Batman Aluminum Novelty Auto Car License Plate on 2040-parts.com

GM returning to leasing with luxury vehicles

General Motors will return to the leasing business focusing on luxury vehicles, but not on a broader basis, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said. "We will get back into leasing, but we are not going to use massive subsidized leasing to drive volume because it's volume without profitability," Lutz said July 29 in an interview with Automotive News. "We'd rather sell less at higher profit than sell more at lower profit." Lutz said it still would make sense for GM to do more leasing on its luxury vehicles.

Quake delays launch of Toyota Prius wagon

Toyota Motor Corp. has delayed the Japan launch of its new wagon-style Prius in the wake of the parts shortage triggered by this month's earthquake. The company had planned to start selling the car here by the end of April.

The first Volkswagen Beetle in America looked like this

On Jan. 17, 1949, the Holland America Line Westerdam pulled into New York Harbor from Rotterdam carrying the seed of an automotive empire. It had been only four years since Volkswagen resurrected operations in Wolfsburg, the factory heavily ruined by Allied forces and now under the command of Major Ivan Hirst.