00 01 02 Saturn S Series Sedan Steering Column Floor Shift on 2040-parts.com

Shortened LX rear-drive platform--Chrysler's midsize car answer?

Chrysler's new management team is wrestling with its first major product decision, and it's a crucial one: how to replace the slow-selling Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger. One option--a stretched version of Fiat's compact D-Evo platform--faces serious hurdles, and one early proposal--use of an Opel platform--is off the table. Now sources say Chrysler Group LLC could replace its much-maligned mid-sized cars with a model based on the Chrysler 200C EV, a concept shown at the Detroit auto show in January.

Spy photos: BMW i8 hits Swedish test track

Spy photographers caught the new BMW i8 testing on a secret track wearing the company’s familiar psychedelic camouflage. The test car pictured is a preproduction model rather than a concept BMW i8, similar to what should appear in 2013. As reported earlier, we’re expecting BMW’s 2014 i8 hybrid coupe to get a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder direct-injection gasoline engine--essentially the same unit earmarked to head into the next-generation Mini and the front-wheel-drive BMW 1-series due out in 2014.

General Motors board recommends selling Opel to Magna-led group

General Motors Co.'s board has decided to support selling a majority stake in Opel to a group led by Canadian auto parts giant Magna. The move caps weeks of high-stakes maneuvering on both sides of the Atlantic that saw nationalism, labor issues and--perhaps most critical to GM, the use of its technology--all come into play. Magna and Russian lender Sberbank will get a 55 percent interest in Opel, the linchpin of GM's European operations for 80 years, as well as its British sister brand Vauxhall.