Bailout Blues: Why the wrong Swedish car brand is dying

As both Ford-owned Volvo and Government Motors-owned Saab struggle to find new owners, it’s been nail-biting time if you’re a Swedish car fan.

As Saabistas are all too well aware, Saab’s days as a standalone brand look to be numbered today at eight: the time left until GM puts the final nail in the coffin on New Year’s Eve.

Yeah. I know. There was (another) last minute attempt by Dutch sports car maker Spyker to buy Saab. But then negotiations broke down (again) last week. So unless a miracle happens on East Jefferson Ave. (GM’s riverfront Detroit HQ address) existing 9-3s and 9-5s will live on in China, badged as products from BAIC, China's fifth-largest automaker.

2010 Detroit: GM to show the smallest GMC ever and a high-performance Buick

At a media sneak preview last week, Government Motors revealed its plans for the upcoming Detroit auto show. Normally, the protocol of these things is to open the kimono, then demand that the info be held (or “embargoed”) until the day of the show.

This not only makes us media types feel special, it’s a type of insurance that the automaker’s news won’t get lost during the hubbub of the show.

Instead, our colleagues over at CanadianDriver decided to reveal all of GM’s offerings. Some expected, some not so much.

Trends: Is the market passing Honda’s Civic by?

As you may very well know, the battle for the title of top selling car in Canada is a virtual three-way race. Depending on the month and which way the incentive winds are blowing, it’s either the Mazda 3, Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla finishing one-two-three on the podium.

But based on Honda’s lack of initiative with its Civic, you have to wonder how long its compact can continue to compete at the top.

Brand Alert: Does Aston Martin’s new city car hurt/help its image?

No joke. Aston Martin is really going to put a restyled Toyota iQ city car into production, dubbed the Cygnet, and one of my Top 10 Misfit Cars.

Even if the overall shape isn’t in the same universe as the gorgeous, hand built GTs and sports cars the British automaker is used to selling (Vantage, DB9, DBS, etc.), new photos released today show further development from the original clay model mockups.

Trends: Can cheap, import, RWD coupes replace the Mustang/Camaro/Challenger?

Reminiscent of the surge of Japanese sporty cars in the early 1990s, small, cheap, rear-wheel-drive 2+2s from overseas’ automakers seem to be making a bit of a comeback.

We already have the excellent Hyundai Genesis Coupé. The Nürburgring-bred Toyota 2+2 that debuted at this year’s Tokyo show as the FT86 concept is on the way, as well as a probable all-wheel-drive Subaru version.

Foreign Affairs: Sacré bleu! Renault reconsidering North American market

Looks like another European automaker is hoping North Americans have short memories.

A report in the Wall Street Journal has Renault pondering a return here to shill cars and SUVs. But we won’t be getting any Renaults made by well-paid French automakers. Nope.

The plan is to sell the low-cost Duster SUV, below right, built by Renault’s Romanian Dacia subsidiary. Once the cheap SUV gains some sales traction in emerging markets like South America and Eastern Europe, there could be a chance it would be sold in North America as a Renault.

Logic says the Romanian Renaults could be sold in Renault’s partner Nissan dealerships, say, in three to five years. And perhaps Dacia’s Logan sedan and wagon (based on the Renault/Nissan global subcompact platform, as is the Cube and Versa) would join the SUV too.

You may have forgotten. But the last time the French automaker blessed our shores in 1987, they were trying to pawn off Americanized Renaults as Alliances and Encores, above left, after buying struggling AMC (sound familiar?)

Do you think these low-cost Romanian Renaults have a chance here?

How do feel buying a Romanian-built car, putting money in the pocket of a French automaker?

[Source: Wall Street Journal]

Is the Soul’ster one Kia too many?

Unless you’ve been living under an AMC Gremlin the past few years, you may have noticed that Kia, along with its parent Hyundai, have made great strides in the new car market, mainly at the expense of the former Detroit Three and formerly untouchable Japanese brands like Honda and Toyota.

