Nearly overnight, something interesting happened to Alfa Romeo. The midlevel Italian luxury manufacturer went from lovelessly plodding along to being an object of desire for both parent company Fiat and global powerhouse Volkswagen. The two have squared off after VW made it clear that it wants to acquire Alfa Romeo as part of its ongoing quest to unseat Toyota as the world’s No. 1 automaker. The German company has been on a buying spree recently, snapping up smaller automakers to broaden its presence in various markets around the globe and to share development technology.

That appears to be what VW has in mind for Alfa Romeo. That is, if Fiat is willing to hand over the keys -- and it seems that it is not. On word that VW was licking its chops, Fiat executives quickly made it clear that the company would never sell to the German Goliath. 

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport, pictured here at its official public unveiling at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway on Aug. 13 in the lead-up to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, reclaimed the title of world's fastest production car with a scorching 268 mph average trip time in July. The Veyron Super Sport took the title (back, that is) from the Shelby Supercars Ultimate Aero, which in 2007 clocked an average trip speed of 257 mph thanks to its 1,183 horsepower derived from is 8-cylinder turbocharged engine. Bugatti has said that there is no rivalry to speak of, that the superhigh-end performance division of Volkswagen competes with no one but itself; the Shelby folk, on the other hand, think of themselves as the David to Bugatti's well-funded Goliath. In other words: the competition is on. 

Hyundai is introducing seven new or redesigned models in a 24-month stretch that ends in the fall of 2011. So naturally the Hyundai guys refer to their product onslaught as “24/7.”

And the pace won't slow much after those seven models hit the streets.

Significant new entries also are planned for 2012 and 2013, including Hyundai's first fuel cell electric vehicle, a redesigned Veracruz full-sized crossover and a replacement for the Azera full-sized sedan.

 

Cars and booze don't mix -- or do they? Not when the booze goes in the driver, of course, but researchers in (where else?) Scotland have created an energy-rich biofuel using the byproducts of the process used to create whisky.

Researchers at Edinburgh Napier University's Biofuel Research Center used a modified version of a 100-year-old process known as acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation to turn the waste products from Glenkinchie whisky into a usable fuel. The waste products are pot ale, the liquid run-off from copper stills, and the spent grains known as "draff." Plenty of the stuff is lying around -- about 1,600 liters of pot ale and 187,000 tons of draff -- thanks to the massive production of the $6.2 billion scotch industry. 

Federal regulators have upgraded an investigation of as many as 1.2 million Toyota Corollas for possible engine stalling.

Consumers have filed 1,101 complaints about Corollas and Corolla Matrixes for 2005-07 models, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a filing on its Website.

“The engine can stall at any speed without warning and not restart,” NHTSA said in describing the problem.

The New York Times and Consumer Reports said the agency has received similar complaints with the Pontiac Vibe--a near mechanical twin of the Matrix.

 

Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Washington, Atlanta -- these U.S. cities are always slugging it out for the title of America's most congested roadways. But none can hold a candle, it seems, to Beijing, where the Beijing-Tibet Expressway is still in the middle of a traffic jam that has been going on for the past nine days.

Yep, you read that right: nine days. The logjam, which began Aug. 14 due in part to an influx of cargo trucks heading into the city combined with construction work to repair the damage from said trucks, tracks back 62 miles. If you started at the back and it took you nine days to reach the front, you'd be traveling at a whopping 0.29 mph, or about twice the top speed of a three-toed sloth. 

In a move certain to divide consumers into love-it/hate-it groups, Nissan Motor Co. will introduce a convertible version of its Murano crossover next year.

The crossover, which already has a polarizing bulky rear-end design, will be offered as a two-door with a droptop, company officials confirm.

Nissan showed the convertible to dealers at a meeting in Las Vegas this month. It is not clear when retailers will receive it, but it is likely to arrive in 2011.

One Nissan retailer, who asked not to be identified, commented that the design is "kind of unusual." He added: "It actually looks better with the top down than up."

 

A 305-horsepower Mustang V6 for $22,995. A killer 412-horsepower Mustang GT V8 that starts for barely 30 grand. And coming soon, a 440-horse Mustang Boss 302 that will spark '60s flashbacks and almost surely start below $40,000. Hurry, remind me again: What exactly is the point of a $50,000-plus Mustang called the Shelby GT500?