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These articles are worth a read:

Autoblog reports: Chrysler Group Media Preview: We came, we saw, we can't say anything. Yeah, more of the we can't say. This is getting absurd. Embed the press!

The Truth About Cars reports: General Motors Death Watch 103: Deja Vu All Over Again. Mr. Farago says the new fancy SUVs from GM are a flop.

Winding Road reports: Volvo XC60 Concept Images Leaked In Advance Of Debut. Man, is Volvo getting on the "we hate windows" train? It was OK in the Dodge Charger, but that's about it.

AutoWeek reports: Solstice rules the 2-seater roost. If you build a really cool car people will buy it? Really? Yay for GM.

The Detroit News reports: New at Ford: Car czar. We don't understand this, really. Ford didn't have a car guy before this dude?

The Detroit Free Press reports: A SLEEK FUEL-CELL CAR: Honda's next-generation model is close to production. Man, we might be wrong about the whole fuel cell thing (we don't really think we are, however). But this Honda prototype is sweet lookin'!

Autoblog reports: DCX to lay off up to 4,000 truck builders. At least they'll make it through December.

Classical Drive reports: Mr. Honda's Private Project. Honda rocks.

Make It Go Away!, Make It Go Away!, Make It Go Away!

AutoWeek reports: Mainstream Mustangs. Nonononononononono.

There should be no wagon Mustangs and no Mustang sedans. Nonononono.

Look, the Charger was different because it was off the market for a long time and everyone who remembered it was dead. But the Mustang was made forever since whenever the hell it started and everyone knows what it is.

Instead of Fording up the Mustang, Ford should Mustang up the other Fords. Make the Five Hundred a bitchin' big cruiser. Give the Fusion that sweet 3.5 liter V-6. Give us a decent Focus for fuck's sake.

Don't make a mess of the Mustang.

All that being said, we love the Charger sedan, so what the hell do we know?

V-8?

Is Honda slapping its head, going, "I shoulda had a V-8?" Man, we're hoping not. Winding Road reports: Report: Honda Mulling Production V-8 For Acura. We've been proud of Honda for showing restraint and not following the bigger is better crowd, but we're first to admit that sales may have suffered because of it.

We hope for everyone's sake that if Honda does come out with a V-8 that it blows everyone away with it's prodigious amounts of power, awes us with its lack of emissions, and wows us with its fuel economy. Otherwise, it's more of the same and no one needs that.

Cranford: No Cars For You!

The Real Deal reports: NJ suburbs to get urban-style development.

"It will help restore a downtown," Sam Gershwin, president of Westminster Communities, said of the Transit Village concept. "It eliminates a need for a dependence on cars. The experience in New Jersey is that the mass transit systems are being upgraded."

Noooooo!

Actually, yes. There's no sense in driving into Manhattan with all the trains and whatnot so we're totally behind this move. Hopefully they won't end up building houses made out of turds.

Shhh! Don't Tell On Us, Baby. We'll Be Better Next Time

So there was this big press event held by Ford where they invited journalists to see what Ford is working on. Great. But Ford said the journalists can't talk about what they saw. Or what they thought of what they saw.

Oh.

This junket stuff is something we find quite interesting. This one especially so, since it's a public hush-hush? Public? See here:

About*: Cars reports: Ford gives us a glimpse of the future.

Autoblog reports: Ford previews Showroom of the Future for press (that's us).

The Detroit Free Press reports: Auto writer: Assembling Ford Focus isn't so easy.

The Truth About Cars reports: Ford Death Watch 20: Press Junkets Must Die!

What exactly is Ford trying to do? Get good press for not actually building good products? Is this what we've come to now? Ford even had the journalists work on the assembly line! For what? To make them feel like part of Ford. "We're in this together, right? Me and you, buddy. We can do it together."

Seems like Ford is trying to stop the flow of bad press they've been getting for fucking everything up. Hey, it's cool to blame the press (newspapers, magazines, big web sites, blogs) for your woes, but we all know the truth. Ford is currently building products that many people don't want.

How come Toyota isn't doing this? How come Honda isn't doing this? We call bullshit.

GM's even getting in on the act a bit with The Car Connection reports: Lutz Says GM Design Is the Difference.

"Design is the key differentiator between your products and the other guy's," declared General Motors "car czar" Bob Lutz, during a mostly off-the-record background briefing in which the automaker gave a sneak peek at a dozen critical, upcoming products.

Sigh, good press for stuff that hasn't been done yet.

