Remember long ago (yesterday) when we talked about how the Chevy was doing the Camaro a disservice by cataloging every step of the development process? Well, one day after we see pictures of what looks like a finished car, they've just extended that process. WardsDealer.com reports that the Camaro will be released in the Spring of 2009 as a 2010 model. At that point, gas will probably be seven bucks a gallon. Again, it's not that the development cycle is taking forever; it's that GM is making it seem that way. Especially with the mechanically-related Pontiac G8 going on sale imminently. What's the explanation? "The auto maker ruled out an earlier arrival in calendar 2009, because it would have meant a short model run before changeover to '10 production." Delay sales of a hot car because you're worried about changing the number on the brochures? But don't worry. When gas is $9/gallon in the Spring of 2009, and Dodge has been selling Challengers for a year already, Chevy expects to sell 100k Camaros per annum.

With my parents flying to Florida for a few days, I started calling around to see if I could get them something better than the 1-cylinder Sebring they enjoyed (in the sense of hated) on their last vacation. Hertz was out of Shelby Mustangs but … Avis has Corvettes? That's right, they've added America's first sports car to the fleet in the usual "hot rental car" locations: Los Angeles, Arizona, Las Vegas and south Florida. Can you imagine the abuse these 430-horsepower rental cars are going to take? Even at $165/day, they're not going to preclude hoons from renting them– although I really think all levels of insurance should be mandatory for Avis' sake. From a business standpoint, this still isn't a terrible idea. With increasing numbers of people getting out of their fun cars and getting into fuel-sipping snorefests, why not take a vacation from their eco-responsibility too? Besides, Corvette sales were down 25 percent last month. Fleet sales ought to help staunch the wound.

BorgWarner has announced [via Yahoo! News] that it is doubling its production capacity with a new facility in Arnstadt, Germany. In the past four years, they've put together about a million "DualTronic" dual clutch, paddle-shifterrific trannies. To meet the demand, the Borg are hiring 150 workers for their German plant and spending some $40m for an additional 50k square feet. Not only is it nice to see some growth in this time of automotive post-shower shrinkage, but as the owner of one such transmission (and a car to go around it), this writer can't help but be smug. Ford, Nissan, and BMW have recently added or will be adding the Borgwarner's DualTonic boxes. Which only leaves one question: what's with BorgWarner's antipathy to the space bar?

The Camaro has had spy photographers up its tailpipe ever since GM announced that they were thinking, maybe, about possibly perhaps building a new Camaro. And although we've seen some pretty good shots before, GM is now running undisguised prototypes around so you can get a complete view of what the Camaro looks like. Can you really call them spy pictures when GM is asking to have the pictures taken? Instead, maybe we'll call them "pre-press kit photos" because they're taken before GM invites over the professional studio photographers and then rubs oil all over the car and puts up those funny silver umbrellas. Aside from the horrific watermarks involved, there's a downside to documenting every step of the testing process and showing people the car before it's actually good to go (the Flex effect). Even though the development time line for the Camaro has been reasonably quick, it seems like we've been waiting since Burt Reynolds' first face lift for the new Camaro to hit the showroom floor. Anyway, to quote Three Dog Night, a child is black, a child is white, it turns by day, and then by night.

It's bad enough that filmmakers are so out of ideas they are on a rampage of "movies about stuff you liked as a kid" (and unfortunately only liked because you were a kid). But the cross marketing of cars in movies and TV is not only out of hand, it's just awful. Transformers was transcendently terrible. Knight Rider IS the dark side of product placement. And, now, the newest addition to the list: Iron Man, which stars a recovering drug addict and his Audi R8. To help convince you that their car will make you a superhero, Audi launched an Iron Man microsite that lets you begin watching commercials for free in advance of the two-hour commercial coming to theaters soon. How much of a role the car will have in the movie remains to be seen; sometimes filmmakers will just tease viewers with a supposedly hot car and then it's Gone in Sixty Seconds. Other times its a ten-minute set piece involving Robots Gone Wild. Or an R8 sneaking into Moe Green's bedroom to make him an offer he can't refuse. Anyway, we'll give you the link, but don't click on it or else you could accidentally buy an R8 and pay 10 bucks to see a bad movie. P.S. Iron? That's soooo 18th century.

