GM's SUVs May Get Smaller

Even top exec fears hybrid will fail to herald new start for automaker

(NEWSER) - Success has many fathers, and for the forthcoming Chevrolet Volt, paternity claims could stretch from Detroit to Washington. But if the GM hybrid turns out to be an orphan, it could be because many of its backers, including a top GM exec, are ambivalent about its potential to rejigger the company’s gas-guzzling image, Michael Leahy writes for the Washington Post. More»

(NEWSER) - Despite predictions of its demise, the SUV is alive and well at the New York auto show this year, Dan Carney writes for MSNBC. Sure, more fuel-efficient models of classic 4x4s make up the majority of the cars on display, but reports that the gas guzzler is passé, emanating from “literary critics, Broadway choreographers, and other practitioners of the bedrock industries that built this country” are greatly exaggerated. According to one website that tracks such things, half of Americans shopping for new cars are looking at crossovers and SUVs. More»

Reworked car could be Detroit's savior

(NEWSER) - General Motors hopes to muscle its way back from the brink of bankruptcy by reintroducing the Chevrolet Camaro, a macho stud-machine that is flexed to impress, Joseph Szczesny writes in Time. “The new Camaro goes well beyond the old-fashioned ‘Detroit iron’ of the 1960s and '70s,” writes Szczesny, who test-drove the growler and praises its blend of brains and brawn. More»

Rocker makes the case for drivers going big and going green

(NEWSER) - Motorists considering electric cars can hang on to their Cadillac dreams as well, writes Neil Young at the Huffington Post. Barack Obama's plan to get a million electric vehicles on American roads within a decade is possible—and the cars don't need to be tiny or even have new designs, writes the rock legend, pointing to his own converted 1959 Lincoln Continental as proof. More»

Coming soon to a compactor near you

(NEWSER) - The possibility that one of Detroit's Big Three automakers is headed for the scrap heap left US News and World Report wondering which cars Americans could live without. Here are some top candidates:

• Jeep Commander: This boxy model gets 16 mpg and it shows: sales are down 55%.
• Dodge Durango: Even the hybrid version of this SUV hasn't stopped sales from falling an astonishing 54%.