spokesfolks tell the Youngstown Vindicator.

GM has some of the most capable engineers in the world and very capable engineering in Europe. If and when the time comes, there is no doubt GM will be able to produce a diesel engine in America,

The implication being that a diesel Cruze is not imminent… but that doesn’t mean it will never happen. Local UAW boss Dave Green clarifies

I did see the report. I read where we may be getting some diesel-powered Cruzes, but we have not gotten word of that from our corporate offices

So… call the diesel Cruze a big maybe. At some point. Perhaps Chevy is waiting for the Cruze five-door to come online before making an all-out bid for America’s “Mr Euro” market with a diesel hatchback.

Nissan raised a tempest in a chatroom (or 20) when it claimed a 7:29:03 Nürburgring lap time for its GTR, and taunted Porsche that this time beat its 911 Turbo. Porsche took the bait, claiming that its drivers couldn’t replicate the GTR’s lap time and that Nissan must have used non-stock tires. Nissan fired back, and as the controversy became mired in he said-she-said nonsense, the fanboys gradually lost interest. And now, years later, Nissan is literally shoving the controversy into the faces of Porsche owners in hopes of getting even more mileage over one of the sillier controversies in the world of performance cars. But can you imagine this nearly three-year-old taunt actually stinging Porsche owners into considering a GTR?

Daihatsu has dusted off its most unfortunate nameplate for a rather unfortunate rebadge, as Autobild reports that the outgoing Toyota Yaris will be sold in Europe as the Daihatsu Charade starting this year. The 99 HP Charade will be sold for less than the European Yaris, which will be replaced shortly with the model that was recently launched in Japan. So, did Daihatsu’s engineers work out all the “Buru-buru” and “hyoko-hyoko” (“walk with a tremor” and “unsteady steps”)? Or is this just a cheap way to snag some of the low-cost sales that helped Hyundai pass Toyota as the best-selling Asian brand in Europe? Clearly the bosses at Toyota are still struggling with the dynamic that Paul Niedermeyer identified in his Curbside Classic on the Charade, when he wrote

Toyota took a minority ownership stake in Daihatsu in 1967, and upped that to 51% in 1999. Daihatsu was the source for kei-cars for Toyota, allowing it to not spread its resources into that narrow segment. But there has always been an overlap with Daihatsu’s larger cars, many of them having been Toyota rebadges. That’s not the case with the Charade, but Toyota’s Tercel was clearly stepping all over it, especially in the US. It begs the question as to whether Daihatsu has a real future as a word brand, or whether it will eventually be absorbed fully into the Toyota family.

Weeks after being appointed to the top of GM’s new product development team, Mary Barra remains something of an enigma to much of the automotive press. Like, what accomplishments earned Ms Barra her lofty spot on GM’s org chart? According to Newsweek‘s Doron Levin

When Mary Barra was a senior manufacturing executive a few years ago at General Motors, she spotted another maker’s car decked out in a rich metallic black color. It was unlike anything GM was offering, so she suggested the color be added to the company’s palette—and was promptly rebuffed by fellow engineers, who fretted about potential quality-control difficulties. But Barra wouldn’t take no for an answer, and before long buyers were able to get their Cadillac Escalades and Chevy Malibus in elegant “Carbon Flash.”

So, now we know.

Nissan and Renault may be joined at the hip (well, at the CEO anyway), but they’re not going easy on each other as both charge ahead to bring down EV costs. Nissan’s Leaf is currently the cheapest major OEM-produced EV, but at around €30k, it’s still not all that cheap. Now, Renault is saying that its forthcoming Zoe EV will put the hurt on its cousin, the Leaf, with a starting price of “around” €21k. It’s not that much smaller than the Leaf and it’s got the same 100 mile projected range… so what’s Renault’s secret? Does it have some special pricing formula? The answer is yes… but it’s not so secret. You see, when you buy the Zoe (sometime in 2012), you won’t be buying a battery. Instead, you will lease the battery for around €70 per month. You see, unlike Nissan’s Leaf, the Renault Zoe will be able to use Project Better Place’s battery switch-station to swap batteries in just minutes. So, if you charge from home, the Zoe and the Leaf will be largely the same… but if you live near a PBP swap station, the Zoe’s range can be doubled in minutes. Plus, you don’t own the battery, so killer EV depreciation isn’t a worry. It’s like we’ve said: it’s not the cars that will break EVs into the mainstream, it’s the business model.