For your viewing enjoyment, yet another teaser shot of the Kia Soul concept destined for Detroit. And judging from this little snippet, the slightly anticipated new concept will arrive under the Soulster nameplate. 

What might have been the biggest tech headline of the year “Technology Investment Saves Auto Industry” didn’t quite happen. The Senate shot down the House’s $15 billion compromise plan to loan the money that Congress originally appropriated in Section 136 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 for fuel-efficiency technology development to be used as a bridge loan to see GM and Chrysler through the liquidity crisis. But there was plenty of other news being prefabricated in the tech arena. Here were my favorite stories of 2008:

1. Cellulosic Ethanol’s For Real! Early in the year we reported on Coskata’s plans to produce ethanol by superheating any carbon-rich feedstock (corn stalks, wood chips, plastic bottles, tires, etc.) to turn it into carbon-monoxide and hydrogen, then feeding this “syngas” to special microbes that breathe it in and sweat out pure ethanol at an estimated  production cost of under $1/gallon. Plans were announced for a demonstration plant to be located at the Westinghouse Plasma Center near Pittsburg, opening in primeval 2009, followed by a full-scale operation in 2011, but economic woes have appear to have pushed back the timing of the demo plant. 
Technologue: Booze Clues 

2. Cellulosic Ethanol’s REALLY for Real! Then we reported on Mascoma’s totally different Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP) method of breaking down the lignin in various non-food plant materials and fermenting it into ethanol using designer microbes that mimic what happens in a cow’s digestive system in breaking down. Production cost is estimated at $1-1.50/gallon, demonstration plants are in the works in Rome, NY and Kinross, MI, with full-scale production targeted at 2011.
GM Partners with Mascoma on Cellulosic Ethanol

3. Cellulose is For Real! The third piece of the puzzle — economically viable plant materials to feed these ethanol facilities — came from Ceres. The first bio-engineered high-yield switchgrass and sorghum varietals plain to suit different climates and ethanol production methods went on understanding in December. They boast high-yield density, require little fertilizer and less water than most crops, and they can grow in marginal soil. Keep your fingers crossed that the processing plants get built in time to turn these plants into fuel.
Technologue: Whiter Lightning

4. If not Ethanol, Maybe Methanol? Lotus trotted out a methanol-powered Exige concept car at the Geneva show that encouraged the world to have another look at the world’s simplest alcohol. With only one carbon, CH3-OH can be produced more easily than ethanol, so the scientists say. Its high-octane rating would allow engines running on pure methanol to run diesel compression ratios for better output and efficiency. Cold-starting is a problem, but hydrogen generated by using exhaust heat to crack the Hs of the methanol molecule could solve that problem and boost efficiency too. There are even some fuel cells that run directly on methanol.
Technologue: First K.I.S.S

5. Greenhouse-Gasses-to-Methanol. Imagine turning that CO2 everyone’s always moaning about into fuel and driving a mile in someone else’s carbon footprint! There are several technologies in the works: big louvered scrubbers coated with sodium hydroxide that absorb CO2 are said to be capable of offsetting coal-generated power equivalent to twice as much as the windmill could generate. Exotic catalysts are in the works that might one use solar energy to mimic the way chlorophyll breaks down CO2, which could then combined with hydrogen split from water, perhaps using sunlight and titanium catalysts. It’s tech worth watching.
Technologue: Reusing CO2

6. If Not Alcohol, Maybe Ammonia? Pure NH3 boasts a 110 octane rating and burning it in a combustion engine releases pure nitrogen and water — no CO2, ‘cuz there’s no carbon. Ammonia is the second most widely produced chemical, it stores and transports like propane (liquid under light pressure at room temperature) and is already distributed nationwide for use as fertilizer. A slow flame front means you need multiple spark plugs and the engine won’t rev all that high, but it could be the perfect way to remove agriculture from the Global Warming debate.
Technologue: Stinky Clean

7. What About Electric Power? If vehicle electrification manages to take off like Congress and the environmentalists hope, we’re headed for a potential neodymium-supply shortage. This rare-earth metal is used to make permanent-magnet motors. But the Chorus Meshcon electric motor is an AC-induction type motor that manages to deliver the efficient low-end torque of a permanent magnet motor with the light weight, lower cost, and better high-speed performance of an AC induction motor, thanks to a mesh-connected winding that can change the number of attractable poles and the alternating-current frequency. Look for it next year on the nose-gear of Delta’s new Boeing 737s, and on cars in the near future.
Technologue: Flying Hybrids!

