It’s not that the cross-sharing of technologies between Renault-Nissan has been a well-kept secret. However, it is good to hear that loose alliances between unlikely partners work, while a marriages made in the automotive compatibility heaven (we are looking at you, Volkswagen & Suzuki) don’t even get to the consummation part.

Renault-Nissan announced today in Detroit that its Decherd, Tenn., plant will build Mercedes-Benz 4-cylinder engines for Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz starting in 2014.

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Nobody stays the same forever. It seems impossible to believe that I used to attend the NAIAS every year at the Charity Preview, spending $800 so I could eagerly discuss my next $100,000 German ooober-mobile purchase with a variety of vacant-eyed, soulless salesmen. No more. Nowadays I travel on foot and by foot it’s a slow climb, but I’m good at being uncomfortable so I can’t stop changing all the time.

TTAC is changing as well. For the first time, we are going to bring you the Detroit show as it happens. We will have a representative at each and every press conference, including — ooh! the scandal! — a well-known autojournalist from another firm publishing under a nom de plume. We will be reporting on the outrageous journo parties and perks. If there’s enough Ketel One in my system at the time, we may try a brute-force Panther invasion of Porsche’s “summer bar-be-que” media handjob in Greektown Monday night.

I’m excited. We are excited. It’s our goal to bring you the best coverage yet. If you are so inclined, click the jump to read a few reasons why it’s difficult for even the most jaded among us to be truly cynical about the stationary trainwreck known as the North American International Auto Show.

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Somebody broke an embargo somewhere. It wasn’t TTAC: everybody knows better than to send us this stuff. So here’s the Dart, and the initial details are reasonably encouraging for Mopar fans. Did somebody say Turbo? Did somebody say manual transmission with all three engines?

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Does this look like the Ariel Atom, the “race car for the road,” you know, the one in which one journalist got killed? It does, but it isn’t. It’s a homemade Atom. Made in China. In a shed. Read More >

Do you need more bling than what comes factory-installed with purchase of a Lamborghini Murcielago? In China you do. How else can you stand out amongst the Lamborghinis and Ferraris up and down the road? Read More >

First fallout of  TrueCar.com’s run-in with regulators: TrueCar suspended its service in Colorado. In an e-mail sent to dealers, a Colorado TrueCar account manager told his flock that the suspension is voluntary while TrueCar tries to work out with the state how to “conform to the rules of the road in your state.” In the e-mail, obtained by Automotive News [sub], TrueCar account manager Thuy Adomitias writes: Read More >

The car industry is under pressure to improve fuel efficiency. It is not that they have been sitting on their thumbs. Automakers have achieved large increases in fuel efficiency through better technology in recent decades, says MIT economist Christopher Knittel.

The problem is:

“Most of that technological progress has gone into compensating for weight and horsepower.”

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MPV times in India. At the same Delhi show where GM demonstrated a good-sized MPV concept,market leader Suzuki showed what they call “India’s first compact Multi Purpose Vehicle” a.k.a. the ERTIGA.

While our friends at Motorbeam.com where snapping pictures, Shinzo Nakanishi, Managing Director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki explained that the MPV will strengthen Suzuki’s position in an increasingly crowded market: Read More >

The next Ford Fusion is set to debut at next week’s North American International Auto Show, and while details are still embargoed, the blokes at Auto Express have given us a preview of the next Mondeo. Which is essentially the next Fusion.

(Edit: Here’s a “leaked” look at the car)

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Amid Volvo’s announcement of a plug-in hybrid for markets besides diesel-loving Europe came another tidbit about the lone Swedish brand’s future direction. Rather than 5, 6 or 8 cylinder engines like years past, Volvo will be downsizing, much like BMW – and using modular engines to boot, much like their Bavarian rivals.

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The diesel powered version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee will return to our shores in 2013, 5 years after it was last offered in North America. Chrysler announced that 1,100 jobs would also be added to a third shift at the Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit.

The new hires will help build the Grand Cherokee, Dodge Durango and portions of the upcoming Maserati Kubang SUV. The 3.0L diesel makes 237 bhp in European trim, as well as 405 lb-ft of torque.

In the endless race to the bottom to be first in overall sales in America, Audi will be adding more models to their U.S. lineup, hoping to increase overall volume while copying Mercedes-Benz and BMW’s strategy of creating unwanted and useless niche models to pawn off on vulgarians with adequate credit to qualify for leasing  money.

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In GM’s darkest hour, in December 2009, GM and SAIC cut a strange deal: GM ceded control of the 50:50 China joint venture by selling 1 percent to SAIC. GM also transferred half of GM’s India operations to the Chinese company. GM received a $400 million line of credit. SAIC received access to the Indian market, which it had coveted, but the Indians had sworn to keep the Chinese out. Now they rode in on GM’s coattails.

At the New Delhi auto expo, GM India yesterday “unveiled the first two products from its joint venture with SAIC,” while our friends of Motorbeam.com were in attendance to snap pictures. Read More >

Dave Barry once wrote that “Corporations have meetings because they cannot physically masturbate.” One might also say that auto magazines give meaningless awards because they cannot actually get the automakers’ proverbial todgers down their proverbial throats. Giving an award accomplishes pretty much the same thing, plus it sends the right message: we are perfectly compliant cogs in your public relations machine, and we celebrate your entire catalog of automobiles. The public ignores the awards, everybody is happy, the party continues.

Time for AutoWeek to get its knees dirty, and it turns out they are no choosier than a heroin addict occupying a bathroom stall at the Troubadour.

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Why are Volkswagen and Porsche living together, but are not married? Because VW is worried about the outstanding lawsuits brought against Porsche by irate investors. Now suddenly Volkswagen lost that protection. Lawsuits are piling up right in front of Volkswagen’s own doorstep. At the court in Braunchweig, 20 miles away from Wolfsburg, billion dollar lawsuits are snowballing at an alarming rate. Read More >