With U.S. orders pouring in for its miniscule smart fortwo, Mercedes is wishing it hadn't cut the larger forfour from production. At the Detroit Auto Show, Benz honcho Rainer Schmückle revealed that a second-gen forfour was in consideration, although the decision hadn't been made to brand it as a smart or a Merc. Now MotorAuthority is showing a Schulte Design rendering of a potential successor to the forfour. Whereas the original was a reskinned Mitsubishi Colt with a conventional front-engine front-drive setup, this rendering suggests that the new model will be a stretched fortwo… rear engine and all. Don't take the rendering as gospel though, MB could well be pursuing other options. After all, pushing four passengers with a three-cylinder engine doesn't sound very… American.

What do you do when you don't want to fight the bumper-to-bumper traffic in the McLaren SLR? Gizmag suggests you take its smart fourtwo "tender." Borrowing from the yachting world, BRABUS is offering a package deal that consists of a tuned SLR (good for 211 mph) and an identically-painted and equipped BRABUS ULITMATE 112– a 112hp two-seater based on the latest smart fourtwo Cabrio– as a runabout. Both cars are painted white with lipstick-red interiors with aero packages and suspension and tire upgrades. The SLR goes 0-100kph (62mph) in 3.6 seconds, while the ULTIMATE 112 takes 9.5 seconds to achieve the same velocity. Both can be yours for a mere €699,000 ($1.1m). The line forms over there, somewhere.

Alfa's new compact car– the MI.To– is the real deal. After months of spy pictures, an ill-fated naming contest (in which Alfa rejected the name "Furiosa" chosen by voting fans) and copious amounts of internet speculation, we've finally got official shots of the new car that's being hyped as the first credible MINI fighter (other than the FIAT 500, selling in a class below the MINI). The stunning small car will holster engines drawn from the usual Alfa-Fiat family range, from 90 to 155 horsepower gas and diesel variants. Rumor says the MI.To is based– at least somewhat– on the Fiat Grande Punto, with major league revisions to the suspension, NVH, sheetmetal, and interior. Alfa puts the car on sale in July to celebrate Chevy Volt prototype testing. Just kidding. Obviously.

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I suppose the biggest problem with naming a car "V8" is that the moniker becomes moot when you stuff a V12 beneath the bonnet. Other than that, the V12 Vantage RS looks to be perfect. The numbers are unclear, but as the engine is closer to the DBR9 racer than the DBS, power should be in the 600 horsepower neighborhood. Which means 60 mph happens in (about) four seconds and a top speed of oh, let's just say 190 mph. The price is equally bracing. Motor Authority claims the V12 Vantage RS will cost more than the $265k DBS. Stop the presses! The smaller car from a sportscar maker is the most powerful, fastest and most expensive? And all this time we thought Farago's pleas for a stonkin' Cayman motor have been falling on deaf Porsche ears. Turns-out our Aston Martin's been listening (as if). Those who are about to fly salute you. As a life long Astonphile, I'm salivating over this sucker. There are only two cars I routinely pine for: the Veyron and a Se7en. Make that three, assuming this car happens.

In recent years, Jeep, Mercedes and Volkswagen have all offered U.S. customers diesel-powered products. However, they have not done so in California or any of the other 15 states that have adopted The Golden State's air pollution regs (Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington). Today, Mercedes has announced that they'll equip the ML, R, and GL-Series with a 50-state-compliant Bluetec V6 diesel engine. (The oil-burning E-Class awaits the '09 model year model changeover). The 3.0-liter V6 diesel uses urea injection to eliminate NOx emissions and particulate filters to "almost eliminate" soot. The powerplant makes 210 horses and a whopping 398 lb ft of torque. In the ML and R, it should deliver 18 mpg city and 24 highway (an improvement of 3 city/4 highway over the V6 ML350) In the plenty porky GL, expect about 17/23 mpg. Now, finally, we'll get to see if there's a market for "clean diesels" in the U.S.– at the top end of the market.