According to an AutoExpress article that reads suspiciously like a press release, GM's UK subsidiary Vauxhall will be getting a "new" logo. They, ahem, "report" that "the sharp yet simple new logo will set a more upmarket tone for the company as it aims to pitch its forthcoming models against prestige rivals." Translation: many UK consumers think of Vauxhalls as downmarket tat and between the French (Renault mainly) and Germans (BMW and VW), we're under heavy fire. The storied Vauxhall name and its models are so tainted that the Vectra nameplate is being replaced with Insignia this summer. How long will the Vauxhall name survive in the UK? (Ireland switched to Opel in 1982.) The only thing stronger than 3-Series sales in the UK is British nationalism. Vauxhall ain't going nowhere. 

Last month, U.S. Jag dealers sold just over a thousand new cars, despite cut-rate financing. While the entire U.S. car market is going South, Jaguar's stuffy image is sending the venerable marque Hades-wise in a supersonic hand basket. The new XF midrange sedan is supposed to reverse these declining fortunes by burying memories of the bulbous, fusty, pudenda-fronted S-Type (not to mention the execrable X-Type). I grabbed an XF fresh off the transporter to see if Jag’s lobbing snowballs in Hell.

Leftlanenews.com reports that Pontiac will show a targa version of the Solstice at the New York Auto Show. A targa would be welcome; ridding the model of its fidgety folding canvas roof thingy. But will putting the panel in the trunk totally kill the Solstice's other bugbear: less storage space than the Bugatti Veyron's Hermes purse? I'm thinking yes. LLN also reports that GM is considering a Solstice coupe. Sometimes a new bodystyle can jump start sales of a car. Other times, it just adds to the 176-day supply of Solstii sitting on dealer lots. If you think that a sad stat– buyers were paying big ass premiums for this car just two years ago– consider the fact that GM hasn't even begun work on a second generation Solstice, or announced any improvements to the car's too much grip not enough fun driving dynamics. The GM's old next big thing ain't so big; it's just small, that's all. 

Just a few weeks ago, we told you about Nissan's plans to launch the Infiniti brand in Europe. Infiniti has broken their Euro-cherry with their first-ever non-U.S. model launch: the FX50. Leaving aside that the fact that a gas-guzzling five-seat muscle truck may be the wrong model with which to tempt Europeans, the new FX is a gentle evolution. The headlights are a bit weirder, the bronze is even more… bronzy. The V8 engine grows from 4.5-liters and 320 horsepower to 5.0-liters and 390 horsepower. (There will likely be a 3.7-liter out of the G37 also, since the V6 version currently makes up the overwhelming majority of FX's sold in the U.S.) The FX50's transmission is now a seven-speed automatic (pray it's the GT-R's dual clutch system, expect it to be a regular slushbox). If Infiniti really wants to be a player in Europe, this car really needs a V6 diesel. Meanwhile, the FX50 hits U.S. and Canadian showrooms in June.

34-Picture Pixamo Gallery 

Yeah, this isn't exactly as earth-shattering as the introduction of a new Corvette, or even a new Mazda6. But this little car is significant to the auto industry in so many ways. First, it signals that Mazda is finally ready to start really competing with the Euro-zone's mainstream manufacturers, who nearly all offer three-door versions of their small cars (Mazda still doesn't sell a three-door Mazda3, for example). Second, this is, potentially, a great little car [sic]. Compared to the past generation, Mazda has reduced the vehicle's weight by more than just the two missing doors. That's right: debloat. Finally, the Mazda2 is likely coming to America in a year or two, although it'll probably be the sedan version because apparently we Americans really like sedans. The new 2– especially with the automatic– may not be a revelation to drive, but it's another strong contender in the increasingly vital cheap and cheerful category.

[Pixamo gallery of the Mazda2 here.] 

