BMW Guggenheim Lab

With many surveys suggesting the world's automobile buyers are growing younger and more urban, saavy automobile companies are rushing to show their concern with cities, the future - and the future of cities. In New York City recently, black Audi A8s recently ferried 'influencers' to the Lower East Side area around the New Museum to attend an Audi supported Urban Future Initiative part of the area's Festival of Ideas. The Volkswagen Group and the Museum of Modern Art promise a major announcement of future cooperation, on May 23, and BMW recently announced that it is supporting the Guggenheim Museum in a six-year, nine-city endeavor called the BMW Guggenheim Lab.

Jaguar F-Type Coupe revealed – sort of

But, as expected, Jaguar are heading full tilt towards a production F-Type Coupe that will follow the lines of the appealing CX-16, as evidenced by the patent image filings (above) acquired by Auto Motor und Sport. The show an F-Type Coupe that delivers almost all of the style the CX-16 did – just as Land Rover managed when they turned the LRX in to the Range Rover Evoque – which will disappoint no one. In fact, the coupe – with its roof line flowing down from the A-pillar right to the tail – is better looking than the Roadster and more evocative of the E-Type.

GM preps for new engines, 8-speed transmission

General Motors is spending $332 million to upgrade powertrain plants in three states to build a new eight-speed automatic transmission, a new V6 and a new family of small-displacement gasoline engines. The plants are in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. GM is also adding $46 million to an earlier $600 million program to upgrade powertrain plants in Saginaw and Romulus, Mich.