According to Automotive News [sub], both General Motors and Hyundai-Kia have reduced their fleet sales percentages in the last year, as the two firms seek retail-level pricing for their recently-improved products. Ford and Chrysler? Not so much. As the top-selling brand in the US, Ford is simply using fleet sales to boost itself to the top of the pile. Winning the annual sales volume race is good for morale, but The Blue Oval should be careful not to delude itself into unrealistic expectations. For Chrysler, on the other hand, the continued practice of sending 40 percent of sales to fleets is big, big trouble.

Not only has Chrysler been barely making its minimum “survival volume” numbers (and some months, not), it also had a “come to Jesus” moment on the fleet issue back in April. At the time, Chrysler swore it would limit fleet sales to 25 percent of overall volume, but since that announcement, its fleet percentage has held steady at around 40 percent. For a company on the brink, the lost profits are just as important as the lost credibility. Meanwhile, each new Chrysler that ends up in a fleet cements the perception that Chryslers are the automotive purchase of last resort. And at this point, the perception probably isn’t too far from the truth.

Chevrolet’s new Australian-built Caprice PPV killed the field at the Michigan State Police trials for 2011 models, winning 0-60, 0-100 and top-speed comparisons, the braking competition and turning in the fastest average lap time. Dodge’s Charger nipped at the Caprice’s heels, but the day belonged to Holden. As predicted [unofficial results including Ford’s Taurus-based cruiser available at Jalopnik].

When Honda first launched its current Insight hybrid, it was the cheapest hybrid on the Japanese market, and it quickly became the best-selling car in the country. Then everyone realized that the Prius was infinitely better for not much more cash, and the Insight dropped off. Now, Honda is trying to recapture its budget-hybrid mojo by releasing the car it probably should have made instead of the Insight: the Fit Hybrid. And they’ve priced the 1.3 liter IMA hybrid Fit at just $19,310 (1.59 million Yen), according to Automotive News [sub]. But this time, Honda’s not trying to take on the Prius directly. Says Honda CEO Takanobu Ito

They are totally different cars. Their price ranges are different and they look different. So I don’t consider the Prius as the Fit’s direct competitor. We just want many more people to own the Fit by expanding our line-up.

No word yet on possible US-market availability.

For some people (you know who you are), the 200 horsepower provided by the 2011 Hyundai Sonata’s 2.4-liter four-cylinder base engine just isn’t enough. The traditional solution: a V6. But Hyundai, taking a page from Chrysler’s Iacocca-era playbook, has opted to offer a turbocharged 2.0-liter four instead. The specs look good: 274 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 269 pound-feet of torque from 1,750 rpm. The pricing? Even better. The Hyundai Sonata SE 2.0T lists for $24,865, only $1,550 more than the regular Sonata SE. Are these the cheapest horses new car money can buy in a midsize sedan?

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In its retooling announcement for the Orion assembly plant, GM notes that

Orion will be the home to Chevrolet’s new small car and Buick’s future compact sedan – the all-new Verano.

What’s interesting is that GM doesn’t call the “new small car” the Aveo, even though it’s shown near-production versions of the new model bearing the Aveo name at several auto shows. Sooner or later, GM will have to start sticking with consistent, memorable nameplates in order to build up the kind of loyalty enjoyed by models like Accord, Camry, Civic and Corolla. Which would suggest that an improved Aveo should be called the Aveo, and that the new Opel Astra-based Buick Verano should be called something less instantly forgettable. We’ve speculated about what a three-door Buick Astra hatch might be called, but this Verano plan calls for an intervention. Help GM keep Buick from sliding into 90s-era ambivalence by improving on the narcoplesy-inducing nameplate Verano. It doesn’t have to be a heritage nameplate, but it should be something that makes the brands foray into compact cars seem like less of an afterthought. And that will be just as good four generations from now.

The six top-selling brands in America have sold between 450,000 and 1.3 million vehicles so far this year, with Hyundai (410,047) just missing the party. 2010 is shaping up to be Ford’s year, as the Blue Oval started strong and hasn’t looked back. Chevrolet has taken advantage of Toyota’s image issues to widen a lead for second place, putting Detroit on track for a one-two finish as the year enters its final quarter. But will Toyota fight back? Will Hyundai edge out the Pentastar’s last big-volume brand by the end of the year? Will Nissan follow Honda upwards or slide towards the oncoming Hyundai juggernaut? Stay tuned as Chart Of The Day documents the battle to the finish.

