Can someone please explain this to me? To field a credible small car stateside, GM has decided to import the relatively diminutive Opel Astra from Europe into the U.S. and re-badge it a Saturn. Because of the unfavorable exchange rate between the U.S. and the Eurozone, and the fact that the Astra will be screwed together in a high-cost country (Belgium), GM will make a loss on every Astra sold. So the more Astras they sell, the more money they'll lose. And yet, Just-Auto [sub] reports that GM has decided to increase the number of Astras headed stateside from 30k to 40k per year. Originally, we heard that the Opel Astra was a "placeholder;" if it sold in sufficient quantities, GM would transfer production to the U.S. But building cars in the U.S. isn't any cheaper than assembling them in the land of mayonnaise on your french fries. It can't be a Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) pleasing deal, as the imported Astra wouldn't count towards GM's domestic CAFE averages. Is it a union thing? A world car thing? A stupid ass hubris WTF GM thing? 

Now that the European courts have finally struck down the so-called "VW Law" preventing Porsche from taking control of the German automaker, VW's labor union is upping the ante in its battle for power on their future owner's board. As Just-Auto reports [sub], VW's works council is seriously pissed at the idea that Porsche's numerically inferior labor union will get the same representation on the new holding company's BOD as VW's One Man Army. So the VeeDub boys are downing tools; they're striking VW over the issue. For three hours. Only not technically. Technically, the VW works council is holding "information meetings" re: the Porsche takeover amongst its union brothers and sisters. The fact that these gatherings will stop production at all six of VW's German assembly plants is neither here nor there, presumably.  

Sweden's Teknikens Varld reports that Mercedes is upgrading its delivery van Viano to create a newish MPV: the X-Clusive. After failing with their hearse-themed R-Class, after winning few hearts and minds with the panel-van based Vito (including the Brabus-wheeled "Sport-X" variant), Mercedes is hoping its bigger, blingier luxo-box– complete with that's-so-Chrysler rear facing middle seats– will catch both the executive taxi and desperate football Mom crowd. The X-Clusive will offer customers' a choice of 15.5 or 16.5 foot long bodies and blend luxury, "excessive comfort" and, uh, performance. X-Clusive buyers can have any color they like as long as its silver or black, and any engine they desire as long as it's a six (including a 204-horse 3.0-liter V6 CDI). No word on plans to import the X-Clusive stateside. Nor is any expected. 

Struth! It's a pretty bizarre state of affairs for automakers down under. Despite Toyota's status as Australia's largest vehicle importer (138,640 vehicles year-to-date), the automaker's calling for the Australian government NOT to lower import tariffs below 10 percent. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald at the Tokyo motor show, Toyota's executive vice-president of global product planning warned that lowering the Ozzie tariff risked crushing the country's exports. Here's the deal. Toyota builds Camrys in Melbourne. If it can't sell enough Camrys locally, then it makes it harder to justify keeping the plant open to export the vehicle to countries in the region. Tokuichi Uranishi reminded the Herald that Melbourne competes for biz with the six other Camry factories worldwide. And a strong Australian dollar isn't helping matters– at all. But the country's Automotive Competitiveness and Investment Scheme (ACIS) is; the feds have pledged import tariff rebates on cars and components worth AUS $7b between 2000 and 2015. So where does all this leave Ford, Holden and Mitsubishi's home-grown products? Splitting less than 20 percent of Oz' domestic market, down from 50 percent ten years ago. 

In the face of daily rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel– 13 Kassam rockets and 12 mortar shells were reported fired on Tuesday– the Jewish state has declared the Palestinian-controlled territory an "enemy entity." The decision gives Israel the power to cut off all vital supplies to the region, including electricity and gas. Which they're about to do. Philadelphia's Bulletin quotes a military source who acknowledged the embargo's potential impact on Palestineans' lives and explained the tit-for-tat rationale for constricting fuel supplies. "There's no doubt that a gas shortage will make the Palestinians' lives more difficult. If they don't let us live and move around freely in the Sderot area and its surroundings, they won't move around freely either. Diesel and crude oil will enter the Gaza Strip regularly so as not to affect the ambulances, garbage trucks and fire trucks. As far as we're concerned, there's no problem if the terrorists and local police can't drive around in their private cars. The Palestinian civilians had better realize that Hamas doesn't care about them any more." 

