Those of you wishing for a sensible, small, utilitarian diesel engined pickup truck are about to get your wish. The Wall Street Journal reports Mahindra & Mhaindra's plan to release its Appalachian model mid-size pickup is on schedule for 2009. Previous reports  tell us that the truck will feature a 2.2-liter, four-cylinder diesel rated at 150hp and 300 ft. lbs. Preliminary specifications tell of a six-speed automatic transmission, electronic stability control and a 7.5 ft. long bed. Mahindra's importer Global Vehicles (GV) has a… er… colorful history. Some years ago, GV tried to import a mini-Hummer style vehicle from Aro S.A. of Romania. The effort went down in flames; the Romanians could never jump the safety and emissions regulatory hurdles. Mahindra, on the other hand, is a far more capable company than Aro and is already a force in the U.S. farm tractor market.  More fantastic is Mahindra's claim that it will release a diesel-electric hybrid version in (you know it, you love it) 2010. Competition in the shrinking U.S. light truck market shows no signs of letting up. Now if it could just begin…

While the 4th is an American day of celebration, it's a day of national shame, disgust, and disappointment for our British friends across the Atlantic (Jeremy Clarkson, in particular, is said to be spending the day sobbing and eating some kind of pie with meat, rather than apples). To help combat their dreadful feelings, BMW of UK has put out a press release on the just revealed new uberlux 7-Series sedan. Not surprisingly, it will holster the new twin-turbo V8 engine (badged 750i in The Land of Hope and Glory). The 740i name returns, denoting the sublime 3.0-liter twin turbo six from the 335i, making 326hp– as much power as the last gen 745i V8. The force-fed six will rocket the 740i to 60 in six seconds. Naturally, the "Biggest Losers of 1777" will get a straight-six diesel 7, stumping-up 245 hp and returning some 32 mpg. BMW UK estimates the six-pot oil burner will account for 85 percent of 7-Series UK sales. With a 0 – 60mph time of 7.2 seconds, why not? So, is BMW ready to bring a six cylinder 7-Series to America? Uh, no. But ours (like theirs) will come with enough gizmos to make an S-Class nervous: optional four-wheel steering (!), side view cameras, variable damping suspension, night vision, and something called "post warranty heart attack." On sale in the UK in November; anticipate a similar date for us Yankees. 

Just a week ago, we called on Ford to revive the SVO Mustang. And now, a "reliable source" has told Garage 419 that Ford is considering a revival of a Mustang SVO. OK, not the actual Fox-body ‘Stang of the eighties. But the same idea translated for today. We're talking about a 300hp EcoBoost four cylinder engine mated to a six-speed stick; a combination that could shave as much as five hundred pounds off a current GT. Much of that diet would come off the front end, improving front/rear weight balance and handling. How about an IRS back there while we're at it? No? Damn. Anyway, the new SVO's EPA numbers could easily beat the GT by some 25 percent or more. Just the ticket for the times: a good-handling ‘Stang with wallet-friendly mileage. Dropping oil prices helped kill the last SVO; sounds like the obverse is true now. Weird.

Scanning the blogs as we do, Frank and I often sense the cold dead hand of automotive PR. Predictable patterns emerge. For example, GM saves bad news for Friday and launches "good" news (new products, restructuring, etc.) ahead of bad (sales figures, losses). This time, unusually, we've detected GM PR man Steve Harris' spinmeisterwerk post-trauma (Black Hole Tuesday). Unless… Anyway, not to diss disinformation, but Harris' handiwork arrives in the form of "here's one [high mileage car] we prepared earlier." Bloomberg doesn't even bother trotting-out the proverbial "unnamed sources" in its lead, preferring to stick with the "m" word. "General Motors Corp., which popularized the 7,800-pound Hummer, may [emphasis added] begin selling a mini-car more than a foot shorter than anything else it markets in the U.S. to win back buyers deterred by record fuel prices." Sure. We believe that. But here's the real story: "GM has reassigned engineers to many of the projects, according to the people familiar with the planning. The company is taking them from SUV and truck programs suspended while awaiting the return of customers. Now, these people said, GM sees no point in waiting." In other words, it's chaos as usual behind the scenes at GM– aside from the PR department.

At the recent Toyota Environmental Forum, ToMoCo’s Executive Vice President outlined the company’s five-point plan for a “sustainable mobility society.” Green Car Congress charts the ch-ch-changes. 1. Further development of gasoline- and diesel-fueled combustion engines; 2. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids; 3. Alternative fuels, including synthetics and biofuels; 4. Electric vehicles; and 5. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Masatami Takimoto revealed that gasoline and diesel will remain the corporate mainstay. To that end, Toyota will reduce vehicle size and weight and introduce a new family of engines with start-stop, direct injection, forced induction, HCCI and variable compression. The automaker will hybridize all its vehicles lines by 2020, increasing NiMH batteries density. Li-ions are heading for city electrics and plug-in hybrids; the plug-in Li-on Prius hits the streets in 2010. And here’s the kicker: Toyota’s working to leap-frog Li-ion technology. Takimoto says a practical and cost-efficient EV demands a technological breakthrough. Maybe GM’s Volt isn’t so much a “Hail Mary” pass as an intentional out-of-bounds throw before it gets sacked by the “Sakichi” battery (named after Toyota’s founder).

