By Justin Couture

By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard the news: Pontiac’s dead. Okay, so the brand isn’t dead quite yet, but its days are numbered. 

This of course leads to a fairly important question: what’s to become of the recently launched Australian-built G8 sedan? It turns out that both may continue to live on.

Australia’s GoAuto is reporting that the G8 might continue to live on in North America with a golden bowtie on its hood in place and a siren bar atop its roof. 

In order to abate the reported US$760M loss that GM’s Australian arm (Holden) would accrue due to the loss in vehicle sales from the U.S., it’s being rumoured up to 40,000 police-spec cars could be built for police forces across North America and the UK. 

By David Menzies

And another one bites the dust ...

GM’s once-iconic Pontiac division is officially motoring off into the sunset, a victim of The General’s frantic restructuring attempts.

Certainly, the demise of Pontiac comes as sad news for the remaining fans of the brand. And yet, the mismanagement of the Pontiac brand makes for one of the tell-tale reasons why GM is in such dire straits today.

When I think of Pontiac’s glory days, the image that springs to mind is that of the flamboyant John DeLorean, the driving force behind the GTO – the vehicle responsible for the muscle car phenomenon of the 1960s.

From a pop culture perspective, when I think of Pontiac, I recall Jim Rockford’s always-reliable golden-hued Firebird from The Rockford Files. And I recall that wicked ebony Trans-Am driven (and in some cases, flown) by Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit.

Before they became indistinguishable from models sold by Chevrolet and Oldsmobile, Pontiac cars of yester-decade were cool and kick-ass and had cachet. But in later decades, despite Pontiac’s advertising bravado of “We Build Excitement”, the precise opposite proved true. Pontiac vehicles – from the Grand Prix to the Grand Am to the Montana minivan – existed as monuments to blandness. (Can someone kindly explain the bizarre Pontiac design fetish which entailed affixing chunks of grey plastic to the sides of vehicles?)

By David Menzies

Pop quiz: without consulting the movie listings, how can you tell if another edition of The Fast and the Furious has been released?

Answer: By merely surveying the urban streetscape. Pay special attention to the tricked-up Honda Civics, Toyota Celicas, Subaru WRXs, et cetera. Doing so, you’ll invariably notice the speed of these vehicles is a bit faster; the swerving a tad more dangerous; the ghastly hip-hop music emanating for the speakers even more obnoxiously loud.

Alas, like the swallows returning to Capistrano, those grotesquely-modified rice rockets are back on the blacktop doing their “thang.” And clearly, many a driver has been influenced by the forever angst-ridden Vin Diesel. (The new flick is simply dubbed Fast & Furious, the definite articles being axed; I imagine Part 5 will be further modified... how does the conjunction-free Fast Furious sound?)

By David Menzies, Sympatico/MSN Autos

So there they were, the Prius People, congregating yet again, preaching and pursuing the gospel of greenness. It was April 22, a.k.a., Earth Day (although I understand orthodox Earth Day is celebrated on May 3. But I digress ...)

For the Prius People, Earth Day is kind of like Christmas, New Year's Eve and Valentine’s Day all rolled into one. It’s like watching the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards at the same time. 

So it was on this day that Toyota Canada arranged to have about 15 Prius drivers meet at the automaker’s Toronto headquarters. The Prius People formed a convoy and headed north to Bob Hunter Memorial Park. Normally, people picnic here. The Prius People, however, spent the day planting trees.

Evidently, they were trying to make a statement. And the statement, according to Toyota spokeswoman Nicole Grant, is this: 10 million Canadians commute on a daily basis. Yet, if only these selfish motorists would trade-in whatever gas-guzzlers they’re driving for brand-new whiz-bang Prius hatchbacks! Gasoline consumption would decline by 60 million litres of fuel/per day. Smog-forming emissions would decline by 60 tonnes daily.

By John LeBlanc, Sympatico/MSN Autos

You have to hand it to Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne. He’s giving India’s Ratan Tata a run for his money as the Most Overachieving Auto Executive of the Year.

Despite the Italian automaker awash in financial problems of its own (US$536 million loss for the first three months of 2009 alone) and supposedly knee-deep in months of wooing to get in bed with even more troubled Chrysler, a report today in Germany's Der Spiegel magazine has Fiat making a play for a majority stake in General Motors’ soon-to-be-orphaned European Opel brand.

But wait, there’s more …

By Justin Couture

As a part of the U.S. Postal Service’s Earth Day celebrations, Chrysler unveiled four electric minivans adapted for mail delivery. Based on Chrysler’s Town & Country, these vans feature an electric powertrain allowing them to operate in near silence without producing any tailpipe emissions.

Electric vehicles are particularly well suited to applications such as mail delivery. Unlike consumers, who demand flexible and long ranges between fill-ups (or, in this case charges), the US Post Service’s routes are relatively short in length (less than 40 km) and take place at low speeds. Even with current battery technology, these vans have more than enough juice to get the job done.

Down the road, Chrysler hopes to offer a passenger version of this van to consumers equipped with a small gasoline-powered engine to charge the batteries on the move when they run low.

By Justin Couture, Sympatico/MSN Autos

The Lexus LF-A could quite possibly be one of the slowest supercars on the planet. No, not in terms of its performance (surely, it’s destined to be a very quick machine) rather, it’s a slowpoke in terms of development. After three concepts (including a convertible) and several years, Lexus moved the LF-A from concept to prototype stage by entering in a developmental mule in last year's 24 Hours of Nürburgring race.

In its first outing, the LF-A finished 77th out of over 150 vehicles, which, all things considered for a first outing isn't bad.

But, a year later, not much seems to have changed. Though it's been rumoured that the LF-A will make its production launch later this year at the Tokyo Auto Show, nothing has been confirmed for production.

By Justin Couture, Sympatico/MSN Autos

At this year’s Auto Shanghai 2009, Buick unveiled its Business Concept, a big and (somewhat) stylish people mover designed and developed by GM’s China-based Pan Asian Technical Automotive Centre (PATAC). The idea behind the concept is to provide first-class transportation with luxury amenities for corporate executives and their clients.

While North Americans might have a deep-rooted dislike of vans, it’s a different story in Asia. In China, Buick’s GL8 minivan (based on the Chevrolet Uplander) has had great success, and is one of the brand’s staple vehicles.

By Justin Couture, Sympatico/MSN Autos

Jaguar has been incredibly busy over the past little while. Like other premium brands, it has scaled up its efforts on R&D, and is pressing forward with new product launches and updates despite these tough economic times. Following the introduction of the XF sedan last year, it’s upped the ante with a brand new lineup of V8 engines, including the 500+ horsepower V8 that’s been stuffed under the hood of the new XFR and the heavily revamped XKR.

But, as Frank Sinatra famously sung – the best is yet to come. Jaguar has confirmed that the next-generation flagship XJ sedan will be shown for the first time on July 9, and to keep the media and wealthy on their toes, it released the first official image and a few details of the car at its presentation at Auto Shanghai 2009.