We've reported on calls from environmentally-minded academics and academically-minded environmentalists to ban cars completely from England's capital city. Up to now, these anti-car campaigners' only vision of an auto-free urban utopia arrived via London's annual "car free" day. The Telegraph reports that they could get 16-days of automotive respite when the Olympics blow into Stratford. Although the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA, sponsored by FedEx?) is not calling for a ban on car travel to and from the 2012 games, they do want "100 per cent of spectators travelling to the Olympic Park in Stratford by public transport, walking and cycling." Hmmm. Anyway, this "encouragement" doesn't include dignitaries and officials from the International Olympic Committee and sponsors, who will be able to drive in special Olympic lanes during Games time. As for the plebs, the ODA recently accepted delivery of their first "javelin" test train; a plethora of which should– I repeat should— ferry 240k people to and from the newly renovated Olympic park station every hour. The Commons transport select committee shares my skepticism.  Earlier this year, they published a report criticising the ODA's draft Olympic travel plan for "not exhibiting any sense of urgency" and being "vague." A highly budgeted, non-elected government quango that's slow and mellow? Who'd a thunk it?

The whole cheap Chinese cars are coming to America story has died down– at least until Chrysler pops its Chery. (Look for a resumption of hypestilities at this year's Detroit Auto Show.) Meanwhile, Chinese automakers are warming-up for the world's most competitive automotive market by probing the soft underbelly of the third world, where safety concerns count for nought. Nazret.com reports that Holland Car (an Ethiopian – Dutch partnership) has unveiled its first locally assembled car, built from parts imported from China. West Africans can now purchase the "Abay" (Amharic for the Blue Nile) for $16k. The Abay boasts a four-cylinder engine hooked-up to a five-speed manual transmission. The car arrives some two years after the plant was completed in Mojjo, 70-kms south east of Addis Ababa, at the cost of 20 million birr (plus a EU510k grant by the Dutch government). According to company co-founder Tadesse Tessema, "We are bringing new technology to the country, offering customers to buy new cars instead of older and more expensive ones from Europe." So it's a two-prong deal, as company co-owner Ethio-Holland Transport already imports used European cars for [a fraction of] the country's 75m inhabitants. 

Talk about keepin' it real. The badge-engineered Morris Oxford built India's automotive economy from scratch, but a new era of econoboxes chipped away at the Ambassador's (a.k.a. Amby) market share and umm, charm. Like Detroit, Hindustan Motors must see the writing on the wall; the latest Amby sports a freshened interior and increased NVH control that take it from tail bone bashing to merely harsh. To accompany the new-ish electronically controlled powertrains and fully synchro'd transmissions (1974 called, they want their stuff back), the company's devised a new name to tempt aspiring if nostalgic-minded motorists: Avigo. Looking like a Mini (no caps) on the cheap, the jury's out on the Avigo's success in the fully-globalized land of Bollywood dancers and Bhangra beats. Tunak, Tunak!

OK, so the UK hasn't banned smoking in cars– with or without kids in situ. But changes to the Highway Code– the rules and regulations governing all road users– have empowered police to ticket puffing motorists for "not allowing proper control of a car" (allowing?). Although police pedants have previously cited UK drivers for drinking from a water bottle in slow-moving traffic and other petty distractions, a survey from the esure auto insurance company reveals that 45 percent of smoking motorists have a simple response to the new prohibition: piss off. esure surveyed a thousand UK motorists to discover than a little less than half would ignore the rule change entirely. To ensure esure's survey adopted the correct line on the matter, their research company winkled-out some "worrying" statistics: a "massive" 80 per cent of smoking motorists admit to taking their hands off the wheel to fire-up a fag; 75 per cent of them think smoking whilst driving on a motorway is acceptable and poses no risks; 46 per cent admit to dropping their cigarette in the car (26 per cent said they took their eyes off the road to retrieve it); and 45 per cent admit to throwing fag ends out the window. esure's Head of Risk and Underwriting sounded the appropriate note: "At esure, driver safety is our top priority and so the risky habits carried out by some smokers are a cause for concern. We advise drivers to always pay the road their full attention." That's it then. Carry on. 

Auto Industry reports that Volkswagen is set to roll out a new line of small cars, codenamed “New Small Family" (NSF). VW expects sales of the first gen NSF to top 4.16 million units during its nine-year lifecycle. Last week, the Rheinische Post reported that VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn told delegates at a International Iron & Steel Institute conference that VeeDub was developing a version of the 2005 prototype ‘1-litre’ VW two-seater car for 2010. Winterkorn confessed that the car “would not be a world-beater in sales terms, but would set new technical standards for light weight and offering low CO2 emissions.” While VW abandoned its plans for a “super economy” car back in 2005, rising oil prices have inspired them to reconsider. Oil topped $86 per barrel yesterday; economist Jeff Rubin predicts $100 per barrel oil could “become normal” as early as 2008, with rising gas prices to match. If so, any automaker without a line of seriously efficient automobiles will be in serious trouble. 

