Surprise! There’s some good news coming out of Chrysler’s five-year plan presentation. Okay, the really surprising part first: Sergio Marchionne has revealed that Chrysler has $5.7B in cash, up from $4B when it exited bankruptcy in June. The somewhat less surprising part: Jeep is bringing a stop-start-equipped, diesel-powered Wrangler. How niche-tastic is that?

Automotive News [AN, sub] reckons it’s got the inside line on Toyota’s “new U.S. plan.” They’re so chuffed with the scoop that their article presents the bulleted battle plan in both the body text and a little gray box. And here it is: “Review and possibly trim the lineup of full-frame trucks; Skip midcycle vehicle enhancements to focus on bigger launches; Introduce more hybrids to North America; Give U.S. engineers a bigger voice in r&d.” AN reckons the headline is the potential truck trimming and hybrid adding bit. Which is certainly important news for a company with a “tattered image” (Toyota, apparently, not the American zombies clinging to profits via pickups, who’ve yet to produce a single large-volume hybrid vehicle). But what of ToMoCo leaving existing vehicles as is for longer?

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No, Honda’s Accord-based Crossover sin-against-nature hasn’t been canceled, but it is being cannibalized (sort of). Acura has announced [via Autoblog] that a TSX Sportwagon will be offered beginning with the 2011 model year. In short, if you begged Honda to bring a Euro-spec Accord wagon to market, your pleas have been answered… as long as you’re willing to shell out at Acura prices. More information as it becomes available… meanwhile, notch up another promising sign in the Honda column.

Oooh, look! It’s another official VW sketch of its North America and China-only, Passat-replacing New Midsize Sedan (NMS). Never mind product strategy, on a clear day will you be able to see out those windows? Hit the jump for the old official sketch. For contrast. Ish.

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Chrysler’s product and business plan is leaking like a neglected radiator, leading up to next week’s announcement. The latest tidbit: an Alfa-badged version of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee. Alfa Romeo has been hunting after an SUV platform for some time, because as Luca DiMeo put it back in ‘08,

We need an S.U.V. for America. Not everyone in the company agrees, but this would be the only practical Alfa Romeo and we will be able to design the sportiest, sexiest and most exciting S.U.V. in the world.

It’s important to note though, that this quote predates the revelation that the Alfa SUV would be a Grand Cherokee reskin, effectively replacing the unlovable Chrysler Aspen as ChryCo’s luxury ute.

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Chrysler’s five-year product and business plan won’t be officially announced until next Wednesday, but the leaks have begun already. The Wall Street Journal was so curious about Chrysler’s product plan, they were able to squeeze a few broad strokes out of “people briefed on the plans.”

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Well, we’ve been here before. A while back we’d heard that an Alfa 169-branded, LX-platformed sedan would be built at Brampton for the US market, with a rumored $62k price point. That story seemed a bit iffy at the time, although it wouldn’t surprise us to hear it announced officially at Chrysler’s forthcoming five-year plan announcement. Especially now that we’re hearing more rumblings that Fiat will borrow the LX platform for European-market sedans to be built at the former Carozzeria Bertone plant in Turin. Automotive News [sub] reports a Lancia Thesis replacement and possibly even a entry-level Maserati will be built using Chrysler’s long-running RWD platform. Fiat has been looking for a RWD platform for some time, having planned on using Cadillac’s Sigma platform, and when things got nasty with GM, Fiat went sniffing around the Jag XF platform. Now Fiat has its rear-drive underpinnings, and Chrysler’s new “Pentastar” V6 to play with… but will Maserati settle for less than a V8? And will the American market actually be getting an Alfa-branded LX? TTAC will be on-hand for Chrysler’s five-year product plan announcement, and will report the definitive word on November 4th.

The birthplace of TTAC, pistonheads.com, reports that the Land Rover Defender has finally left the ramparts. I’m sure the Defender will have plenty of defenders, but I will not be amongst them. Setting aside the idea that the Defender could behave like a modern car on a normal road (a preposterous suggestion), the 25 to 61-year-old vehicle’s main selling point was its go-anywhere ruggedness and simplicity of repair (a necessity as much as a virtue). It’s been completely trounced by Toyota’s off-roaders in both not to say all departments. I’ll give the Landie its narrow track and relatively light weight, a boon to anyone who’s ever had to literally pull a vehicle out of the muck, but we are talking about a hand-built automobile with about as much passive safety as a camel. OK, less, given the relative speeds involved (close call) and all the Defender’s sharp bits. As for the future, “Apparently [the new Defender] will use either the platform from the current Range Rover Sport and LR4, (which doesn’t fill us with confidence for its mud-plugging ability, but Land Rover insists that the new car will be just as able in the rough stuff), or a significantly more advanced version of a ladder-framed vehicle.” Or, alternatively, nothing.

After months of teases and race-car previewing, Toyota is publicly unveiling its production-spec LF-A supercar at the Tokyo Auto Show [via Automotive News [sub]]. And it’s a legitimate front-engine supercar, with a 4.8 liter V10 motivating it to 60 MPH in 3.7 seconds. It even has a true supercar pricetag: $375,000. But how does this car square with Toyota’s appliance-and-environment-driven image? “It’s our mission as automakers to offer cars that possess the ‘fun’ spirit that should be at the base of any car,” explains Akio Toyoda, who sees the supercar as a way to gain attention in developing markets. But having axed its own front-engine V-10 supercar, Honda is reacting to the LF-A by retreating into greener-than-thou sniping. “Sure, there are folks who like that ‘vroom’ of the engine out of nostalgia,” snickers Honda prez Takanobu Ito. “The era of V10 engines is gone.” And you’ll never guess what vehicle Ito offers up as Honda’s counterpoint to the LF-A.

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But which one is The Future?