AutoExpress reports that Ford has prepped a not-so-mean but oh-so-green Fiesta ECOnetic for the British Motor Show. While not officially confirmed for production, odds are it will eventually hit (love tap?) the streets of The Land of Hope and Glory. The ECOnetic Fiesta will have a 1.6-liter turbodiesel powerplant with all of 89hp, as well as loads of aerodynamic mods. Equally important, the UK-market Fiesta will have low enough CO2 emissions to evade London's congestion charge. ECOnetic trim recently debuted on a European Ford Focus, with a claimed 55mpg. As Edward Neidermeyer reported, in real-life testing, the Focus ECOnetic that number dropped to some 37 mpg. If we saw a proportionate drop for the ECOnetic Fiesta, that would mean about 44 real world miles per gallon. That's still very impressive. The new model Fiesta isn't on sale yet, although it is coming to the US with gasoline engines about 12 – 18 months from now. [All numbers are US miles per gallon]

Hey, why not create a national network of electric vehicle [EV] re-charge stations? OK, this video kinda exaggerates the all-important re-charge time. And if those mats recharge your EV in ten seconds, why do you need a car wash-style battery swap stations? These are not churlish questions (which is why we continue to ask Tesla about their Roadster's range and recharge times). They speak to the commercial viability of the entire project. Anyway, go for it Shai! What's that? You want MY tax dollars to pay for all this? AutoblogGreen tells the tale. "Speaking to the House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (we have one of those?), Agassi said, 'For the price of two months worth of oil, some $100 billion, we can put in place the infrastructure needed to power the nation's cars and end this oil dependence.' Ambitious, no? He then threw in the 'American jobs' angle with, 'Of that $100 billion, moreover, some $80 billion will go into jobs that, by their nature, can only be performed in the US – the construction of the infrastructure itself.'" Other than remarking on Agassi's chutzpah. AutoblogGreen lets the wisdom of federal tit-sucking go unchallenged. We call boondoggle. If it's such a good idea, let the electric companies pay for it. 

CAR Magazine is reporting that VW's 2002 concept car– the 1 Liter Car– is headed into production in [The Year of Our Overload] 2010. The name comes from the fact the VW uses 1 liter of gas per 100 kilometers (a standard European fuel economy format). Ferdinand Piech was seen cruising around in this puppy during his final days (or what we thought were his final days) at VW's helm. The crazy car, which looks more like a rolling fighter jet canopy, is mostly carbon fiber. It weighs an estimated 660 lbs. CAR figures it will have a two-cylinder diesel engine. The 1 Liter Car would likely be assembled in VW's prototype shop–  limiting production to 1000 units per year. The price is not yet determined, but reckon somewhere between 20k and 30k Euros. With such a small production run, this sounds more like a glamour and "we can do it" car (reverse halo?) from VW, rather than a true plan to save the world. And it'll still probably breakdown in my driveway.

Autobloggreen (ABG) is all over Mercedes' EV plans. The tree-hugging bloggers report that Stuttgart's first EV will be an A Class. Digging deeper, it seems that Mercedes will be using a battery pack from Tesla Motors, confirming Elon Musk's hint of a "small deal" with Daimler. The rumor hasn't been confirmed by Mercedes, and ABG points out that Daimler claims to already have li-ion battery thermal issues licked. Furthermore, Continental has been named as the official battery supplier of Mercedes' forthcoming S 400 Hybrid. So we'll wait to hear from official Daimler sources before we credit Tesla with its first supplier contract. And don't even ask when the EV A Class will hit the market. Automobile Woche is prognosticating an industry-standard 2010 release. Battery supply notwithstanding, the A-Class was designed with a "sandwich floor" that can accommodate either fuel-cell or EV conversion. Which means that they're good to go. Or not. 

When GM announced the Traverse, they insisted the new Chevy was different enough from the GM's three Lambda-platformed CUVs that it wouldn't cannibalize sales. It looks like they were right; there won't be anything left to cannibalize. GMINsidenews is reporting that neither the GMC Acadia (the best-selling Lambda flavor) nor the Saturn Outlook (the worst selling) will make the cut. That'll leave only the Buick Enclave and the Traverse to carry the Lambda Gen 2 banner. GM's answer to the slow-selling Honda Ridgeline, the Lambda SUT (due in 2011-2012) will also lose the GMC variant; the Chevy SUT will be GM's only entry in the almost-but-not-quite-a-pickup-truck market. All this leaves only one new GMC product in the pipeline: the GMC version of the Pontiac version of the Chevy version of the Theta CUV (Equinox). Clearly, GM's decided to starve GMC to death. The question is: do they have enough time? 

