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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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.

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 >

Do the extra cylinders make me look fat?

Two new hybrids to be precise, in addition to a redesigned Prius. Automotive News [sub] reports that all three vehicles will debut at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. One of the new mystery hybrids will be a Toyota and the other will be a Lexus. We'll go ahead and speculate that the Toyota will in fact be a production version of the FT-HS sports car hybrid we saw at last year's Detroit spectacle. As for the Lexus, we're stumped. Maybe an IS variant? The massively anticipated third-gen Prius will soldier on with the same old nickel-metal hydride batteries for now. But come the hyper-magical automotive year 2010, the Prius will switch to lithium ion batteries. Panasonic — they build ToMoCo's batteries — will start whipping-up the lithium ion electro-juice containers in 2009. Cars powered by the same tech in your cell phone should hit dealers you know when (2010). Not to be outdone, Honda has promised four all-new hybrids by 2015 (guess they didn't get the 2010 memo). Nissan's gone on record promising to begin making lithium ions next year. Discounting GM and Chrysler's two-mode hybrid behemoths and The General's belt-assisted has-beens, and the Ford Escape Hybrid, it's up to the Hail Mary Chevrolet Volt to meet the hybrid onslaught. What are the chances?

In rounding out our coverage of Hyundai's offerings in NYC, we've got shots of the facelifted Sonata and Genesis Coupe. Both are much, much better in person than in pictures. The Sonata's biggest aesthetic improvement is the interior, which goes from zero to hero. Build quality and fit and finish are way better, and it no longer is ergonomically challenged. Hyundai's Mission: Bland sedan has, dare I say, some style. As for the Genesis coupe, while I thought the initial press shots showed a hideous Lexus IS knock-off in coupe form, in person it's more of an Infiniti G37 coupe knock-off. Very slick car, and with Kia's use of a 290 hp turbocharged four in the Koup concept, the turbo four that Hyundai announced for the Genesis coupe sounds promising. Although Hyundai didn't have any prices, you'll be glad to know that Hyundai's trademark olfactory character is unchanged in this RWD coupe: even the preproduction show car's interior smelled like a Hyundai interior, which I'd describe as musty crayon.

Click here for Pixamo gallery 

Despite some, ahem, similar products like the Kia Optima/Hyundai Sonata, Kia Rio/Hyundai Accent, Kia Sportage/Hyundai Tuscon, Kia's Director of Public Relations Alex Fedorak says "the two companies' products are apples and oranges." In an interview with TTAC today, he outlined Kia's future product strategy. Kia is meant to be oriented toward youth, and sporty, with edgier designs, and more performance. In contrast, "Hyundai is more luxury oriented." Which is why yesterday Hyundai introduced the new Genesis coupe by doing burnouts on stage. What the heck? But really, the Kia brand is evolving – the next Spectra will come as a sedan and coupe. "In sum," Mr. Fedorak said, "we are going to be design led." Look, I love the Rondo, but that ain't no beauty queen winner.

You read it right. Bloomberg reports Scion's brand manager, Jack Hollis, revealed in an interview yesterday that they're looking at expanding their lineup of rebadged Toyotas trendy economy cars. Showing Toyota is beginning to read from the GM brand management manual, he asked, "Should it be a youth truck, a youth SUV, an environmental car, a smaller car? We're studying right now to see which would be the greatest priority." He explained their rationale: "There are more leading-edge people we can attract that may not be attracted yet to these first three products." In spite of Scion's dropping sales (down 25 percent last year, 6.7 percent last month), he also said they would keep targeting "trend-setting" customers instead of just going for higher sales volume.  

Leave it to Gaywheels to make the Detroit Auto Show sound so… well… gay. They've chosen their "Top Ten Moments" from the show, starting with the bull-on-bull action during the roll-out of the new Ram. That's where "the daddy bulls started mounting the boy bulls in a bovine version of '70s porn, complete with mustachioed cowboys." Moving right along… another fav was the Mercedes' GLK intro when Kim Cattrall "smiled coyly, touched Dieter's shoulder, and cooed about 'assertiveness, bulges in the right places… [and a] tight little package.'" They describe the CTS-V as having "a well-bulging hood that Kim Cattrall would love" and liken the BMW 1-series convertible to "any guy packing six-pack abs on South Beach, [who] sheds its top in 22 seconds. And like that same guy after a day of sun and proximity to half-naked men, the 1-Series is raring to go." And just in case the American Family Association isn't pissed-off enough at Ford, gaywheels says "if Ford could just stream the video from the F-150's optional backup cam down from Brokeback Mountain, they'd have a major new source of badly needed revenue." At this point, it's gotta be worth a try.

"The two big questions in my opinion is [are?] whether they have or can get the technology, especially in the battery arena, to pull this off… The second thing that seems questionable is that they will be able to manufacture a car in the volumes that they are talking about." No, that's not TTAC talking about Tesla or Volt. That's Tesla's Daryl Siry trash talking Henrik Fisker's Karma electric car, unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show. In what sounds like a classic case of "if you can't beat 'em, beat 'em up" he gives Fiskar a right royal pasting in his Horseless Age blog. Speaking from experience, Siry points out "Designing and integrating the battery pack alone is going to be a very big undertaking." Then he takes Fisker to task for "already quoting a price and taking reservations on a car that isn't even in drivable prototype phase" (a la Tesla). After pointing out that Jalopnik's wrong, wrong, wrong about the demise of their WhiteStar project, Siry admits he's learned that "there is a long road between here and there." We suggest Siry contemplate the even larger space between his company's hype and on-the-ground reality.

