The Truth About Cars » Wild Ass Rumor of the Day

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: Mid-Engine Corvette Whispers Won’t Die Edition

Edward Niedermeyer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:27:50 +0000

Along with flying cars and hydrogen fuel cells, the mid-engined Corvette occupies the most spurious level of automotive rumor-mongery. GM has a deep, rich history of flirtation with the idea of a mid-engine ‘vette (too deep and rich for us not to commission a forthcoming brief history from Paul Niedermeyer), but even in the last [...]

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: Renault-Nissan Considering A Stake In GM?

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:12:46 +0000

Flirtation between Nissan and GM has a rich history, dating back to 2006, when the two firms nearly merged, in a move that would have left Nissan-Renault’s Carlos Ghosn in charge of French-Japanese-American juggernaut. GM fought off Ghosn’s advances (and a stockholder rebellion) to stay independent, but with a post-bankruptcy IPO now looming, Ghosn has [...]

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: The Bob Lutz Era Ends On May 1

Edward Niedermeyer — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:17:58 +0000

Unnamed sources tell Reuters that the Maximum era at GM will end on May 1, when Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz will announce his retirement. Unless this is one of those Brett Favre things. Needless to say, TTAC appreciates the month of notice, and will struggle to put together a fitting tribute to the man we call [...]

Give Us Today Our Daily Hummer

Bertel Schmitt — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:51:13 +0000

As connoisseurs will certify, daily Hummers are good for you. The Chinese agree and keep us supplied with the delicious staple of GM (and we don’t mean genetically modified) food. Yesterday, we announced that time may be running out for the Hummer-Tengzhong deal. Jalopnik even went as far as saying that the deal is dead. “Not so” [...]

Wild Arse Rumour Of The Day: Someday Enthusiasts Will Have To Stop Bashing Hybrids

Cammy Corrigan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:14:46 +0000

Car enthusiasts are an odd bunch. They don’t understand why people buy “bland-mobiles” like Toyotas & Hondas, they can’t see why anyone would choose an automatic gearbox over a manuals, and they still can’t figure out why all cars aren’t RWD. For them, the smell of burning petrol (or oil, if you’re in Europe) combined [...]

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: Hyundai Prepping Wrangler Competitor?

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:54:30 +0000

Just in time for Truck Thursday at TTAC comes this hot bit of scuttlebut from Jalopnik: Hyundai might be developing a “highly-capable off-roader.” El Jalop cornered Hyundai USA boss John Krafcik at the Detroit Auto Show and asked him what his development boffins were up to. Krafcik’s cryptic answer is the seed of today’s WAROTD: “every [...]

Wild Ass Rumor Of The Day: Tesla Model S Delayed

Edward Niedermeyer — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:19:28 +0000

Speaking to MarketWatch at the Detroit Auto Show, Tesla Chairman Elon Musk apparently just revealed that the Tesla Model S sedan will be released “within two and a half years.” Which is interesting considering Musk claimed that production would start in 2011 at the Model S launch last March. But then, Tesla is still trying [...]

Wild-Ass Rumors Of The Day: Ecclestone Bidding For Saab, Volt Pricing Under $40k?

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:02:28 +0000

We’ve got a two-for-one deal on today’s wild-ass rumors, as neither seems likely to amount to much. First off, GM’s Jon Lauckner caught a headline at the WSJ by conjecturing that the Volt’s price “could be notably lower” than the anticipated $40,000. “We have until this summer to figure that out,” Lauckner said. Meanwhile, The [...]

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: Apple COO “Top Candidate” For GM CEO Job

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:31:53 +0000

An anonymous tipster writes in to The Business Insider: I saw your recent post on Tim Cook at Apple. I don’t know if he has been contacted yet but he is the top candidate that Spencer Stuart has identified as the next CEO of GM. I have an inside source at Spencer Stuart. [Interim GM [...]

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: GM To Rebadge Saab 9-5?

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:01:05 +0000

Saabsunited ran a recent piece by Sweden’s Dagensindustrie through Google Translate, and came out with a possible (and very old-GM) outcome for the new Epsilon II-based Saab 9-5: According to Dagens Industri’s sources, GM is planning to use the new Saab 9-5: an own model program, including a future Buick in the U.S.. GM is also [...]

Wild-Ass Rumour Of The Day: Renault Considering Return To The US?

Cammy Corrigan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:51:06 +0000

Thought, you’d seen the last of Renault in North America? Well, think again and this time, they’re bringing their big guns! The Wall Street Journal [sub] reports that Gerard Detourbet, head of Renault’s entry level division is contemplating selling their low cost cars in South East Asia and North America. “We’re looking at Southeast Asia [...]

Wild Ass Rumor Of The Day: GM CEO Fritz Henderson Resigning In 5, 4, 3, 2…

Edward Niedermeyer — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:42:16 +0000

Breaking, via the AP. We are currently listening to muzack waiting for GM’s press conference to begin. [Hat Tip: Tex Lovera]

Wild Arse Rumour Of The Day: Ghosn, Ghosn, Gone?