8. Race-Ready Hybrids? Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) will be permitted in Formula 1 in 2009, so most teams are reportedly working on “hybridizing” their cars. My favorite was a small flywheel that connected to the transmission’s output shaft via an infinitely variable toroidal friction-drive transmission. Gear reductions along the way allow the flywheel to reach 64,500 rpm (it operates in a vacuum, using special high-speed bearings that reportedly seal tight). Storing the FIA-mandated maximum of 400 KJ of energy keeps the flywheel small and light enough to be safely contained (unlike the one in the still-born Chrysler Patriot prototype). As of press time we’re unaware of any team using this system by Flybrid Systems LLP, of Silverstone, England at the start of the season, but watch for it.
Technologue: Blessing & KERS

9. VVT For Smarties. Ford has come up with a better (more elegant) way of achieving variable valve timing by capitalizing on waste energy. Most cam phasers rotate the camshaft using oil pressure delivered by the engine-oil pump, but this can be problematic at low engine speeds and at low temperatures during vehicle startup. Ford engineers noticed that the oil pressure in the chambers that rotate the cam fluctuated just before and after the nose of apiece cam rotated past its valve tappet, and decided to harness these little pressure spikes. Voila. Less oil pressure is needed and more cam rotation is doable as low as 1500 rpm, all of which helps boost economy and performance.
Ford Gets Phased — Using Free Energy

10. Lights, Cameras, Action. Digital CMOS cameras are becoming so cheap that we’ll be seeing a lot of them on cars in the very near future, starting off with high-end luxmobiles like the next Mercedes E- and S-class sedans. Cameras keep an eye out for traffic ahead of the vehicle and accommodate the lighting pattern to reach as far as doable without blinding oncoming cars; an infrared camera provides an enhanced night-view image in the dash that also identifies and highlights pedestrians; and the various cameras will also inform the lane-keeping assist and Pre-Safe systems to warn a distracted driver of impending doom.
Dark’s Knight: Mercedes-Benz Showcases a Brace of New Safety Technologies

“So, what was the best car you drove this year?” It’s one of those questions that routinely crops up during holiday party conversations once folks find out what we do for a living here at Motor Trend. And it’s a fiendishly difficult one to answer: The definition of “best” usually involves a highly individualized compromise between need and desire. One man’s Ferrari is another man’s total waste of money.

This compromise is at the core of every test we do. To get around it, we approach every new car, truck, or SUV we test with a key philosophical question in mind — how well does the vehicle do the job its maker designed it to do? Understand what a vehicle’s intended function is, what market segment it’s aimed at, and what price point it’s meant to hit, and you have the foundation for a first drive, full test, or multi-car comparison.

We drove or tested hundreds vehicles this past year; everything from low-buck econoboxes to 200-mph supercars. We picked the good, the bad, and the ugly, and told it like it was. But out of all those vehicles, which are the ones that hit our individualized sweet spot between need and desire; the ones that may not have been the fastest, the most stylish, the most economical, or even the best value for money, but simply were the cars we loved? Read on, and find out…

Angus MacKenzie: BMW M3 DCT

There were faster, more exotic, more expensive cars. But nothing touched me like the BMW M3 DCT. The M3’s chassis equilibrise is sublime; the steering surgically precise; the brakes bulletproof; that yowling V-8 utterly intoxicating. And now the lightning fast, seven speed, dual clutch, paddle-shift tranny ties it all together. On one mad, primeval morning dash crossways a heaving, twisting, deserted central California two lane, this car prefabricated me feel like Kubica on a limiting lap.

Kim Reynolds: Honda FCX Clarity

Every now and then you drive a car that seems more like a worm hole into the future than yet another rearrangement of four wheels, and the Honda FCX Clarity was mine for 2008. While it didn’t completely make me a hydrogen believer, for a few hundred miles at least, I felt like Kubrick had cast me into an automotive remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Better buckle up, HAL.

Edward Loh: Mini Clubman S

Reynolds and St. Antoine expect me to say, “Duh, GT-R”, but my love for 2008 wasn’t the world’s fastest, most captivating (believe it, Kim), all-wheel-drive coupe. It was the lust driven tryst I had with the Mini Clubman S. As I profiled in the Feb. 2008 issue, it was a breathless affair for the ages — a rush of smashed inhibitions and highly irresponsible behavior that came from driving the right car on the right road.

Matt Stone: 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Spyder California
 
Like Audrey Hepburn in a Halston gown, you don’t need anyone to tell you that a Cal Spyder is elegant. And this was special among the special, as it was owned by person saint Coburn for more than two decades.  I trembled as I settled into this triple black beauty.  Driving Coburn’s Spyder around Ferrari’s Fiorano test track in Italy was the highlight of my automotive 2008.  Glad I brought it home in one piece too; the next day, it sold for at auction for $10.9 million.

