Archive for the ‘Rumor Mill’ Category

Take this for what it's worth: Autocar is reporting that GM's sale of HUMMER to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery is a no-go. The news comes by way of China National Radio, which says that the deal will be 86ed "by the ruling Communist party, as it goes against the country’s attempts to cut heavy pollution...." This wouldn't be surprising--as Marty Padgett mentioned earlier this week, the sale was on shaky ground--but given the lack of transparency in the PRC and our rusty Mandarin, we can't say for sure. We'll file it under "rumor" and "news", just to be safe.

[Autocar]

It'll be at least two years before the Jaguar XE roadster makes its debut, but here at TCC, many of us are already giddy with anticipation. That's partially because, hey, it's a roadster--and who doesn't like those?--but also because rumors have begun circulating about the possibility of a hybrid option in the works.

Of course, the vehicle hasn't left the drawing board, and there's still a lot of R&D to be done. Given the volumes of market research, expense analyses, and everything else to come, there's a distinct possibility that hybrid technology could get left behind as the XE moves further down the production line. However, at the...

When you say "Capri" to a Ford fan, you're apt to get a mixed reaction. What started half a century ago as a Lincoln model--and a very sweet cruising machine--gradually devolved into a series of also-ran coupes that played second-fiddle to their pony car siblings. None has had an especially illustrious run.

But Ford is perhaps looking to change all that, as rumors about a revamped Capri have begun to surface. Our colleagues at AutoExpress have gotten their hands on some renderings of a new hatchback, which they claim is the new Capri, slated for the 2010 calendar year. Lending their argument some credibility: the coupe's look is partly...