Well here we go from Geneva. Saab pulled the giant sheet off the 9-X concept car. And not surprisingly, it's really good looking. We can tell that because it looks a lot like the other Saab concepts that they've shown but not built. This one, however, is destined for production in one form or another. It even has a really cool gimmicky integrated power-operated rear spoiler on the roof. A 1.4-liter turbocharged engine makes 170 horses, or 200 if you can find/afford E85 (for the sake of the children, please don't). The 9-X also features a hybrid system, but GM isn't saying how much power it'll contribute. Now the but. But…they're going to build it on the Delta platform that underpins such awesome cars as the Chevy Cobalt, Saturn Ion, Pontiac G5, and Chevy HHR. Oh the horror…

[Pixamo gallery of the now-you-see-it-now-you-won't 9-X here] 

In the eternal quest for growth and profits, Land Rover is taking their image– which is one of the most focused in the auto industry– and stretching it to include yet another new soft-roader. Yes, rivet counters will recognize this as the same Land Rover LRX concept that we saw in Detroit, only spray painted black. It still looks pretty slick. But the press release just reeks of brand erosion. "The positioning of LRX could be described as moving subtly from traditional SUV to crossover, with its more car-like appearance and dynamics that are sportier and on-road biased." Screw that. Land Rover should be off-road biased. Although the LRX "promises the widest breadth of capability in the class" that means little when you're comparing its mud-plugging talents to a Honda CR-V's. Land Rover claims they're trying to gauge public interest with this model, but if you ask me, it's just Range Rover Sport redux.Hopefully, the brand's new owners will abandon this senseless pursuit of the BMW X3/Infiniti EX/Mercedes GLK/Audi Q5/Acura RDX, etc.

We've just received info from Autobild on the Volkswagen Golf TDI Hybrid by way of yet another unauthorized embargo break (funeral for the embargo system will be held next Tuesday; in lieu of flowers, send donations to me). You know what's ridiculous about this car? It's got a hair over 100 horsepower, but likely gobs of torque from a diesel engine and electric motor. But the Prius-kicking stat: 69 miles per gallon. Hooah! Is it coming to America? There's no info one way or the other. I speculate that it might, since VW has announced plans for bringing more diesels here, and this will surely have lower particle emissions by virtue of an engine that's not even on below 25 miles per hour (that's a guess). What's more, the 1.4 liter powerplant comes from the current Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion. For normal people that don't follow the European car market, that's VeeDub's fairly clean diesel engine. Clean? High miles per gallon? Getting whooped by Toyota? Sounds like VW needs this car in North America STAT– assuming it can hit 60 in 10 seconds (the car, not the country).

SEAT is yet another Volkswagen brand with an identity crisis (besides Audi, Porsche, and VeeDub itself). For the past umpteen years, VW has been selling SEATs based on two chief characteristics: sporty and cheap. Unfortunately, some strange designs and an overlapping product range have left SEAT with flagging sales– despite the fact that many models are just better value VWs. At this point, the SEAT lineup consists of a very out of date B-segment car called the Ibiza, an old minivan that was co-badged with VW and Ford on sale since 1996 and four Golf-based cars that pretty much all look the same (Leon, Toledo, Altea, Altea XL). To help rescue sales and image from the inodoro, SEAT is set to show a new B-segment concept car at the Geneva Auto Show. The [working title] Bocanegra or Black Mouth looks pretty darn good– even if it is derivative of Mazda concepts and BMW production models. As usual, it's not coming to the U.S. or Canada, not even on vacation.

[Pixamo gallery of the new SEAT concept here]

Audi is going to milk its diesel car win at the 24 hours of Le Mans (as opposed to Lee Marvin) by throwing high performance diesel engines in every concept car from Switzerland to Michigan. We Yanks saw the Audi R8 V12 TDI back in early January at the NAIAIAIAIAS in Detroit. For Geneva, the "brand of four rings" is making the Q7 SUV even more loco (as in locomotive) by fitting it with a ludicrous V12 up front. The 5.9-liter unit (they'll probably call it 6.0-liter since Audi has displacement OCD) makes 500 horsepower and could crush coal into diamonds with 737 ft.-lbs. of torque from a mere 1500 rpm on up (not far, but you can't have everything). The result is a sprint from 0 – 60 in a Porsche Cayenne Turbo-like 5.5 seconds. The oil burning Q7's mileage is a relatively amazing 20 mpg (compared to the Cayenne Turbo's 14 mpg). Will it be a nose heavy pig like the VW V10 TDI Toureg? Audi's press pack claim the engine has all manner of expensive exotic weight-saving materials; it is after all the first passenger car to go on sale with a V12 diesel. As for sale in the U.S., two words: exchange rates. Or: no deal. Regardless, the Q7 V12 TDI is so insane you can't help but like it. Just as long as you don't look at it. 

[Click here for the Pixamo gallery of Q7 V12 TDI gallery]