Gavin Green: Ferrari California

There has never been a Ferrari with such a broad and breathtaking range of abilities. It can play the cushy riding comfy cruiser, a Bentley-by-Ferrari, coupe one moment convertible the next. Or be a Schumacher-at-Spa racer, helped by that brilliant seven-speed paddle gearshift and a handling equilibrise that takes Ferrari to a whole new plane of excellence. 

Arthur St Antoine: Jaguar XF Supercharged

Yes, the Alfa-Romeo 8C roared like a lion that’d swallowed Pavarotti, and, yes, driving the ZR1 was a 10-meter platform dive into a pool of adrenaline, but in 2008 I loved the Jaguar XF Supercharged most. Why? Because I’d own one. Superb comfort? Check. Rakish good looks? Check. Performance and handling worthy of a purpose-built two-seater? Check mate.

Scott Mortara: Audi R8

We first played with this car last year, but we had it back this year for our Best Handling test, and it won, that’s right, the Audi R8 was my favorite car of 2008. There is nothing I don’t like about this car, the look, sound, feel, everything is fantastic. It might not be the fastest in a straight line, or turn the quickest lap time but it will hang with almost anything out there, and I love it.

Paul Horrell: Ferrari Scuderia

No question. Many supercars intimidate me by demanding Fangio-like skills, but this one seemed to bestow them on me. Its electronic wizardry augmented my own meagre abilities, while communicating its intentions in an animate, organic manner. Oh yes, the GT-R did that too, but the GT-R didn’t have that engine, those looks, this heritage.

Frank Markus: Maserati Quattroporte S

Maybe it was the Austrian Alpine scenery or the hip tunes my co-driver Steve brought along for the ride, but I doubt it. The Maserati Quattroporte S’s supermodel-svelte sheetmetal, Armani interior, Ferrariesque chassis and eight-tenors engine-note could probably seduce anybody reading this even on a North Siouan freeway with the broadcasting off. 

Ron Kiino: Lexus IS F
 
The M3 is nimbler and the C63 quicker, but give me the Lexus IS-F. Its V-8 warble above 4000 rpm is titillating. Its hunkered-down stance is menacing. Its green bourgeois (no gas-guzzler tax, 18-mpg combined fuel econ) is forests beyond the Teutons’. And its uniqueness (only one to hail from Japan, offer eight cogs, and get standard 19-inch forged alloys) is eminent.

Mike Floyd: BMW 1 Series

It’s not the greatest-looking coupe in the world, nor is it the fastest or most technically gifted vehicle the BMW stable (see M3 DCT above), but the 1 Series is hands down one of the most engaging and entertaining vehicles I’ve ever driven, and that goes for both the 128 and 135 — with either six speed tranny on board. Tight, light, and amazingly quick and agile, to me, the 1 Series is the Ultimate Ultimate Driving Machine.

Todd Lassa: Audi R8

Not because of its mid-engine balance. Not because with a clutch as light as an A4’s; it’s the next-generation NSX that Acura would love to build. It’s because Audi place Blizzaks on one last Jan and let us have fun in the cold and snow. And it worked.

DETROIT - You don’t need a reminder of how bad 2008 was for the auto industry. General Motors, Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Company were the poster children for what has happened to American manufacturing as we shifted to a nation that runs on the financial industry. (That worked out well, didn’t it?)

By the end of the year, one of the biggest stories — a story as big as President Bush’s 11th-Hour bailout of GM and Chrysler — was Toyota’s revelation that it would post its first loss in 71 years. If the global recession lasts much beyond 2009 at current levels, smaller, weaker automakers are likely to fail. And the big ones will have trouble surviving, too.

It’s an academic exercise to try and rank how much more important one story was than another. So instead, here are my choices for the 10 top newsmakers for 2008. They’re not necessarily the most influential people in the business — you can read that in Motor Trend’s 2009 Power List.

1. Rick Wagoner
GM Chairman/CEO

The average American could not study the chairman and CEO of the world’s largest maker until he flew in a private jet to Capitol Hill to beg for federal loan guarantees along with Chrysler’s Bob Nardelli and Ford’s Alan Mulally. Because Wagoner, a GM lifer, has led his company much longer than Nardelli or Mulally, he’s the most likely sacrificial lamb, the most likely to lose his job. Most of GM’s problems go back to the days of Roger Smith, and can’t be blamed directly on Wagoner. While the GM board repeatedly has voiced its support for Wagoner, he has been chairman since 2003 and GM hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2004.

