A recent test by Autobild sought to find the German-market vehicle that could tow the most kilos per euro. Third place (at€13.36 euros per kilo) went to the AWD 1.6 TDI Golf Variant, which is tow-rated at 1.8 tons on the German market (first and second went to the Tiguan and CR-V). Though the American-market Golf TDI has far more power than Autobild’s value-hauler podium finisher, Volkswagen continues to send tow-rating curious Americans messages like this one:

Thank you for visiting the Volkswagen website. We appreciate your
inquiry regarding the capability of using your Volkswagen for towing
purposes.

Volkswagen does not recommend a passenger vehicle be used to tow.

Bastards! Incidentally, this image is from a post on the British Caravan Club’s voting the Golf 2.0 TDI as “Overall Towcar of 2009.”

We should have seen this coming when Mazda first called its Furai and Nagare concepts “design studies” instead of “the unfortunate results of a savage brown-acid-and-Lovecraft bender at Mazda’s design studios.” New direct-injection, stop-start engines are approved for the European version of the new Mazda5, but as usual there are no guarantees they’ll make it to the US market version. More details when Mazda5 comes alive at the Geneva auto show.

Forget distracted driving, the new Shelby GT350 proves that obesity is the real epidemic in America’s automotive life.

The Standard Of The World meets cold reality, as the prominent Detroit-area Cadillac dealer, Dalgleish Cadillac, calls it a night. The Detroit News, which eulogizes the dealership “with bitterness, hope and history bound together,” reports that the Dalgleish Cadillac building will become a high-tech business incubator run by Wayne State University’s Tech Town.

With a brand new BMW 3 Series in development, BMW has updated the current-generation coupe and convertible. Or has it? Say what you want about the Bangle era, in those days a mid-cycle refresh was a mid-cycle refresh.

Mercedes sold only 2,825 R Class “Grand Sport Tourer” models in the US last year, confirming once and for all that the eigenwillig CUV is a bonafide flop in this country. So much so that a GL-inspired restyling is already under development, possibly with a GL-inspired name as well: GLR.

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Pickuptrucks.com‘s Mike Levine snapped this shot of Honda’s NAIAS booth, indicating that the Motor Company might not be quite as proud of its unibody truck as it once was. Ridgeline sold 16,464 units last year, less than half of its 2008 volume. Honda’s Alabama plant, where the Ridgeline is assembled alongside the Pilot, saw its output drop 35 percent in 2009. Having tried the unibody option that so many formerly truck-dependent firms now see as an alternative to body-on-frame offerings, it seems doubtful that Honda would recommend it to any of them. When it comes to the truck market, there are no easy answers.

Another year passes and another Lincoln sprouts a baleen-feeder snout. Because familial consistency is more important than allowing innocent retinas to go unseared.

Ain’t it Granite? As Curbside Classics recently explored, GMC has a long, proud tradition of uglifying otherwise palatable Chevrolet products. In this case, the Chevy Cruze-based Orlando compact MPV was beaten with GMC’s patented professional-grade ugly stick, transforming it into the this “Urban Utility Vehicle.” “Granite was conceived as a new type of vehicle from GMC – one that could stretch people’s ideas of what a GMC can be,” said Lisa Hutchinson, product marketing director for GMC in the Granite presser. Which is a fantastic-sounding way of announcing the destruction of the last remnants of GMC’s truck-tough image. But hey, at least the core brand value of cubist-nightmare styling remains intact.

In the past, Jeep’s done it up big for the NAIAS, unveiling wild concepts, driving new production models through plate glass, and the like. This year though, things are a bit tight. Instead of throwing a booze-soaked bash around some miles-from-production concept, Sergio Marchionne is going to lay out some saltines and Tang and let visitors paste some cheap decals he picked up in China on a Wrangler. All this in celebration of Jeep’s first new products in ages: the Unlimited Mountain and Islander edition Wranglers. Featuring the cheapest, most gimmicky-looking graphic decals and upholstery ever foisted upon the buying public (random latitude/longitude readings? really?), these “special” editions need to keep Jeep gasping along until ChryCo can get the suppliers lined up for the new Grand Cherokee. Meanwhile, stand by for more special editions from Chrysler, hinted at in the firm’s five year plan. This is going to get even uglier before the actual Fiat products show up later this year.

This is reportedly the new Aveo RS concept coming to the Detroit Auto Show, and apparently a near-production look at the next-generation Aveo. Well, you weren’t expecting it to look worse than the current model, were you?

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Nissan stumbles into Scion territory with this teaser image of its new compact crossover, the Juke, to be built in Britain starting this year. The Juke is supposed to bridge the gap between the Qashqai (Rogue) soft-roader and the Note compact MPV. Because someone, somewhere wants a compact crossover with less capability than a Rogue and less rear visibility than a Note. The hunt for that confused consumer is now officially on.

Ok, so not every Saab owner made it to the “Save Saab” rally outside of GM’s headquarters today… but local Detroit businesses did report shortages of pipe tobacco, leather elbow patches and quirk. All kidding aside though, is there a better illustration of the blind passion that automobiles so relentlessly inspire? These folks had to know that 20-odd people with signs wouldn’t make a lick of difference to Saab’s fate, but dammit, they drove to Detroit anyway. From as far away as New Jersey, Kentucky and Iowa, no less. Somehow that makes the inevitable schadenfreude seem a little less satisfying.

The production version of the Opel Meriva has debuted, and as promised, the suicide doors made the cut. But will the Meriva come to America, re-grilled as a Buick? A Gamma II-based MPV is rumored for Buick’s 2012 lineup, and suicide doors might just be the gimmick that helps America understand the concept of “premium compact.” Even though, as the image after the jump shows, they are little more than a gimmick.

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