Kia’s Soul has hit the shores of Britain, and early feedback from the last bastion of English-language automotive print journalism credibility is looking promising. The Soul faces stiff competition in Old Blighty, taking on a pallette of available small cars, wagons and CUVs that American buyers can only imagine. And with European expectations for small car quality as high as they are, if the Soul is going to fall flat the Brits would sure let us know ahead of time. Instead, the reviews seem to indicate that the Soul is no less brand-redefining than Hyundai’s Genesis.

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Automotive News [sub] reports that GM is claiming to have 10k pre-orders for its neo-pony car. Too bad they might not arrive on time. Still, that’s about 5k commitments per year of relentless hype. Not too shabby.

Auto Motor und Sport hears that Mazda will debut a gas/hydrogen powertrain on its 2012 rotary-sportster, the RX-9. This got the German lads so excited they comissioned Mark Stehrenberg to sketch up this rendering of a potential next-gen RX. Keep in mind that all Stehrenberg had to go on was the Taiki showcar and news that the wankel engine would power the rear wheels only. As for the dual-fuel hydrogen system (think BMW Hydrogen 7), Mazda is already testing the powertrain on RX-8 mules. Although Mazda will probably improve on the BMW system’s many shortcomings by 2012, it will be interesting to see what Lithium-Ion batteries will be capable of by then. Or if there will even be hydrogen refueling stations outside of LA. Elsewhere in 2012, I’ll be stalking the used CRZ market for my slice of eco-friendly fun.

Jalopnik has spy images from a currently-testing Ford Taurus, and they’ve spotted a SHO badge on the interior of one. So does this mark the return of a budget performance legend, or is it just a cruel, cruel tease?  Los Jalops figure a 350hp Ecoboost V6 from the Lincoln MKS AWD would be just the ticket for a torque-steery good time. In other, more surprising news, the Taurus interior looks surprisingly decent. Let’s just hope the faux-carbon fiber is limited to models that require the driver to focus on keeping their bucking steed in the same lane.

Jaguar XF Diesel S – 3.0 V6 with 271 hp, 442 lb/ft of torque. Will do 0-60 in 5.9, rated at 35 MPG (US) average. A 236 hp version of the same 3.0 liter engine will be available.

Not for North America. (Consolation prize: we will get the 5.0 liter Supercharged gasoline V8 with 503 hp next year). Full embargo-broken press release after the jump.

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The production version of the new Opel Meriva will keep the concept’s suicide doors, say Carscoop. Nope, no stylish, efficient people movers in the GM stable. Keep moving people. Nothing to see here.

Chattahbox.com reports that a professor of chemistry at Rice University has created a car slightly wider than a strand of DNA. Jame Tour’s nanovehicle is 3nm along and 2nm wide. “It rolls on buckyballs, which consist of 60 atoms pure carbon formed like a sphere, includes a chassis with an engine, a pivoting suspension.” Sweet ride! I mean, it does move, right? Absotinylutely! “By heating the surface that the cars are on, the team is able to excite the molecules in the vehicle, and they move forward in a straight line until they hit an object. [Are you in good hands?] The light motion works on the principle of photo activation.” But don’t get to thinking that this bad boy is ready for prime time. “They are manufactured in a 20-step process similar to the way many drugs are synthesized from small molecules in closed reactors. They are then suspended in toluene gas and spun cast onto the gold surface… it took Tour and his team eight years to build the car. One of the significant challenges was attaching the wheels because the buckyballs had the adverse affect of shutting down the binding property — the palladium reaction — used to form the rest of the vehicle.” Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Though the suspense is gone from the bridge loan debate, GM ain’t out of the woods yet. There is much work to be done in the land of GM product development, a fact that is emphatically underlined by the news of the day. The pre-Detroit Auto Show previews of the Orlando show car and a possible Cadillac-bodied Volt perfectly highlight The General’s future product flailing. The Orlando’s vision (high-efficiency transport for seven) won’t be realized for downgrading American SUV owners since it won’t be built here. While the Cadivolt rumor is yet another poignant reminder of that vehicle’s ill-fated development program and inevitable death by price point. Speaking of which…

