The Chevrolet Camaro may have a reputation as a tire-burning, V8-powered muscle car, but General Motors doesn't want us to forget that the majority of Camaro sales will be comprised of a fuel-efficient V6 model. In fact, GM predicts that as many as 70 percent of Camaro buyers will opt for the V6.

"Everyone thinks we'll be positioning the Camaro as a burn-ass hot rod," Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of sales and marketing, told Edmunds. "But that's only about 30 percent of the business. The other two-thirds will come from 27-mpg V6 sales, with a significant female share."


In addition to better fuel economy numbers, the low cost of the V6 model should also secure it as the volume model.

Moreover, LaNeve confirmed that GM is considering a four-cylinder version of the Camaro in the face of newly passed CAFE regulations, but doesn't "have it done yet."

LaNave also revealed that most V8-powered vehicles will be making the switch to V6s, while cars using V6s will be moving to smaller four-cylinder engines. However, don't look for the Camaro to ditch its V8 power anytime soon.

Source: LeftLaneNews

Speaking to the German magazine Auto Motor Und Sport, BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer said he wants to trim down to fewer cylinder engines in the M cars and the rest of the BMW range. In particular, he said that BMW's diesel V8 (which is rather popular over in Europe) would be replaced with a twin turbocharged I6. And he indicated that the M range would also probably be downsized as well. Turbocharging, not displacement and cylinders, would be the path to improvements in M cars' horsepower and weight distribution. (Not to mention CO2 emissions.)

Hey, if it works for the Nissan GT-R…

Source: The Truth About Cars

These days, you no longer have to choose between saving gas money and getting the ultimate in car safety. Here's a look at some cars that give you both.

Here's a list from CNN if you're looking for new and fuel-efficient:

1. Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid


2. Nissan Altima Hybrid


3. Toyota Camry Hybrid


4. Honda Civic Hybrid


5. Saturn Vue Green Line


6. Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid

It's a 50/50 split between imports and domestics.

Source: CNN Money

After giving his thoughts on Global Warming, many were quick to judge Lutz on his opinion and many took it out of context. He quickly tried to clear things up on the topic.



Source: Fast Lane

If you’re aren’t a fan of cars made with plastics and composite materials then the future isn’t looking too rosy because the next-generation of vehicles are going to feature lots more of the lightweight stuff and in places you wouldn’t normally expect to find it. Carmakers are desperate to improve the fuel-efficiency of their vehicles while at the same time lower production costs and one of the easiest ways to do this is to manufacture more parts out of plastic.

More after the jump!

A recent study has found that carmakers can reduce the weight of components by about 40 to 50% by switching from metal to composite construction. Some of the key components that could be replaced with plastic alternatives include car panels, packaging and binding material for lithium ion batteries plus hoses and tanks for fuel.

Chrysler is one carmaker in talks with a number of strategic suppliers about developing new parts for its future range of electric and advanced hybrid vehicles. Those suppliers include battery makers as well as groups that can guide Chrysler on composite body structures to cut weight, one official revealed to Automotive News. Other new materials carmakers are investigating include soy-based urethane foams, which can be used for vehicle interiors. GM is another carmakers seriously considering making materials like carbon-fiber mainstream.

America’s new CAFE regulations is making the biggest impact in the industry and will eventually force all carmakers to change the design of their cars. Carmakers must look at every option in their search to boost mileage and one of the cheapest and most cost effective methods is proving to be using more plastic.

Source: MotorAuthority

Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealers will get 12 new or special-edition vehicles over the next 20 months — but they won't get a Pontiac Trans Am. Pontiac had lobbied for a sibling vehicle to the Chevrolet Camaro, which is scheduled to arrive in February 2009.

General Motors' plan to make Pontiac a rear-wheel-drive performance car division is likely to be scaled back because of fuel economy regulations, GM leaders told dealers at the make meeting. One dealer said the business case for the Trans Am didn't compute.

"It was an economic situation," said Lynn Thompson, owner of Thompson Motor Sales in Springfield, Mo. "It would cost $200 million to bring out the vehicle."

Pontiac will remain a car-only brand for the foreseeable future, dealers were told. But because of new legislation requiring vehicles to reach a fleet average of 35 mpg by 2020, Pontiac might not end up as GM's performance division, dealers said they were told.

"The plan is being tweaked because of the gas situation," Thompson said. "I hope they don't give up on performance because they don't have to. You can use four-cylinder engines to achieve incredible power."

Source: Automotive News
Photo Source: Kevin Morgan Designs on FQuick

The full repercussions of the new CAFE standards have yet to be realized, but already plans are being shaken up and reworked. For GM, the first real casualty is the RWD V8 revival that we’ve been so anxiously anticipating. Don’t worry, the Camaro is still coming - and may even get a hybrid variant - but cars like the RWD Buick LaCrosse and Chevy Impala are vanishing as if they never existed.

Hit the jump for the full details.

Power, efficiency and other specifics of the potential Camaro hybrid are still on the drawing board. It’s little more than rumor at this point, but GM has supposedly selected a team of engineers to figure out how to apply its dual-mode system to the Camaro.

