While it was no surprise to see even more green-themed products from manufacturers at the Geneva Motor Show this year, no one foresaw the volume of hybrid sports cars on display. Carmakers such as Porsche and Ferrari that had previously renounced hybrid technology as a waste of resources brought along their own battery-operated concepts with plenty of horsepower and low emissions on tap. Even Lotus showed off an extended-range electric vehicle, based on the company’s Evora, with more than 400 horsepower. But is anyone clamoring for a sports car with an electric motor? As it turns out, that’s a complicated question. 

Fans of small, fun-to-drive cars rejoice!

Well, perhaps the enthusiasm is a bit premature, but Ford announced today in Geneva that it would build a performance version of its restyled Focus, intended to hit the market globally.

Details, of course, are scarce, though sources say it may compete with the MazdaSpeed3, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Subaru Impreza WRX, which would put it in some pretty rarefied company when it comes to pep and handling. 

General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz plans to retire from the automaker effective May 1, people briefed on the plans said.

Lutz, 78, had been serving as a senior adviser to GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre after shelving retirement plans to take charge of the automaker's marketing after it emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009.

 

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., might be carrying a bit of a grudge against Japan from his time as secretary of agriculture. After all, during his tenure, Japan carried out a multiyear ban on all U.S. beef due to fears over "mad cow" disease, and Johanns today proposed similar action during a Senate committee hearing on the Toyota safety issues, only originating from the U.S. side and targeting Japanese-made automobiles. Johanns suggested the U.S. should consider banning all Japanese vehicles until Japan's government could guarantee the vehicles have no defects (which is reminiscent of the "I promise I'll never die" line in the farcical "Team America: World Police" movie, if only for the sheer impossibility of carrying out the pledge). 

In an all-out offensive to counter negative publicity and slumping sales from its recent recall debacles, Toyota is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at potential (and existing) customers.

Are you looking for interest-free loans? You got it. Discounted leases? Sure. And, for current owners, why not treat yourself to some free service?

Toyota has traditionally relied less on incentives than other automakers due, in no small part, to its stellar reputation for quality and dependability. Considering that reputation has eroded faster than the Texas coastline, these drastic moves are no surprise -- especially when you factor in the fallout: U.S. sales for the company fell 8.7 percent in February, and its market share dropped to 12.8 percent, down significantly from the 17 percent it enjoyed in 2009. 

Will buyers love the new Jaguar XJ, or avoid it like an unwanted stray?  

I’m not sure myself, but I’ll have a better hunch when I test Jaguar's new flagship sedan in France this week. One thing I do know: If you want to know what car is going to be hot, ask anyone but an auto journalist.

 

Time and again, car writers (and many car fans in the blogosphere, for that matter) have proven themselves a, well, let's say "reactionary" lot. They say they want something new, and speak approvingly of modern design, but they don’t really mean it. When a car company actually gives them something new and different -- from the daring designs of now-retired BMW designer Chris Bangle to the Range Rover Sport or even, previously, Jaguar's XK sports car -- auto writers whip themselves into a frenzy of dismay and the Web haters go on the march. “Radical” became the knee-jerk description of Bangle’s work, a laughable premise for cars that average folks had no problem understanding. Or buying for that matter, as BMW’s massive sales increases soon proved. No, not every Bangle car was a successful design (his original Z4 sports car was especially overwrought), but he shook up not only BMW but Mercedes-Benz and other competitors by forcing them to raise their own game in design. Japanese companies especially seemed to mimic BMW’s every move. History will come to regard Bangle as, if not the leading designer of his era, by far the most influential.

 

According to a USA Today/Gallup poll of 2,021 adults conducted in late February, 55 percent think Toyota was too slow to act on the myriad safety issues that have led to worldwide recalls totaling more than 7.5 million vehicles in the U.S. alone. And that 55 percent includes a large percentage of the most educated demographic (including post-graduate study) that takes home the highest income ($90,000 and above).

A bright spot -- if it can be called that -- for the manufacturer is that a minority of respondents thinks it unsafe to drive a Toyota or Lexus; however, that minority, at 31 percent, is still a significant number. 

If you've read Exhaust Notes recently and with any regularity, you'll know that I haven't been shy about expressing my admiration for Ford's recent turnaround: a slew of exciting and award-winning new products, smart and in-touch marketing, and a renewed focus on sharp design and putting out the types of cars that drivers want.

It looks like that strategy has been paying off, as Ford, for the first time in 10 years, outsold General Motors. Of course, if you read between the lines of the source article at the Detroit Free Press, you'll see that the celebration is based on the fact that Ford outsold the General specifically in February, and only in the United States, at a final tally of 142,285 cars and trucks to GM's 141,951.