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Autoexpress has one of those compelling-but-mysterious stories on a possible new MPV from Toyota. We know that it will be a compact seven-seater, but the basis for the new MPV is still unclear. “We’re looking at a seven-seater based on the Prius. It would use a lithium-ion battery, and could be here by 2012,” says one anonymous tipster. But iQ city car chief engineer Hiroki Nakajima claims that another approach could be in the cards. Specifically, Toyota is looking at proliferating iQ space-saving developments across its product line, and Nakajima reckons that iQ breakthroughs could be used to squeeze seven seats into a Yaris platform. “We’re working on a seven-seater that’s the size of the Yaris,” says Nakajima. “We can do it, and give limo-like legroom in the back!” Of course this approach would likely make a hybrid system too expensive. For the US market, a slightly-larger Prius-based option (such as the Estima concept pictured above) would likely be a more popular choice. Frankly, the California soccer mom arms race would never be the same. Until the Lexus version comes out.

The next generation Subaru Legacy is headed upmarket, with a new 3.6 liter boxer six (hello Zuffenhausen!) and six-speed transmission. Familiar 3.0 and 2.5 liter boxer engines should return, and will be joined by the world’s only diesel boxer; a 2.0 four-banger that will almost certainly not make it to the States. More details when the Legacy Concept previews the new look of Legacy at the Detroit Auto Show. If there still is a Detroit Auto Show.

The Zenvo ST1 hits 60 mph in 3 seconds flat and tops out at 233 mph, thanks to its 7 liter turbo- and supercharged V8. This “100 percent Danish,” 1104 hp, RWD beast is hand-built, and features a six-speed manual transmission and a hydraulic limited-slip differential.  Nobody knows what it costs.

While waiting for video of the Kia Soul to show up in the ol’ inbox, I decided to give the one press release I do have a read. And to be honest, I’m kind of regretting the decision. I fully understand that one should never be surprised by what might happen when asking a company to describe its own product. Still… well, let me show you what I’m talking about. The first thing you learn is that the Soul is a “brand defining” addition to the Kia lineup. Fair enough. Kia’s brand needs definition only slightly more than my rapidly aging, 26 year old blogger physique does.  But instead of heading for the branding gym with its most promising product to date, Kia (like myself) is whipping its image into shape by texting and playing Wii. For example, did you know that Kia’s formula for its hip whip name reads “Soul = Style + ValU + SafeT”? No? Well the brand definition continues apace with the puzzling non-sequitor “L8st head-trnr will impre$ w/ personality & gr8 options ☺.” I kid you not. At this point I’m expecting Soul owners to receive a steady stream of text messages from their “attractive and customizable vehicle” suggesting they skip fourth-period history in favor of Cartoon Network and bong rips.

If you journey to the Detroit Auto Show this winter, you will get a chance to see the new Mercedes A and B Class models. I know, I know. Who cares, right? (No points for guessing Automotive News [sub]) Especially since the Benz Boys will be headlining their Concept BlueZero hybrid/alt-fuel roadshow at the wasteland formerly known as the Detroit Auto Show. But did you know that all of those fancy futuremobiles will be based on the “sandwich board” platform which first debuted in production on the original A-Class? Apparently it makes for a lot of flexibility with powertrain choices. The new A and B will ditch the intriguing but space-limiting concept for a standard FWD layout, but at least the B and “likely” the A as are headed stateside sometime in 2011. Absent a GM bankruptcy-triggered end of times, of course. And though we won’t be in Detroit to snap our own photos of these Euro-hatches (right, boss?), their American ambitions bring up a wrinkle on the stimulating discussion on our national ambivalence towards compact cars. Read More >

Toyota had planned on beginning production of Priora at its Blue Springs plant in 2010, but those plans are now on hold indefinitely, according to the AP (via CNN Money). According to ToMoCo spokesfolks, construction of the plant is 90 percent complete, but installation of its machinery and tooling (the “most time-consuming elements”) has been delayed. And what of the 100-odd folks hired to oversee construction and install human resources plans? “Those people’s jobs are safe, and we’ll find things for them to do,” says Toyota’s Mike Goss. With weak sales affecting even the once-hot Prius, Toyota is responding quickly by holding off on a hiring binge until the market begins to recover. Consider the Tundra lesson learned, but in tough economic times those jobs will be missed. As will the $239m state incentive package, not to mention the $235m in tax revenue that the plant is expected to bring in over its first ten years of operation.