Tata's prospective purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford is reportedly foundering on Tata's insistence on price guarantees for Ford engines. The Detroit News quotes sources "close to negotiations" (as opposed to?) as saying Ford is unlikely to agree to any such guarantees in light of price increases in key commodities. Garel Rhys, director of the Centre for Automotive Industry at Cardiff University, calls Tata's request "absurd, and they know it." BUT Rhys reckons it's in Tata's interest to drag-out the purchase process while it secures financing. And, perhaps, a better price. With no other offers tabled for the two FoMoCo "premier" brands, the Blue Oval Boyz have little choice but to duke-it-out with Tata. Ford's "Wish We'd Gone from Sir Anthony Bamford" deal has already been pushed past two informal deadlines. Ford now says an agreement with Tata Motors is expected "mid year." 

Bloomberg reports that Hyundai's been hit hard by rising steel prices. Apparently, China's Olympic building boom is causing localized shortages and driving up prices. Rising raw materials costs cut especially deep for the value-minded Hyundai brand, who can ill-afford the hike. "The higher prices come at a difficult time,'' says Mirae Asset Securities analyst Kim Jae Woo. "Hyundai won't be able to pass on the higher costs to customers as the slowing global economy is already damping auto demand.'' Steel prices are expected to continue rising for the considerable future; raising an interesting challenge to the strategy of manufacturing in east Asia. Although low labor costs have made the region popular among budget automakers (e.g. GM's Daewoo), China's economic boom is putting increased pressure on commodity prices. In the cutthroat global automotive industry, there's nowhere to hide.

The Telegraph reports that a new "showroom tax" will add between $500 and $2k to the price of new cars in Britain, depending on their level of carbon emissions. Oh wait, and add nearly $1k in annual taxes thereafter. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling says the tariff are educational; a way for consumers to understand the environmental cost of their purchase. But these measures are not simply targeting "Chelsea Tractors," the luxury SUV's that haunt London's wealthiest neighborhoods. Middle-class family haulers such as the Ford Mondeo Estate and Renault Espace would be hit hard as well. Critics point out that the measures are as disingenuous as they are patronizing. An anonymous spokesman for The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says "Trying to force people out of high-value cars has no environmental merit and will be seen as a smokescreen for revenue raising." And then what?

If you were laboring under the impression that GM's European division was in the pink– after racking-up $4b in losses between 2000 to 2006– forgeddaboutit. [NB: freshly-minted GM COO Fritz Henderson was Chairman of GM Europe from 2004 to 2006.] Reuters reports that the Euro-turnaround has stalled– with an entirely predictable response. General Motors Europe is cutting 5k manufacturing jobs– about a tenth of its European workforce– as "the top U.S. car maker aims to stem steep losses in declining main auto markets." And if you think the United Auto Workers are tough (i.e. expensive to bribe), check out the European works council's response. "We want guarantees that there will be no plant closures in west Europe until at least 2020," Jean-Marc Ruhland demanded. And if that sounds familiar, so should the excuses. GM's Euro Prez Carl-Peter Forster said his employer's low profitability was "not confined to Opel but was an industry-wide problem among volume carmakers in Europe due to price pressure as Asian manufacturers exported cheap cars to the continent." America's tanking, Europe's struggling. Can the rest of the world buoy the corporate mothership? If so, for how long? 

Talk about the rush hour fender-bender from Hell. The Khaleej Times reports that over 150 cars piled up on the Abu-Dhabi to Dubai highway yesterday, in the worst wreck in the country's history. Authorities report four deaths and 317 injuries in the crash, which also involved 12 buses. About two dozen cars caught fire, triggering a massive rescue operation and snarling traffic for hours. Officials say that foggy conditions and rush hour congestion contributed to the disaster, pointing out that the close quarters driving of commuters makes such pileups more likely. Armed Forces personnel and helicopters were called in to clear up the crash zone, a task made all the more difficult by bad weather and the presence of 12 destroyed buses. Be careful out there!