Here’s the thing: Kia Canada moved out the door 3,464 vehicles last month, up 28.2 per cent from the same month last year. On a year-to-date basis, sales are up 21.2 per cent over 2008 and November marks the eleventh month of consecutive growth.

Great. Fantastic. Good for them. But now we read that a movement is afoot within Kia’s U.S. design ranks to actually put its Soul’ster concept from this year’s Detroit show,, above, into production.

As is, the Soul’ster is a 2+2, convertible version of the Soul boxy wagon. If anyone decided to do a remake of Baywatch, the Soul’ster would make a great beach buggy for the Barbie and Ken lifeguards. But beyond that, would it have any legs as a mass-market product?

Would you consider buying a Soul’ster?   

Does the Kia brand have enough cachet to make the Soul’ster credible on the street?

Or would the Kia end up as another Suzuki XC90 (Google it), or any other dumb halo cars
that should have been left as concepts?

[Source: PickupTrucks.com]

2009 LA Show: "Sexy" and "Sienna" in the same sentance. Really.

LOS ANGELES - If you can think of a better method of birth control than driving a minivan, please, send me an email.

Yet minivan owners, obviously, are able to procreate proficiently enough. How else can they justify driving one of these ill-handling, anodine, box-on-wheels?

Anyway, unlike pretty much every other automaker, Toyota isn't throwing in the towel on the minivan market. It's decided to offer a new Sienna for 2011. And with the hope customers will put "sexy" and "minivan" in the same sentence, Toyota also showed off a pre-production Sienna SE.

The SE offers a stiffened and lowered suspension, 19-inch alloys, body kit, revised grille and carbon fibre in place of wood inside. They even showed us a video of one grinding it out on a slalom course to prove they weren't kidding. Seriously.

So, over to you: Do you think minivan owners will go for a sporty Sienna?

And if so, will Toyota need to start offering five-pont harnesses as an option?

2009 LA Show: The 2011 Hyundai Sonata looks like a _______

LOS ANGELES - Hyundai debuted here yesterday the North American version of its new 2011 Sonata family sedan—virtually the same car that's already on sale in its home Korean market.

Now, as we all know, Hyundai is gunning for the Japanese. Specifically Toyota and Lexus. And the '01 Sonata, along with the Genesis sedan and Coupe, are trying to breakaway from previous milque-styling offerings. 

But stand around long enough Hyundai's booth here at the show, and you get the feeling that Hyundai designers still use a Xerox machine as their primary creative tool.

I overheard everything from "BMW 3 Series," "Lexus ES 350," and "Volkswagen Passat CC" as examples of what the Sonata looked like. Which, if you think about it, isn't exactly bad company to keep.

Based on the shots of the new Sonata above from the LA show floor, though, what design influences do you see?

Does Hyundai have the brand cachet to step up and do a look it can call its own?

Or is the current copycat approach good enough in the long run for the aspiring Korean brand?

2009 LA Show: Mitsubishi Colt might be heading to Canada in 2010

LOS ANGELES - While I patiently sat through Mitsubishi's presentation of its PX-MiEV plug-in (a repeat from this year's Tokyo show,) a colleague noticed a small mention that the Japanese automaker will bring a subcompact to North America in 2010. Logic says, that car will the next version of the Colt.

Mitsubishi Canada hasn't replied yet. But trust me, this would be a good thing.

The company has already come out and said it wants to be known as a small car maker. And two summers ago, it seeded our market by letting a bunch of Canadian media drive Japanese versions of its Colt CZT, above, which I liked a bunch.

Right now, its compact Lancer is its smallest Canadian offering. But it needs something to take on the likes of the Honda Fit, Ford Fiesta, Mazda2, Toyota Yaris and Nissan Versa. So this looks like a no-brainer to me.

Do think the Colt would work in Canada?

Or are there already enough small, fun-to-drive and fuel-efficient cars on the market?