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Crunch watch August 09: the auto industry

By Tim Pollard, Alex Michaelides, Ben Pulman and Freddie Fulton Motor Industry 31 August 2009 10:00 Welcome to CAR's news aggregator as we round up the seismic change in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour  Monday 31 August 2009• Bank holiday today in UK; staff on a well earned break from Crunchwatch!Friday 28 August 2009• Toyota will stop producing vehicles at the New United Moor Manufacturing plant in California next March. Company officials and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the decision, which comes in the wake of factory partner GM’s announced that it would abandon the venture back in June (Detroit News)• Tengzhong may finalise its deal to buy Hummer from GM next week, well placed sources told AN (Automotive News, subscription required)• German economics minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg says it is 'hardly realistic' for GM to keep hold of its European outfit Opel and Vauxhall (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Ford's US cop car favourite, the Crown Victoria, is going to cease production in 2011 (Detroit News)Thursday 27 August 2009• Nissan and Chrysler have abandoned plans to build cars for each other in the wake of Chrysler’s alliance with Fiat.

AMG Vision Gran Turismo concept shows off ahead of PS3 appearance

Mercedes-Benz has revealed a spectacular new virtual sportscar concept created by its in-house design team for inclusion in Sony's new PlayStation 3 game "Gran Turismo 6." Called the AMG Vision Gran Turismo, the brawny-looking gullwing coupe is to be revealed as a model at the opening of Mercedes-Benz's new research-and-development center in Sunnyvale, Calif., on the eve of next week's LA Auto Show. Yet despite the unveiling in 1:1 scale, the new two-seater is destined to remain a feature of the virtual world as the first in what Mercedes-Benz is billing as a series of Vision Gran Turismo vehicles to be unveiled in the near future. While the virtual properties of the AMG Vision Gran Turismo mean it will only ever see running as a high-resolution graphic within the new "Gran Turismo 6" game, this hasn't deterred Mercedes-Benz from providing it with detailed styling and mechanical data -- elements of which are said to provide solid hints to the upcoming GT AMG due to be unveiled in mid-2014 as a range-topping replacement for the SLS AMG.

Infiniti: M can be about mpg or zip

Infiniti will face a new marketing challenge when it introduces its first hybrid vehicle next spring, the 2012 M35h sedan. Since the import brand has never sold a hybrid, officials will be attempting to learn which marketing chord resonates more with its customers: performance or fuel economy. "The marketing will center on the point that hybrids have always been about compromise," says Ben Poore, Infiniti Business Unit vice president.