Practice for your own sudden unintended acceleration event now, at toyotasimulator.com.

As tipster starbird80 notes, “you see the strangest things on eBay!” But a Vista Cruiser Coupe (or is that a shooting brake)? Surely not…

Read More >

It’s both annoying and strangely prophetic (we think) that Lancia and Chrysler don’t have one of those convenient “Brangelina” names, like Lancsler or Chrycia. Fiat’s execs aren’t exactly being subtle about the merging of the two brands, but then they’re also not giving us a lot of glimpses at the stunning execution that it will take to turn two marginal marques into a single, halfway viable brand. It’s almost as if the two are just being pushed together in a forced, unnatural manner, and the results thus far show a distinct lack of inspiration. Not convinced? Hit the jump for your morning glass of has it really come to this? [via unica-strada.com].

Read More >

With all the drama surrounding Alfa Romeo’s future, it’s heartening to see that the brand is still taking the time to work on core competencies like the emotional drop-top two-seater. Nobody knows for sure if Alfa will survive past the end of this year, but if they do, this is probably how they should celebrate. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has been urging Alfa to “find religion,” and soon… happily, the 2uettottanta Concept sure looks like the work of true believers. With just a little Pontiac Solstice thrown in for good measure.

Who’s afraid of the 2016 CAFE standard ramp-up? Not the gas-electric hybrid Porsche 918 Spyder Concept. With 0-60 in 3.2 seconds from a racing-derived V8, and an extra 218 hp of electric power, the 918 Spyder could theoretically get 78 mpg, according to Porsche [full release at Egmcartech]. Just try not to think what all that racing-derived goodness would cost new.

Koenigsegg wasn’t able to buy Saab, so they made an “all-new” supercar instead. But can you tell the difference between the new Agera and the old CCX? Headlights aside, it’s a tough assignment. And in the world of million-dollar supercars, the term “all-new” implies just a little bit more.

Shortly after emerging from bankruptcy last July, when GM’s sales were still showing few signs of recovery, then-Sales and Marketing boss Mark LaNeve had his marketing responsibilities stripped about a week before monthly sales came out. In a matter of months, LaNeve was out the door. Sales and marketing were rolled together again when Susan Docherty took over for LaNeve, but over the weekend it was once again stripped away, in one of the first signs that Docherty’s star is no longer rising at GM. And lets go ahead and start assuming that February sales must be looking fairly grim, because the only real explanation given to Automotive News [sub] is that

The shakeup shows that Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre is impatient to boost sales and for consumers to appreciate what he believes is the high quality of GM vehicles. When he became chief executive in December, Whitacre said his sales and marketing team would need to show results quickly.

The perception gap claims another victim! But Docherty’s downgrade is Mark Reuss’s gain. The former Holden boss, now GM’s President of North American operations, will assume the sales responsibilities, leaving Docherty time to focus on the marketing side and polish up her resumé.

Read More >

While America gets a Lexus-badged Toyota Sai as our first entry-premium hybrid car, the Europeans will get this CT200h instead. In addition to better differentiation from the Prius (to this blogger, the HS250h smacks of old Buick-style brand engineering), the CT200h is said to be more driver-focused than previous Toyota hybrids. But then, we Americans are all used to not getting the smaller, tauter, hatchback-ier models by now, right? Right?

Honda looks 50 years into the future, and comes away with the 3R-C Concept, an EV commuter that has a surprising amount in common with the Neighborhood Electric Vehicles of that became hugely popular during the high gas prices of the Summer of 2008. The 3R-C will debut at the Geneva Auto Salon.

Kicking Tires calls these “the first official photos of the production version” of the next-generation Chevrolet Aveo. They show a subcompact that’s definitely less showcar-ish than the Aveo RS concept from NAIAS, but is still in the computer-generated “uncanny valley” between the realistic and real. Or maybe I’m just getting used to the idea of a halfway-appealing Aveo.

UAW members protest a Modesto, CA Toyota dealer, as part of the union’s wider effort to punish Toyota for its decision to shut down the NUMMI factory in nearby Fremont [via the Modesto Bee]. “We are not telling people not to buy Toyota products,” explains one worker. “We’re telling people that Toyota needs to be a responsible corporation and keep jobs in California.” And though there couldn’t be a better time to blame Toyota for just about anything, the NUMMI plant was closed because GM ditched the joint venture during its bankruptcy and government bailout. Toyota, like GM, was faced with overproduction in the US market, and because GM had pulled out of NUMMI, the plant was an obvious candidate for closure. So really, these protesters would have some sinister version of GM’s logo on their sign if they were really interested in fairly assigning blame for the NUMMI shutdown. However, their UAW pension fund owns 17.5 percent of GM, so simply blaming Toyota is a lot more convenient. Especially since Toyota is already attracting so much well-deserved (if wholly-unrelated) negative media attention.

Other, more enthusiast-oriented blogs have already cooed approvingly at the Hennessey Venom, which is set to debut in the next several months. We take note of it only because of how familiar its formula is. Take a lightweight British roadster, slap in a fire-breathing American V8 (in this case, a 1,000 hp twin-turbo version of the Corvette ZR1’s mill), destroying the donor car’s immaculate balance and creating something that rates higher on the gee-whiz-ain’t-it-cool meter than on any remotely utilitarian measure. Sound familiar? If it doesn’t now, it might in a few decades, when Hennessey unsuccessfully attempts to sue enthusiasts who build replicas of its entirely unoriginal supercar.

Fisker’s Karma won’t compete directly with Chevrolet’s Volt or Opel’s Ampera, but it will be the only other Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) on the market when it goes on sale later this year. But GM isn’t taking the challenge laying down, showing this Opel “Flextreme” Concept as a vision of a Volt-based four-place coupe, a theoretical (and vaguely Lexus LF-A-inspired) challenge to Fisker’s EREV luxury four-door. Too bad Opel’s facing nearly as many challenges as Fisker is…

The Lotus Elise has been refreshed for 2011 [via Autocar] to bring it more in line with its new flagship sibling, the Evora. In the process, the Evora’s ability to look more achingly beautiful in person than any photo would lead you to believe may just have been passed along. From these pictures, the Elise does seem to have lost a bit of the je ne sais quoi that put its predecessor on top of my quasi-realistic dream car list, but that’s alright. Even if the new looks don’t improve in person, the used models are more realistically obtainable. Besides, the Evora haunts my dreams more relentlessly than any car has in a while (helped not a little by rave reviews from such trusted sources as Dan Neil and evo Magazine). Don’t you worry about me.

“The American people are willing to forgive and forget, but they would like a little gift,” AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson tells Toyota [via USAToday]. Toyota’s answer (other than possible warranty extensions): a nice, dull little facelift for a nice, dull little cute ute. Meanwhile, Toyota’s US dealers are not thrilled with the state of affairs, gifting Automotive News [sub] such saucy quotes as:

Dealers will be talking [at the NADA convention] about how this will affect their investments as a dealer. You bet I am questioning my investment. I think they have handled this poorly.

And that was the quote that didn’t feature expletives! Will the softroader update (shown here in European spec) tame the angry beast that is Toyota’s dealer network? Given that it’s only being shown in Europe until “later this year,” the answer seems to be “not for now.”