Car - X - blog

Mercury, the maker of higher grade Ford models with waterfall grilles such as the Milan and Grande Marquis, will have the same fate of GM's Pontiac and Saturn brands, according to a report from Bloomberg citing two unnamed people familiar with the plan.
The news agency said that Ford Motor Co executives could ask the automaker's board of directors as early as July to green-lit the (eventual) axing of the Mercury brand. Ford did not give a straight out answer when asked about the report. "Our plans regarding Mercury have not changed," said Ford spokesman, Mark Truby. "Like any good business, we constantly assess our business portfolio. If things change, we will let you know." Bill and Elena Ford declined to comment, Truby said.

People familiar with matter said that Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and other members of the founding family, who have an all-important 40 percent voting control of the automaker, clearly support the elimination of Mercury.

The new Cayenne is significantly prettier than the lumpy, first-generation model Porsche released upon us. Now it resembles a legitimate X5 competitor. Still, Lumma Design wants to take it a step further with its wide-body CLR 550 GT. For now, though, it's all just renderings.
Lumma is crafting an add-on lip spoiler with integrated fog lights, LED running lights, headlight trim, and a ton of carbon fiber bits for the Cayenne's front end.
Its carbon-Kevlar hood will feature functional cooling vents and be raised slightly to cover the windshield wipers (reducing drag) around the cowl area.

Bentley is continuing its efforts to drum up attention for its new Mulsanne limo, this time with the release of a three minute long film shot on location in Edinburgh and the Scottish borders.
Set to replace the Arnage, the British firm's flagship model is motivated by a twin-turbocharged 6¾-litre V8 churning out 512 horsepower and a massive peak torque of 1020 Nm / 752 lb ft. Power is transferred to the rear wheels through a new eight-speed automatic transmission with steering-wheel mounted gearshifts. Watch the video after the jump.

The GMC Terrain is a mid-size crossover SUV which replaced the body-on-frame GMC Envoy as the brand's entry-level SUV offering. In addition, the Terrain replaced the Pontiac Torrent, sold in the same dealerships prior to GM dropping the Pontiac brand. The Terrain slots below the Acadia as GMC's smallest CUV.
The Terrain shares engineering with the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox. The 2010 Terrain debuted at the 2009 New York International Auto Show. Like the preceding Envoy, the Terrain will be sold in Mexico.

The Pontiac Solstice was a small sports car from the Pontiac division of General Motors. Introduced at the 2004 North American International Auto Show, the Solstice roadster began production in Wilmington, Delaware, starting in mid-2005 for the 2006 model year. The exterior styling of the production Solstice is similar to that of the 2002 Solstice concept  that preceded it. Production of the Solstice was to be running before summer 2005, but delays at the Wilmington plant pushed volume production to the fourth quarter. The new hardtop targa 2009 model was announced in mid 2008. The Solstice uses the GM Kappa platform, which also underpins the Saturn Sky, Opel GT, and Daewoo G2X.
The Solstice was nominated for the North American Car of the Year award and Design of the Year award from the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) for 2006. It was a runaway hit for Pontiac, with 7,000 orders in the first 10 days of availability and 6,000 more orders before winter. Although first-year production was planned at 7,000, GM apologized to customers for delays and increased production, delivering 10,000 by March 1.
Production ended with the closure of the Wilmington Assembly plant in July 2009.

The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to be produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors and expected to be launched in November 2010 as a 2011 model. Its propulsion system will be based on GM's new Voltec (formerly known as E-Flex) electric automobile platform, which differs significantly from GM's earlier BAS Hybrid and Two-Mode Hybrid systems. For up to the first 40 miles (64 km), the Volt is powered by electrical energy stored in its on-board lithium-ion batteries which are charged by connection to an electrical power outlet. The car's 16 kW·h (8.8 kW·h usable) lithium-ion battery pack can be fully charged by plugging the car into a 120-240VAC residential electrical outlet using the provided SAE J1772-compliant charging cord. No external charging station will be required.
With fully charged batteries, enough electrical energy will be stored to power the Volt up to 40 miles (64 km).