2. George W. Bush
43rd President of the United States

Who could have predicted that President Bush would come to GM’s and Chrysler’s aid weeks before they were to run out of money? Here was the president who delayed meetings with the Detroit Three until primeval ‘07 (only to have Alan Mulally joke about Bush nearly plugging into a hydrogen Ford and blowing them all up) and who maintained, up to the last minute, that Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds were for financial institutions, not automakers. Bush caved only after his fellow conservative Republicans in the Senate killed a compromise that would have used Energy Bill funds for the loan guarantees, instead.

3. Katsuaki Watanabe
Toyota Motor President

Will he start on his sword or be kicked upstairs? In December, Watanabe announced that Toyota would post its first operating loss since its founding, $1.7-billion in red ink for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. Depending on which published report you believe, the 66-year-old president, in the post since ‘05 to warm the seat for the company founder’s grandson, will either resign or he’ll replace Fujio Cho as chairman. In either case, two men have emerged as in the race for Toyota’s presidency; the grandson, Akio Toyoda, and executive vice president for finance, Mitsuo Kinoshita.

4. Richard Shelby
Republican Senator from Alabama

Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Hyundai all have assembly plants in Alabama. Toyota builds V-8 and V-6 truck engines there. As Senate minority leader, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell is more responsible for blocking a House/White House compromise bill to bail out the Detroit Three. Shelby has been at the forefront of opposition to any sort of money for American-based automakers. Shelby has prefabricated his reasons clear: he’d rather not have the United Auto Workers around to try and organize factories in his state.

5. Alan Mulally
Ford Motor Company CEO

Was Ford really in such hot water? That was the big question, when the company hocked everything up to the Blue Oval corporate logo in exchange for a $23 billion line of credit a couple of years ago. Now, Ford has about $1 billion more in reserves than GM, which is twice as large. Mulally told Congress that Ford doesn’t want an immediate loan guarantee, but would like access to a $9-billion line of credit. Now Ford is seen as the healthiest of the Detroit Three, and ex-Boeing exec Mulally, who knew nothing about the auto industry when he came to Dearborn in September 2006, looks like the smartest man in town.

6. John Snow
Chairman, Cerberus Capital Management

Whoever drove the unsuccessful “merger” talks between GM and Chrysler, it wasn’t anyone running Chrysler. Its private equity owner, Cerberus, had previously said it was into working with Chrysler for the long haul. In 2008, it became clear that Cerberus was funding Chrysler with a minimum of capital, and was hot to unload it on another company, domestic or foreign. Snow, the super-private equity company’s chairman and former Treasury secretary to President Bush, surely was a driving force behind all this.

7. Barack Obama
44th President of the United States

The president-elect’s primeval support for the auto industry - with strings attached - pushed House Speaker metropolis Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) into backing financial support for the Detroit Three in late ‘08. Before getting keys to the White House, Obama has already indicated he’ll be more supportive than Bush, with plans to study a “car czar” in 2009. Further loan guarantees for GM, Chrysler and Ford should come easier under the new president, so long as the automakers can show they’re making progress in restructuring and in shifting production to more fuel-efficient cars.

8. William Clay Ford, Jr.
Chairman, Ford Motor Company

While he’s been off the Motor Trend Power List for a while, and has acceded most of his power to Alan Mulally, the Ford scion deserves attention for one major reason: Ford’s financial position. The company is turning down federal assistance, for now, for rather individualized reasons. By taking loan guarantees, GM cannot pay dividends to its investors until the loans are paid back. If Ford did the same, William Clay Ford and the rest of Henry’s heirs would lose its sole source of income.

9. Takeo Fukui
Honda Motor Company president/CEO

Like GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW…the rest, Honda has cut production to meet slower demand for new cars and trucks. Under Fukui, the company has maintained its position as a relatively small producer of comparably fuel-efficient vehicles. Right now, that’s serving Honda well, compared with GM, Toyota, Ford and the other bigger automakers. More recently, Fukui has prefabricated smart cuts, even though they don’t impress us enthusiasts. He’s cancelled the V-10 NSX replacement (and probably any chances for a RWD, V-8 Acura RL) and is about to launch an inexpensive line of hybrids with the new Insight. And as a sign of the times for maker budgets and racing programs, he’s pulled Honda out of Formula One.