Thanks to slightly rising sales in the U.S. (3.8 percent in 2007), a big gain in China (24.8 percent) and ongoing European success, the boys from Ingolstadt are rolling in the dough. Lamborghini– which the Volkswagen Group counts as an Audi brand (worryingly enough)– enjoyed a 15 percent rise in sales of hugely expensive sports cars. The bottom line: Audi banked a whopping $2.6b in profit in '07. That's a 26 percent jump over 2006. Audi is shooting for over a million car sales worldwide in 2008. Considering the fact that Audi sold about 954k units in 2007, it's doable. In fact, just think where they'd be if they built reliable products…

Thomson Financial [via Forbes] reports that BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer has raised the specter of an all-electric Bimmer (Beemer?) for the U.S. market by 2012. Reithofer may be yanking our schnitzels; he says production of the theoretical EV could be outsourced to a "major US automaker." Raising the weirdness stakes even further, Reithofer asserts that "BMW will be considered a so-called large vehicle manufacturer in the US from 2012, [obliging them] to offer an ecologically compatible car." The prospect of an eco-friendly BMW with outsourced production reminds us more than a bit of the Isetta. Does this mean that the Bavarian bubblecar will make a revamped comeback a la MINI? We're not sure, but an Avarvarii photochop would certainly be a giggle.

If you're looking for the U.K.'s most fanatical speed enforcement acolytes, head on down to Wales. (Or not.) The country has been waging a jihad against speeders for over a decade, including fleets of unmarked, speed camera-equipped vans (a.k.a. Talivans) parked on highway overpasses, around corners, etc. Now that the heddlu (police) have alienated hundreds of thousands of drivers both old and young, they've decided to launch a charm offensive– of sorts. At the taxpayer's expense, they've pimped out a van for "youth education." Pistonheads reports the cunning plan: "The idea is to infiltrate cruises and car park gatherings, and when the young drivers come over to have a look at the van – which is fitted with a pumping sound system – they are hit with information on how to stop being a nuisance." One wonders about local residents' take on noise nuisance, and how glad the Max Power crowd is to see Officer Plod, no matter how fly his whip.

According to an AutoExpress article that reads suspiciously like a press release, GM's UK subsidiary Vauxhall will be getting a "new" logo. They, ahem, "report" that "the sharp yet simple new logo will set a more upmarket tone for the company as it aims to pitch its forthcoming models against prestige rivals." Translation: many UK consumers think of Vauxhalls as downmarket tat and between the French (Renault mainly) and Germans (BMW and VW), we're under heavy fire. The storied Vauxhall name and its models are so tainted that the Vectra nameplate is being replaced with Insignia this summer. How long will the Vauxhall name survive in the UK? (Ireland switched to Opel in 1982.) The only thing stronger than 3-Series sales in the UK is British nationalism. Vauxhall ain't going nowhere. 

Nobody can accuse Daimler of ignoring the green marketing craze that is sweeping the industry. They've shown high-tech lithium-ion-based diesel and mild hybrid concepts in near-production models (in contrast to other automakers' futuristic flights of fancy). A "BlueEfficiency" package will be available across its Mercedes-Benz model line by year's end, bringing lower weights, reduced rolling resistance and 10 percent better efficiency. None of these efforts will be particularly profitable, but unlike other companies, Daimler is willing to admit it. According to Automotive News [sub], Daimler research chief Thomas Weber says the company isn't expecting its green initiatives to make it any money. "We have to make sure that we keep an eye on the profit situation," said Weber. "Our strategic goal is not to make a lot of money with this, but also not to lose a lot of money with this." What, no mention of how eco-oriented vehicles help the German automaker bank the bucks by meeting new Euro and U.S. CO2/mpg regs, so they can sell high-profit gas guzzlers? Hey, glasnost only goes so far.