For the first time in more than 20 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is changing the way it calculates fuel economy estimates - the city and highway miles-per-gallon calculations that are posted on the window stickers of new cars and trucks.
(c)2006 Ford Motor Co.

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DETROIT — The redesigned Cadillac CTS sedan that will be formally unveiled in January and begins arriving at dealers in late summer will be joined in mid-2009 by a sister model — an all-new compact sport coupe that may be called Cadillac CTC, sources say.

Cadillac on Tuesday sent news media a teaser shot of the front end of the ‘08 CTS, with global design boss Ed Welburn and product development czar Bob Lutz posing on either side of the signature egg-crate grille.

The official premiere takes place in early January during media preview days at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The ‘08 CTS goes into production in July at GM’s Lansing plant and will likely be assembled at other locations, including Russia and China.

Cadillac so far has declined to release details on the next CTS or even to confirm the existence of the CTC coupe that’s slated to begin production in late spring 2009, other than to say the new CTS interior will be much higher quality.

Supplier sources say a beefed-up 3.6-liter or 3.9-liter V6, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, will likely be the base powertrain combination, with either a 6.0-liter LS7 V8 or a supercharged 4.4-liter Northstar V8 powering the next-generation CTS-V that arrives in model-year 2009 and the proposed V-Series CTC that could begin production in 2010.

Both the 2008 CTS sedan and the 2009 CTC coupe will ride on an updated version of GM’s rear-wheel-drive Sigma platform. There is a provision for all-wheel drive, but there is no word so far on plans to add an AWD variant.

Cadillac also is said to be considering a convertible variant of the CTC, possibly with a retractable hardtop.

What this means to you: At last — a genuine Detroit competitor to BMW’s ever popular 3 Series.

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TOKYO — As part of the Subaru Boxer’s 40th birthday party, parent Fuji Heavy Industries confirmed on Tuesday that the company is “in the final stages of developing a diesel boxer for launch within the next three years.”

The Japanese company reaffirmed its philosophy on boxer engines, saying they are “an integral part of Subaru’s future plans.”

Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subarus, introduced the boxer in 1966 in the Subaru 1000, a sedan with a one-liter, four-cylinder engine and front-wheel drive. The company said, “Initially the flat-4 engine was considered quirky, but it paved the way for the symmetrical all-wheel-drive system.”

The horizontally opposed engines are called “boxer” because the cylinders are positioned sideways, with pumping action that resembles the punching motions of a boxer.

The engine powers the current Impreza WRX, Forester XT and Legacy GT.

What this means to you: Your next boxer engine may be a diesel.

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Ford’s remake of its popular and profitable F-Series truck lineup has reached an important stage with production start-up of the new 2008 F-Series Super Duty at the company’s Kentucky Truck Plant (KTP). (c)2006 Ford Motor Co.

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by Alex Nunez

Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda has found someone to fill departed sales and marketing chief Joe Eberhardt’s role, and he found him by looking in the mirror. LaSorda, in addition to his responsibilities as the automaker’s chief executive, has taken on the head sales and marketing role as well.

This comes in the wake of a $1.5B 3rd-quarter loss for Chrysler and a dealer revolt spurred by the glut of 2006 product sitting on dealer lots all over the place. These were the factors that forced Eberhardt to the exit, and LaSorda’s mission is to fix the problem by dramatically and quickly reducing the excess inventory, cutting per-vehicle costs by $1,000, and reconciling with a dealer network that had lost faith in the corporate leadership.

Last week, we reported on word that Chrysler could extend its annual holiday shutdown by two to four weeks to help keep 2007 model inventory under control. Heavy incentives are being leveraged to get rid of lingering ‘06 models as quickly as possible. Once they’re gone and the focus is put squarely back on the new 2007s, we can expect to see Chrysler dial back the incentives. Going forward, the automaker will shift to a system where they only build vehicles that dealers specifically order rather than overbuilding, which is what landed them in this mess to begin with.

The pressure’s squarely on LaSorda and his deputies to get the ship righted, and with rumors swirling about Dr. Z’s thoughts of bringing Wolfgang Bernhard back into the fold at Chrysler, there’s very little room for error.

[Source: Detroit News]

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