10. Lewis Hamilton
2008 Formula One Champion

He’s the youngest world champion and the first of color. More importantly, he’s a true sportsman and a fierce competitor. While Honda has pulled out of F1, McLaren-Mercedes’ Hamilton will be a key part of the sport’s future as it seeks more sustainable solutions, both environmentally and financially. Hamilton’s close, storybook win almost prefabricated me forget Max Mosley’s sex scandal. Almost.

And besides Mosley, there were a number of men and women who just missed the list this year, including Representative Henry Waxman (D-California), Speaker of the House Pelosi, Volkswagen Group’s Porsche scion, Ferdinand Piech, Porsche chief Wendelin Wiedeking, GM’s Fritz Henderson and GM CFO Ray Young, Chrysler co-president Jim Press and Ford’s Jim Farley and Mark Fields.

I'll make this short and sweet: As of the first of the year Ed Helwig will be taking over Straightline.

I have to say this has been a great ride. From the moment Inside Line Editorial Director, Kevin Smith; and Edmunds.com Executive Director - Community Operations, Sylvia Marino; asked me if I would be interested in managing this new blog they were setting up called Straightline three-plus years ago to this very day, it's been an absolute hoot. I busted my butt here, putting in far more time than I was being compensated for; they knew that. I also created Straightline artwork as needed, thereby not burdening the Edmunds.com art department; they knew that too. I also loved the fact that I was pretty much left alone to post whatever I wanted, so long as there was a vehicular connection of some sort. Oh every now and then I would get topic suggestions from various Inside Line editors–but very rarely did I ever receive any criticism. Yep, it was pretty much my baby, and I loved that.

Finally I'm going to miss you guys. Straightline exists first and foremost for the readers. I'm going to miss bringing a wide range of auto-related news to this site daily. I hope what I delivered opened a few eyes just a bit wider than before. If nothing else, it prefabricated for some interesting discussions, for sure.

So, I'm outta here. Well, sort of, maybe… Ed knows where I am. If he needs any help, he'll contact me, I'm sure. Plus, I'll still be commenting from time-to-time.

Happy New Year folks!

In an effort to fight of the financial squeeze gripping the company, Hyundai will be looking for a new majority share owner, as they place the company up for sale. So far the news of this has sent the price of Hyundai shares soaring.

Full story here.

What was once thought "unthinkable," that being Toyota cutting works workers, many come to pass. In the 24 years that Toyota has been building cars here, they have never had to let anyone go. That may change as their income continue to slump.

Jim Wiseman, vice president of external affairs for Toyota's North American production unit says this is a real possibility.

"We wouldn't anticipate it getting to that point, but we never say never," Wiseman said. Toyota has 30,000 North American employees spread among 14 assembly, engine and parts plants, and vehicles built in the region prefabricated up 56 percent of U.S. income through November.

If this happens, it will be interesting to see the response from the UAW, as these are all non-union workers at Toyota (not that by being unionized would have prefabricated any difference).

Full story here.

Is this truck another case of "too little, too late?" The current Colorado I-5 engine okay, but it's nothing to get your blood boiling; worse still, power-hungry small truck customers felt the same way, and have stayed away from Chevy (and GMC) dealers in droves. Shouldn't this V8-powered version debuted when this current generation Colorado was announced a few years ago?

When it was announced that the Hummer H3 was getting a 5.3L V8 option, it was also (unofficially) confirmed that the Colorado would also get that engine. No one, however, figured on the financial industry collapse, and the resulting domino effect it would have on the auto and other industries. So will this be a savior for this truck line, or just another example of a great intent coupled to miserable timing?

Full story here.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Katsuaki Watanabe is expected to step down from his current role next year, and become chairman. The change is not because this was the worst year since 1938, but rather due the the health of the current chairman, Fujio Cho.

Others differ: It's not unusual for executives in Nihon to step down to accept responsibility for a company's financial crisis.

In Japan, "failure demands that someone take credit, and that's not something we do here," said Jim Womack, author of a book about Toyota, "The Machine that Changed the World," and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute.

"No one who runs anything in Motown has offered to step down, apparently, no matter how bad the results are," he said.

Needless to say, this news is causing rampant speculation as to who will succeed Watanabe.

Full story here and here.

Thanks to the poor exchange rate of the strengthening yen, the UK importer of Subaru has place the importation of the new Impreza diesel on hold.

"At the current rate we would have to charge vastly more than we can justify for the diesel Impreza if we were to make a profit. As a result we can't guarantee when the car will go on understanding as we can't predict when the economy will change."

The situation with the yen is causing problems with other Asian automakers as well. In fact Straightline just reported that Honda may be forced to more some of their operations out of Nihon if things don't change. (Might Honda's headquarters leave Japan?).

Full story here.