January’s Detroit auto show is to feature the world premiere of Mini’s open-air Beachcomber concept, which borrows from the goofy little 1960s Mini Moke but is based on the brand’s upcoming small crossover SUV.
The Beachcomber uses the SUV’s all-wheel drive system but deletes its doors and roof. A folding fabric roof can be rolled into [...]

DETROIT (Reuters) — U.S. auto sales are expected to end 2009 on a slight upswing in December, capping a year that saw General Motors and Chrysler collapse into bankruptcy and China overtake the United States as the biggest car market.
The deepest U.S. economic downturn since the Great Depression hammered auto sales through most of 2009, [...]

Volkswagen probably will drop the Passat sedan and wagon in 2011 when VW’s new U.S.-built mid-sized four-door is expected to go on sale.
“We are looking at it in detail,” Stefan Jacoby, VW Group of America CEO, said this month at a press event here.
The U.S.-built sedan, which has yet to be named, will be larger [...]

General Motors Co. said Tuesday it will invest more than $230 million in four plants around Flint, Mich., to help build the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze compact and the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid sedan.
The move will restore about 500 jobs, GM said in a statement.
The four GM plants that will be updated and retooled include Flint [...]

GM will sign a deal on Thursday to sell a majority stake in Opel to a group led by Magna International Inc., German news agencies reported, citing sources close to the negotiations.
GM agreed on September 10 to sell 55 percent of Opel to Canadian supplier Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank, but the deal stumbled [...]