One of my favorite TV ads of all time was for Q-Tips. This scruffy looking guy in a plaid bathrobe walks up to the camera and asks "Don't you hate everybody telling you how to clean things?" Bang! I'm his. Yeah! I DO hate it, all those stupid ads about cleaning stuff! I'm OCD enough without hundreds of graphic lessons in how to annihilate [previously unimagined] germs. And then the guys says "Well I'm going to show you how to clean your ears." And bang! I'm his again. OK, show me how to clean my ears! Well, this is a bit like that. Don't you hate all those morning-after Detroit Auto Show roundups? Well Jonny Lieberman's going to tell you like it was. And here's a bit of goss: it seems Loverman will once again bless us with his literary talents. Hearing the news is like a tsunami having breakfast with a sinkhole. Or something like that.

Rick Wagoner, eh? "Not specifically enamored." Classic passively constructed British understatement from an American car exec. Anyway, for those of you following the development of India's revolutionary Nano, it's probably no surprise that GM doesn't have the hots for the people's car's $2500 price point. The Financial Post reports that GM's chief executive declared that that “the magic” price for an ultra budget car is yet unknown. Meanwhile, GM will compete with the Nano by taking costs out of existing economy cars (e.g. GM's Daewoo delights). Speaking from the floor of the North American International Auto Show, Wagoner also admitted that his golden parachute provider has tried making a cheapo car from scratch before, using coloured plastic panels instead of painting the cars later on. "Overall, the effort hasn’t worked," he said. "What we ended up with was not a very good looking car that wasn’t that cheap.” I say nothing.

According to Cadillac, the Provoq is "a petroleum-free, hydrogen-powered vision of future luxury transportation." In fact, the official press release proclaims that "The concept can drive 300 miles (483 km) on a single fill of hydrogen – with 280 miles (450 km) from hydrogen and 20 miles (32 km) on pure, battery electric energy. A pair of 10,000 psi (700 bar) composite storage tanks beneath the rear cargo floor hold 13.2 pounds (6 kg) of hydrogen to feed the fuel cell stack, located under the hood. There, hydrogen mixes with oxygen to generate electricity – up to 88 kW continuous power. A lithium-ion battery pack can store up to a total of 9kWh of electrical energy and also provides a peak of 60 kW of power for additional performance." All this despite the fact that the Concept doesn't have any hydrogen-related parts whatsoever. So I rang-up Pete Barkey of GM Powertrain Communications and asked if GM has any intentions of building a Provoq Concept with a hydrogen engine. "I cannot tell you either way right now." David Caldwell of Cadillac Communications also pointed out that the press release uses a small "c" (concept) rather than a capital "C" (as in Provoq Concept). Both gentlemen also admitted that the numbers cited were entirely theoretical. Fair enough? 

Click here for more TTAC photos of the Cadillac Provoq Concept

[Reported by Sajeev Mehta and William C. Montgomery] 

Speaking at the North American International Auto Show, GM's head of NorAm Ops revealed that a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) version of the Saturn Vue could appear in 2010– gazumping the much-hyped Chevrolet Volt. "For the Volt we are re-engineering an entire vehicle to be optimally designed to support the architecture," Troy Clarke told Reuters. "At the Saturn Vue we are adapting an electric drive system to an existing architecture. It's a quicker way to do it." Clarke's startling announcement– who'd a thunk GM itself would steal thunder from the much-hyped Volt?– comes complete with caveats. The PHEV Saturn Vue would use "different kinds of batteries" to run 10 miles on the power pack alone, while the Chevrolet Volt is being designed to run 40 miles before the gas engine kicks-in. "We don't want to deteriorate the capability of the Vue," Clarke insisted. "It still needs to tow 3,500 pounds, which the Volt will not do. But then the Volt will be one of the most energy-efficient vehicles in the world." Question: how many potential PHEV Vue owners care about towing? Or put it this way: a PHEV Vue owner saves gas so he/she can tow a gas-burning jet-ski or snowmobile? The mind boggles. 

My apologies to those of you who've come to depend on TTAC's daily podcasts to relieve the monotony of your daily running machine ritual. You can forget that trip to the tailor as Justin and I get back into the groove with a quick roundup of the action at the North American International Auto Show. And did you know that the show isn't over– not even the press day bit? I was so caught-up in the fog of war that I forgot that there's a whole 'nother 24-hour stretch of PR madness to go. Luckily, it's a more subdued deal, with some 80 percent of the hacks headed home for the homilies. So we'll be bringing you more dirt from Detroit today, and some damn fine Pixamo-living pics too, as Bill has traded his mono-pod for a tripod. Oh, and stand by for Justin's review of a highly anemic automobile, a car plying the roads of the Middle East with appropriate lack of abandon.