Cammy Corrigan — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:29:52 +0000

Ratan Tata is unmarried and has no children. So he’s now on the hunt for a successor and because of the lack of Tata scions (Toyota joke here) he’s looking outside of the family. Very far outside the family. NDTV Profit reports that Ratan Tata and Carlos Ghosn had a closed-door meeting in Mumbai a [...]

Wild Ass Rumor Of The Day: Meet the 1 Series-based Roadster

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:20:27 +0000

Think the new Z4 is a bloated boulevard cruiser unworthy of the roadster-implying Z badge? We’d tend to agree. Which is why we were chuffed to see renderings of a possible BMW 1 Series-based Z2 roadster in the most recent Auto Motor und Sport (print edition). Several Einser engines will be available say AM und [...]

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: LX-Platformed Lancia, Maserati Planned

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:28:13 +0000

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 [...]

Wild Ass Rumor of the Day: Mercury’s New Doors Closed for Good?

Ronnie Schreiber — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:37:01 +0000

Because of an unusual concentration of radio and television broadcast antennae in and around the Detroit suburb where I live, just about every car company and automotive electronics vendor that does business in North America tests their cars for resistance to radio frequency interference in my neighborhood. Ford in particular seems to like the testing [...]

Wild Ass Rumor Of The Day: Video Games Are Killing Car Sales

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:31:32 +0000

Home game machines are no good. Playing something that realistic makes the need for cars disappear So goes the Gawker hive-mind translation of a quote, attributed to an unnamed Toyota executive by Masahiro Kawaguchi, in an editorial published by the Mainichi Newspaper of Osaka (got that?). Best of all, Kawaguchi’s piece apparently goes on to attempt [...]

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: Alfa May Or May Not Be Developing A V8

Edward Niedermeyer — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:23:35 +0000

Autocar can’t decide. But then, Alfa’s denial, “No front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive Alfa Romeo will use a engine larger than a V6,” is pretty cagey. But leave dreams of three liter turbocharged “Multiair” V8s to the European gossip-mongers. Our wild-ass guess is that the only Alfa V8s the US market will be seeing will [...]

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: Toyobaru Turbo After All?

Edward Niedermeyer — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:49:37 +0000

About a year ago we heard that European emissions standards had killed off any hope of a turbocharged version of the Toyobaru sports coupe. That may be true for the European market, but Japan’s Holiday Auto Magazine [as translated by the Toyobaru-crazed gents of FT-86.com] swears that a Subaru STI is under development which could [...]

Wild-Ass Rumor Of The Day: Delorean Plus Solstice Equals…?

Edward Niedermeyer — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:07:15 +0000

The new Delorean Motor Company is apparently exploring the possibility of buying GM’s Wilmington Kappa plant and building a Pontiac Solstice GXP-based sportscar there. The firm released the rendering above, and the following post via Facebook: What if John DeLorean were still alive? Some of his greatest automotive accomplishments were at Pontiac, and now the Solstice [...]

Wild Ass Rumor of the Day: Cash for Clunkers Salesmen Screwed?

Robert Farago — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:55:44 +0000

As a former car salesman, I can tell you that relations between the front line troops and management is usually no better—often much worse—than the relationship between the dealership and its customers. To wit, this email just in: I used to work at —– Toyota in —–. My friends working there told me that during cash [...]

Buick LaCrosse AWOL; Launch Botched

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:28:49 +0000

Wild Ass Rumor of the Day: Koenigsegg Secures GM Financing to Buy Saab from GM

Thor Johnsen — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:58:15 +0000

When Christian von Koenigsegg announced he’d cut a deal between Koenigsegg Group (KG) and GM to buy Saab, he also “hinted” that the Swedish government would contribute to the deal. Since then there’s been a lot of speculation about whether KG has access to enough cash to gain control of New GM’s deathbed-dwelling subdivision. At [...]

Wild Ass Rumor of the Day: NUMMI Production to Tupelo?

Robert Farago — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:26:55 +0000

A tipster writes: Long-time reader here. I’m sure you hate anonymous tips as much as the next internet pontificator, but I’m gonna throw one your way anyway. You noted a few days ago that some NUMMI capacity could potentially move to the Blue Springs, MS, plant. The word here in Tupelo is that equipment has been [...]

Wild Ass Rumor of the Day: New 2010 Buick LaCrosse Delayed by Wiring Problems

Robert Farago — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:32:11 +0000

I received this report of a delayed showroom arrival for the new Buick LaCrosse. “Hi my folks are interested in the new 2010 Buick LaCrosse. What an outstanding looking vehicle from Buick/GM. My father called the dealership and they said that the new LaCrosse was shipped then pulled back by Buick. Any news on why? [...]