Hey, we're not saying Detroit hasn't had some sweet hits (Fusion, Mustang, Solstice/Sky), they surely have. But this tactic of hush-hush meetings with reporters (on this wide-scale effort) reeks of impropriety. On the part of Detroit and these news outlets. And that's just as bad as it actually being improper.

What's next? We gonna find out that before the journalists left, Ford took them for a walk around the block and said, "You gotta show restraint, man. If this happens again it's going to be a problem. You with me? You follow? You OK? OK, let's go back home." *We work for About.com

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We'da commented on these, but we done run out of time, but they're still worth reading.

Jalopnik reports: Hoopla! GM to Drag Out Old Concepts, Hyde.

Leftlane News reports: Report: Volvo's dual-clutch gearbox to arrive in under a year. This sound potentially cool. Very cool. Like Sweden cool.

CNN reports: Cars: the rolling entertainment hub. Consider us passengers!

The One Percent Solution. Great piece about how crappy efficiency in cars really is. Man!

And, finally because we'd be The Superficial if we could: Stars and Their Crappy Cars. We got that link from a (forgotten) fellow site. And the link doesn't go to The Superficial... and they didn't make the list. We just love The Superficial.

EPA: No Fuel Economy For You!

Well, less fuel economy. But you already knew that. The EPA's method... "method" for testing... "testing" vehicles for fuel economy was about as good our "method" for proof-raeding.

We're glad the EPA is finally honesting-up the fuel economy figures. We all knew they were off, but now the cards are on the table

The Car Connection reports: EPA Launches New Mileage Numbers.

reports: New MPG Figures Coming.

While we applaud the newer tests, we're a bit worried that buyers will be confused while shopping next year, when both stickers will be used simultaneously. Our best advice would be to look for these words at the top of the new sticker, shown above: "These estimates reflect new EPA methods beginning with 2008 models."

What? Two sets of stickers?! Why does the EPA constantly have to piss us off?

Meanwhile, Autoblog reports: MINI touting 40 mpg for new model. The thing, these are for 07s, so what are we talkin' for 2008?

That's a snap of the 2007 Mini Cooper. When we finally get a date with Alison we'll be picking her up in a Mini.

Spring Hill Saved?

Bloomberg reports: GM Plans $225 Million Renovation of Saturn Factory. Wow, we were totally wrong on this one when we said GM will close the plant. Check it the good news:

General Motors Corp. plans to spend $225 million to renovate its Saturn auto plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, for a new vehicle, idling production at the factory for several months next year.

So great for the workers down there (assuming GM keeps all or most of them).

The timing for starting the factory up again hasn't been decided, spokesman Tom Wickham said in an interview.

Well, that's sorta understandable. Redoing a whole factory surely has some wiggle room.

The investment depends on incentives from the state of Tennessee, Wickham said, declining to give details. GM hasn't decided what vehicle the plant will build after the paint-shop renovation or whether the model will be for Saturn, he said.

Oh. So the state has to pony up money and GM hasn't even decided what the hell the will go there? So what kind of announcement is this?

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Jalopnik reports: Four Square: Maserati to Offer Quattroporte in Automatic. The sexiest car keeps getting better. Yum!

The Car Connection reports: Diesel Hybrids a Go? Could this be the fabled step three?!

The Detroit News reports: Rental cars get ritzy. You know, we poke fun at GM an awful lot, but this idea is smart and we bet it pays off in the long run.

The New York Times reports: It’s a Luxury Liner, Not a Love Boat. $92,000 for a Lexus. Mercy!

The New York Times reports: New Again: The Hideaway Hardtop. Great read about the history of hardtop convertibles. Pretty fun since hardtops are all the rage now. Really, read this article, it's pretty interesting and sure taught us a thing or not we didn't know about cars. Sadly, the article didn't teach us the other 86,000 things we still don't know.

Volvo And The Lack Of Advertising

The Car Connection reports: Burt: Volvo Starving Under Ford.

Many of our friends who have "made" have sold off their Subarus and Mitsubishis and bought, not Lexus, not Audis, but Volvos. When asked why, the number one reason was safety.

Volvo shouldn't back away from the safety messages when Ford gives the division more advertising money because it would be forcing Volvo to deny what they are. They could add in, however, that the cars are pretty damned quick when pushed (at least some models).

We're looking forward to see new and refreshed Volvos in the next few years because the current models are a bit long-in-the-tooth. That's the primary reason sales have dropped.

That's a 2007 Volvo S60. Too spendy for our bank account, but still schweet!