Much like BMW, Audi is taking the forced induction route for upping horsepower of its V6 engines– rather than just increasing displacement, a la Mercedes or Nissan. Audi officially announced the specs on its anticipated 3.0-liter V6 TFSI engine (the T must be silent, or refers to totally supercharged, not turbo). The new powerplant will pump-out 290 horsepower and 310 lb ft of torque. On paper, it's nearasdammit the same as BMW's 300 hp/300 lb ft turbocharged 3.0-liter I6 engine. The bottom line: Audi anticipates stronger fuel economy than they'd get with a bored-out larger displacement naturally aspirated V6. Not to mention the packaging and weight benefits. Oh wait. Anyway, a tuned version will probably power the next generation Audi S4, rather than the current 4.2-liter V8. This is great news for Audi fans, since the 3.2 -liter V6 they've been using so far in the A4 and A6 is down on power compared to German, Japanese, and even American rivals. And we can't have that, can we?

The Atlantic boasts a lengthy article on the Chevy Volt containing some pretty eye-opening revelations from author Jonathan Rauch. "And how, I ask [Volt chief engineer Andrew Farah] over coffee early one February morning in Detroit, is it going… The car, he says, is 10 weeks behind the original schedule. Any more slippage, and the 2010 deadline will be history. Even if no more time is lost, he will have only eight weeks to test the underbody, the car's structural base. Is that enough time? He answers indirectly. In some cars, he says, testing the underbody can take a year." And the mood permeates the entire program: "At the end of February, when I returned to the technical center, the picture looked different. December's ebullience had given way to a sense of strain that was evident even to a tourist. 'We currently are at the limit of our stretch,' one senior battery engineer told me." None of this seems to bode well for the timely arrival or reliability of what is arguably the most advanced automobile ever offered for sale in the U.S. Or for the company that's attempting to pull the miracle out of its ass hat.

C'mon, let's face reality here. If you were a foreign automaker aspiring to sell your products in the U.S., there are a few facts that should stop you dead in your tracks. 1) North America is the world's most competitive automotive market. There's a reason The Big 2.8 are fighting for their survival and it's not because they're the only kids on the block 2) You couldn't imagine a worse time to be selling cars in the U.S. The new vehicle market is in chaos. And it's about to get worse. When Chrysler, Ford and/or GM files for C11, there will be a cataclysmic and unpredictable market upheaval. 3) If there's one car brand you don't want to bring to the U.S. it's FIAT. I know people who've never SEEN a FIAT, who weren't BORN when FIAT sold cars in the U.S., who know that the Italian brand is famous for rust, mechanical failure and parts unavailability. You'd be better off pulling a Lexus and creating an entirely new brand; that cane won't hunt. Now, The Detroit Free Press' Mark Phelan has a corner (stay in that corner and don't come out until you have a story!), in which he reports "Italy's Alfa Romeo and Fiat cars are on the verge of returning to the United States, Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne told the Automotive News Europe Congress." Yes, "The Fiat Group, which owns Alfa Romeo — and the Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, Lancia and Abarth brands — plans to relaunch Alfa in America next year and may also sell the stylish Fiat 500 subcompact here." Oh, Alfa. That's alright then. Isn't it? 

How do I put this delicately? The new Ferrari California looks like a Chevrolet Corvette crossed with a BMW Z4 tuned by Brabus. The front end is the best angle, but it's still busier than Sunday morning at a college health clinic. The Fezza's side and back, however, are a goddamn mess. The gills, no doubt an homage to the properly stunning 1957 Ferrari 250 GT California, look completely out of place on this car. The bizarre lines on the side are overdone. The back end is a disaster. Quad stacked pipes? Black plastic trim? It's more TVR or Lorinser than Ferrari. Folding hardtop? On a Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, sure. A Ferrari with a folding hardtop is like a nuclear-powered toaster. Can you imagine the embarrassment at Wolfgang Puck's Spago in Beverly Hills when that thing gets stuck in full vertical? While the engine sounds phenomenal, the interior probably smells like Adriana Lima's cleavage and it's sure to handle with all the visceral panache that we expect from Ferrari's legendary death cars, it's not enough to save the California from pastiche-land. Then again, with guaranteed waiting lists and eBay adjustments, the men from Maranello will, once again, put their customers hands in the air like they just don't care. But I do. 

Parlare con CAR, VW design guru Walt de'Silva admits he isn't exactly thrilled about VeeDub's current design direction. Pensare? The Jetta looks like a Corolla and the Passat looks like a bar of soap. So VW’s styling will "return to simple design language that’s easy to understand – a clear hierarchy of grilles and rear-end treatment." Scribe Adam Towler says "Expect the next generation of VWs to have spiritually more in common with the late 1990s range of cars rather than the current set." For those of us that have long lamented the descent of VW into aspirations of ascent, this is fantastic news. The biggest question: where will this makeover leave the Volkswagen brand in the European market? When Ferdinand Piech decided to take VW into Mercedes territory, matching the Mercs models for model, Skoda and Seat filled VW's cheap and cheerful, honest and robust, everyday car remit. Maledetto! It sounds like someone has too many brands.