GM and Toyota to end NUMMI joint venture in California

General Motors, which is expecting to complete its bankruptcy trip by August, has said that its 50 percent stake in New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) with Toyota Motor Corp. will be left behind with other bad assets on their way to liquidations.

GM and Toyota jointly produced the Toyota Corolla and the Pontiac Vibe at NUMMI. The Pontiac Vibe will end production in August.

GM’s Statement Regarding GM’s Ownership Stake in NUMMI:

“As part of its long-term viability plan, General Motors has decided that its ownership stake in the New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) joint venture with Toyota will not be a part of the ‘New GM’. After extensive analysis, GM and Toyota could not reach an agreement on a future product plan that made sense for all parties. Accordingly, NUMMI will end production of vehicles for GM in August, and there are no future GM vehicles planned for the joint venture at this time. Given that, GM believes it is in the best interest of the ‘New GM’ and its stakeholders that we place our ownership interest in NUMMI in ‘Old GM’. We have enjoyed a very positive and beneficial partnership with Toyota for the past 25 years, and we remain open tofuture opportunities of mutual interest.”

Your chance to be among the first to test drive a new Mahindra pickup

Are you holding out for a Mahindra trucks and wondering how they stack up against more established brands? Then you need to head on over to Mahindra's Web site and sign up for some seat time.
Mahindra importer Global Vehicles is all set for a fourth-quarter 2009 launch of their first offerings from India and is taking names for early test drives. From what we can gather from the company's U.S. Web site, they'll be parading around the country soon, giving interested pickup shoppers a spin around the block in its two- or four-door diesel-powered pickup trucks. On the site, there's a lot of bragging about the two-door's seven-foot bed (Toyota's Tacoma has a six-footer), four-year, 60k-mile warranty, six-speed automatic trans, and clean-burning, four-cylinder diesel engine.
No word yet on, well, a lot of things. Like what cities this national tour will be trucking through or even when it will begin. More importantly, the company has said it has 325 dealers lined up, but still hasn't brought up pricing, EPA fuel economy numbers, crash test ratings or an exact date that sales will begin. For now we'll have to make do with the vague "fourth quarter of 2009" and the promise of an early test drive.
[Source: All Cars All the Time]

2010 Honda Insight vs. 2010 Toyota Prius, 1998 Chevy Metro - Comparison Test

What we have here is an officialC/D comparison test in which the photo vehicle, a Honda Pilot, proved far quicker than any of our contestants. These cars make you feel guilty about eating red meat. Convicted road ragers should be forced to do time in any of these three.

Both hybrids here are brand-new, if not all-new. The Honda Insight, which made its debut in 1999, has undergone the most radical transformation, gaining one cylinder, 25 horsepower, a back seat, and a shape that no longer resembles a tadpole in a spandex body wrap. In fact, what the Insight looks like is the Prius but with a smiling-fish grille instead of the Toyota’s frowning-fish grille.

Keep Reading: 2010 Honda Insight vs. 2010 Toyota Prius, 1998 Chevy Metro - Comparison Test

Buick to Offer 2.4-liter Ecotec in 2010 LaCrosse

Buick has announced that it will add a 2.4-liter Ecotec four-cylinder engine to the 2010 LaCrosse roster. It joins the previously announced direct-injected 3.0- and 3.6-liter V-6 engines and like those powerplants is backed by a six-speed automatic transmission. The 2.4-liter will be the standard engine in the base CX model and marks the first Buick four-banger in more than a decade.

Keep Reading: Buick to Offer 2.4-liter Ecotec in 2010 LaCrosse - Car News

2010 Jaguar XFR Dirt Track Drifting

We flick the new cat’s tail through the dirt, but is it any good? Check out the full Road Test in the August 2009 issue of Car and Driver.

Keep Reading: 2010 Jaguar XFR Dirt Track Drifting - Video

2009 Škoda Yeti Spotted on U.S. Soil

Reader Nathan Robinson spotted this 2009 Škoda Yeti testing in Arizona. Originally unveiled at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, the Yeti shares its platform with many Volkswagen Group small cars sold around the world and is offered overseas in front- and four-wheel-drive variants. Two turbocharged gas and three turbocharged diesel engines are available, with output ranging from 105 hp from the 1.2-liter TSI engine to 170 hp from the 2.0-liter TDI diesel engine.
While we don't expect Škodas to arrive in the U.S. any time soon, a VW version of the Yeti could do battle with the likes of the Kia Soul and Nissan Cube, slotting into the lineup just below the Tiguan.
Read about Škoda's upcoming VW-based entry-level model: Volkswagen Up! / New Beetle - Car News

2010 Jaguar XFR - Road Test

Appearances can be deceiving. Jaguars are for old geezers, aren’t they? And they definitely shouldn’t be spending time on a dirt oval, that most down-home of American automotive playgrounds, should they? But the new XFR most certainly isn’t for the AARP set, and all that it offers can’t be exploited fully on a paved public road.

On the surface, it’s elegant and refined. Yet it also has 510 horsepower capable of tearing the tail loose at a twitch of the stability-control button. It’s a lugubrious Jamaican fast bowler who’s your best friend until he takes to the field and tries to knock your head off.

To test our theory that the XFR is really an old-style muscle car at heart, we decided to take it to Butler Motor Speedway, a three-eighths-mile drifting nirvana near Quincy, Michigan. As a playground for large, overpowered V-8 stock cars, it’s the perfect place—no cops, only one concrete wall to hit—to wring out another overpowered V-8 sedan.

Now, it might seem that taking this $80,000 sports sedan to an oval in the wilds of Michigan isn’t exactly cricket, but then, that game is deceiving, too. To the outsider, cricket is a screwy English game with impenetrable rules, played in bucolic settings by persons dressed in white street clothing. Between jack-rabbit bursts of activity, there’s no action aside from the eating of crustless cucumber sandwiches and the sipping of tea.

Keep Reading: 2010 Jaguar XFR - Road Test