The Daily Telegraph reveals that the Labour govenment has ditched plans to introduce a "pay-as-you-go" pricing scheme for UK motorists. The move comes after an on-line petition against so-called road pricing (a.k.a. "Electronic Road Pricing" or ERP) garnered an unprecedented 1.8m signatures. The Telegraph, which lead a journalistic campaign to strangle the idea in its metaphorical, non-MTV crib, predicts that the Department for Transport will officially signal a shift from national road pricing to local schemes (a la London's Congestion Charge) in a statement to Parliament next week, as follows: "We agree that there are congestion problems on parts of the strategic road network, but 88 per cent of congestion is in urban areas. Therefore it is sensible to prioritise the assessment of road pricing in these areas." Reading between the lines, the government has left the door open to local or country officials seeking to introduce ERP schemes on national or trunk roads within their territory. In other words, the battleground has now shifted to Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle. Watch this space (and we're not charging you for it either). 

Ford Model T. Volkswagen Type 1. Tata People's Car. Tata what? Next fall, Indian automaker Tata plans to introduce a $2,500 car to put India's masses on wheels, just as Ford and VW did in their home countries. The New York Times reports that Tata is one of several automakers who want a piece of the entry-level pie in what will soon be the world's fastest-growing car market. (Maruti Suzuki currently controls more than 50 percent of that market, with models as low as $5k.) As Tata moves even further down market, they're joined by Honda, VW (Skoda), Toyota, Renault-Nissan and Ford. While critics are worried about the safety of such cheap cars, the automakers all say they'll meet local safety standards (how reassuring is that?). Needless to say, environmentalists are expressing concerns that more cars on India's roads will exacerbate India's air pollution problem.  

No seriously. The Kingdom of Norway may become the first nation on God's green Earth to ban all gasoline-only cars. Citing Brazil's success with bioethanol as their rationale, Norwegian lawmakers are considering ditching petrol-only machines completely, in favor of biofuel-powered transportation. The United Press International reports that Center Party committee member Jenny Klinge feels banning sales of gasoline-powered cars to her country's 4.7m residents "would pressure the automobile industry into developing technology faster than it otherwise would." The Norwegian Transport ministry is trying to determine if such a ban would be legal. Meanwhile, Norway's many corn, soybean, and sugar cane farmers are excited about the prospects of a new market for their crops.

The Evening Leader (Wrexham, Wales, UK) reports that a road safety-oriented theatrical production called "Wasted" has kids swearing off cars. After watching the multi-media production designed to warn children about the dangers of drug driving at the Ysgol Clywedog school, "One pupil was heard to say 'I'm not getting into anybody's car again', a statement many others echoed." In a telephone interview with TTAC [below], the head of the Walking Forward Theater Company, says the play's message is not anti-car or anti-drugs. "We're trying to get people to use cars in a responsible way," asserts Gavin Payne. "and indeed, if they have to use drugs, [to] use drugs in a responsible way and not mix the two." Payne's Walking Forward theater company claims to have exposed millions of UK theater goers to road safety dramas, including thousands of British soldiers, and welcomes any U.S. or Canadian campaigners interested in setting-up a similar program across the pond. 

According to The Age, GM Car Czar Bob Lutz is on a corporate walkabout Down Under, testing the Holden VZ ute (a.k.a. G8 El Camino) and the upcoming Canadian Camaro's Aussie homonym, the new Holden Commodore. Lutz told the paper that the weak US dollar mooted the possibility of importing the VZ ute stateside; which makes you wonder how the Hell GM can afford to sell the Pontiac G8 (a.k.a. Holden VZ Commodore) in the US for sub-$30k AND make a profit. Lutz also discussed his on-going desire to best Germany's propeller people, supported these days by GM's new rear wheel-drive Alpha platform. Lutz said the new Holden-designed Pontiac-branded car would be "equivalent to a BMW 3 Series in ride, steering and handling, although at a much cheaper price." And just in case you thought Lutz doesn't have a sense of humor, the Vice Chair and his people spent some quality time blatting around in an Elfin. The delightfully-named sports car company is owned by Tom Walkinshaw, who also owns Holden Special Vehicles.