Once upon a time, there was a Volkswagen executive who couldn’t figure out how to get American consumers emotionally invested in his brand. Then one day it hit him: why not re-skin the Golf as a Beetle? It could be less practical and efficient than its donor car, but baby boomers would buy it in Costco volumes anyway, for the sheer gauzy nostalgia of it.  After flogging that Beetle for 12 years, through two successive updates to the car it was based on, it was time to update the old classic. But how?

Luckily history had an answer. Following the example of Beetle tuner/modders at the end of the original Beetle’s lifespan, VW apparently chopped the roof, exaggerated the fenders and called it good. Perhaps with the goal of making for a more “original” feel, the windscreen appears to have been moved back as well. Unfortunately tough, the change simply emphasizes the front-engine proportions, making the end result more reminiscent of a Morris Minor than the ur-Käfer. But, as the Volkswagen executive had learned by now, Americans don’t notice that stuff. The only remaining problem: how to avoid calling it “The new New Beetle.”

The Countryman is a game-changer for us. We are going from extra-small to small

I should have known from the breathless senior in long shorts and fancy jewelry: “AC Propulsion is over there. They won the X-Prize!” I should have known from the Long Curly Hair Middle-Aged Dad with Toddler and Pregnant Hippie Wife. I should have known from the fact that this first day of the national “Drive Electric Tour Sponsored by Nissan Leaf” was in Santa Monica. But I didn’t, and so
color moi tres surpris when the little Leaf driving demo was actually the biggest part of the 2010 Alt Car Expo. Petrolheads beware.

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We were not amused (to coin a phrase) at Ford’s decision to tax fans of the hatchback by adding $500 to the price of its five-door Fiesta and forthcoming Focus. And rather than following Ford’s example, GM has priced its CTS-V Sportwagon some $475 cheaper than its $63,465 CTS-V sedan, by starting prices for the unique muscle wagon at $62,990 (including destination). Needless to say, we love the wüchtig, 556 HP CTS-V, so the prospect of a distinctively be-hatched version for less money is like catnip here at TTAC HQ. On the other hand, our beef with Ford has to do with its refusal to offer the practicality of a hatch at the base price point, and that argument doesn’t really hold water in the tire-smoking world of supercharged V8 rocketships. Moreover, $475 doesn’t exactly make much of a difference when you’re talking about a car that costs the equivalent of four base Fiestas. Still, we like to think of this as a win for the wagons… if only in principle.

For all intents, the 2011 Dodge Charger debuted to the internet two weeks ago… as a police car. Possibly recalling that some civilians might wish to purchase the thing, Chrysler has finally released images of it in R/T guise… but where’s the surprise? The overall design is more delicate and graceful than that of its atavistic predecessor, but it also seems to lack the classical menace of the outgoing model. At least when shown without police livery.

The first 9/10ths of this strange Nissan Juke spot is the typical youth-oriented car commercial: much sound and hipness, signifying nothing. Which is probably why the unexpected ending makes such an impression. Say what you want about Nissan’s decisions regarding the Juke’s styling and marketing, nobody can accuse the brand of living in the past.

At $103,100, the just-announced Porsche 911 Carrera GTS costs $12,600 more than a Carrera S. With only 23 horsepower more than the S, the GTS’s premium works out to about $548 per horsepower. Or $6,300 per letter on the badge. Sure, you get a rear-drive version of the Carrera 4 body, an option that’s only been made recently available on the über-priced 911 Sport Classic, but other than that (and a claim to the title of fastest Carrera-badged 911 ever built), the GTS doesn’t appear to bring all that much to the table. And though the lightened, more powerful GT3 costs $25k more than the Carrera S, its extra power brings the per-horsepower premium to a more value-oriented $503. On the other hand, a Corvette ZR1 offers 200 hp more than even the GT3 for less money. As has always been the case, if dollars per horsepower is your game, you’ve still got to go to Detroit.