Pricing for the V8-powered Camaro will be higher than initially anticipated, in part because the cost of the platform won’t be shared across multiple vehicles. Some of the cost of developing the new RWD platform can be defrayed by sales in non-U.S. markets, but that will only go as far as the fuel economy standards in those nations - and places like Australia and even China are cinching down the emissions belt at an ever-increasing rate, reports The Car Connection. The Middle East remains an option, but Iran, one of the largest markets in the area, is strictly off limits to American car companies.

The new Camaro will still have to compete both in terms of performance and price with the Mustang and the new Dodge Challenger, so the V6 version of the Camaro may have to shoulder a good portion of the sales load. But the fact remains that the V8 Camaro will carry a price premium, and the hybrid version of the Camaro would be even more expensive - perhaps even edging in on Corvette territory.

Trailing on the heels of the death of Cadillac’s V8 program, Chrysler’s HEMI-cutback and Ford’s EcoBoost focus, the extinction - or at least endangerment - of the American production V8 is at hand. On the other hand, hybrids are popping up everywhere, even in potentially performance/luxury situations - and on cars like the Camaro. Such incongruity would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago. But the 1mpg efficiency hit that accompanies RWD drivetrains in passenger cars means that, in the face of the new CAFE standards, some compromises or innovations must be made, or it’ll be a repeat of the 1970s rush to FWD.

Source: MotorAuthority

It looks like Chevrolet’s Corvette isn’t the only model or maker to decide that horsepower figures have reached a good resting point. Mercedes’ AMG head has declared horsepower is “not our main focus,” instead the company will be gathering effort to improve interior and exterior appearance and quality, handling and the rest of the “overall package.”

AMG is currently happy with their power and performance levels relative to the rest of the market, and while the company won’t completely rule out further power advances, it will focus its might on improving efficiency and lowering CO2 emissions. The latter will be of paramount importance if they brand hopes to continue for long in most of the nations that constitute its largest markets, and certainly if it wants to do business in the EU, and increasingly, the U.S.

One of the main changes that may fuel the increase in economy and decrease in emissions: not all AMG models may get unique powerplants. In fact, there’s a good likelihood that AMG models could share engines with the normal Mercedes-Benz cars they are based on, according to Carpoint. An example of what AMG can do when it builds a custom engine, the 63-series engine, which powers the CLS63 AMG among others, is a fire-breathing maniac of automotive excess, producing in excess of 500hp in various trims. Unfortunately, fuel consumption is similarly excessive, clocking in at 16.5L/100km (14.25mpg US) in the combined cycle.

This compares fairly well to cars like Audi’s RS6, which grinds out 573hp from its 5.0L V10 engine. Remember, these are the horsepower figures for family sedans - yet there are supercars that can barely rival such figures. In fact, Audi’s own R8 comes in over 150hp shy of the RS6. Perhaps it really is time to focus on things besides power.

Source: MotorAuthority

All isn't well in the future of muscle cars. Well-placed sources have confirmed GM has put the next-generation C7 Corvette program on hold, pending a review of the impact of the [url=http://www.fquick.com/blog/President_Bush_Signs_Energy_Bill_into_Law/1038]35-mpg CAFE laws[/url] due to come into effect in 2020.

The problem for GM is that, while 35 mpg is the target for 2020, automakers have no idea what the transitional fuel-consumption targets are in the interim. In other words, they have no idea how they should be planning to get from today's CAFE number to 2020's. Transitional fuel-consumption targets are not expected to be finalized until the end of 2009.

The gaz-guzzling Chevrolet Corvette was considered an ‘endangered species’ when the tough fuel-economy rules came in, but the redesigned car, due out in 2012, could be lighter and smaller than today’s models. For example, the V8 that powers the Corvette of the future may be smaller than the one used today.

“I don’t think we’re going to design a 700-hp Corvette,” Tom Wallace, vehicle line executive for the Corvette, said here at the auto show. “What’s going to be more important is fuel economy, carbon footprint and green. We have already paid a lot of attention to those areas. Where we can pay more attention is pounds per horsepower.”

Currently, two engine choices are offered in the 2008 model year including a 6.3 liter V8 that produces 430hp and a 7.0 liter V8 that produces 505hp. The 2009 Corvette ZR1 is powered by a 6.2 liter V8 that produces 620hp.

Wallace says that the next-generation Corvette will drop 300 to 400 pounds and will have a 4.7 liter V8 that produces 150hp less than the 2008 models.

The Senate today slammed the brakes on a wide-ranging energy bill that would hike vehicle fuel economy standards 40 percent to 35 mpg during the 2011 to 2020 model years. The fuel economy provision, potentially the biggest change in the corporate average fuel economy program in 30 years, is not in dispute. But for other reasons the Senate failed to muster enough “yes” votes to move the bill this morning.

A rise in the fuel economy standard to 35mpg for cars and trucks by 2020 (40% higher than current levels) was approved yesterday by the U.S. House of Representatives as part of a wide-ranging energy bill.

Some believe the higher CAFE standards will add several thousand dollars to the price of every vehicle, including ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Rep. Joe Barton of Texas. There’s some doubt as to whether the legislation will be passed as Democratic leaders still require 60 votes, which they may find hard to gain, reports Automotive News.

The U.S. Senate approved the same 35mpg by 2020 bill back in June.