So what about this, then? Or this? I guess some brands are meant to be broken.

This graph is representative of a major assumption underlying the entire Chrysler Group turnaround plan: namely, that 2009 is a trough year and that (despite the lack of new mass-market product until 2012) 2010 will see Chrysler not only holding the line on plummeting sales, but actually increasing them dramatically. Where does this optimsim come from? In part, a projected rise in SAAR. Otherwise, the only rationale for this assumption is that the financial plan requires this kind of short-term growth to succeed. [Apologies for the giant images… like Chrysler, we’re doing what we can with what we have]

Edward caught this flying over the skies of Detroit this morning.

And by the way, as Eddy reported back in July 2008, it’s not illegal.

Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska meets with Fritz Henderson, German Gref of Russia’s Sberbank and Siegfried Wolf of Magna. The state department had previously denied Deripaska a US visa for undisclosed reasons, but according to the WSJ, the FBI arranged for Deripaska to visit the US because “they were getting interesting information from him.” Deripaska denies any cooperation with US authorities.

In the same week BMW revealed a one-off, 580 hp, 100+ lbs lighter “M5 CSL we never built” (in the words of the M division’s head of development, Albert Biermann), BMW USA’s VP had this to say about his firm’s absence from Cadillac’s CTS-V Challenge:

We have no fear of comparisons by objective bodies, but it’s different if the person doing the comparison has a dog in the hunt

Not that the point lacks validity, but would BMW’s tune be different if the M5 CSL were a production model? We’d like to think so.

[via South Park Studios]

Oooh, look! It’s another official VW sketch of its North America and China-only, Passat-replacing New Midsize Sedan (NMS). Never mind product strategy, on a clear day will you be able to see out those windows? Hit the jump for the old official sketch. For contrast. Ish.

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Imagine, for a moment, how different this Curbside Classic would be if Honda actually built this little electric neo-600.

Thanks to $7m in state grants and incentives, a $26.5m investment by Bannon Automotive and the promise of $52m in federal loans, Syracuse NY will become the American home of the Reva NXR. The AP (via MSNBC) reports Bannon expects production to reach 15k-20k units per year. But is $25k for 100 miles of charge, a 65 mph top speed and a bit more interior room than an Isetta going to fly in the US market? Oh right, government subsidies don’t care.

OK, so we pulled the Cruze wagon picture because it was a photoshopped fake [Hat Tip to Jalopnik for catching it]. So here’s a different yellow hatchback that also won’t be coming to the American market (thanks for nothing, Roger Penske and Carlos Ghosn). It’s a RenaultSport Mégane, and according to Autobild it’s a two-liter turbo four hot hatch with 250 horsepower.  To be perfectly honest though, we’re not entirely sure the picture hasn’t been run through the old shop of photo.

A far more popular choice than our “don’t these cars look vaguely similar?” collection.

See where I’m going with this?

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