Saturn alerts customers it is considering a spinoff

Saturn has begun alerting customers that it may be spun off by General Motors as an independent marketing and distribution company. In a letter sent to about 1.5 million Saturn owners Wednesday night, Saturn said it would have to line up products to sell--either from other manufacturers or from GM in the role of a vendor--after GM's current commitment to build Saturn products ends after the 2012 model year. "The Saturn Distribution Corporation already exists as an indirect subsidiary of GM," wrote Jill Lajdziak, general manager of Saturn, in the letter.

Samsung SM5

Samsung Motors, the Korean subsidiary of Renault-Nissan Alliance, recently released the newly-redesigned SM5 sedan for the Korean domestic market. Based on the Nissan Teana, the SM5 is the second best-selling vehicle in Korea's D1 segment, ceding the top spot to Hyundai's Sonata. The most significant change to the exterior design is visible around the front bumper region, where the strong 'chin' (lower section of bumper volume) displays both solid and aggressive styling cues when viewed from the front.

Porsche 959 prototype to cross the block at Barrett-Jackson

When Professor Helmuth Bott arrived at the fledgling Porsche sports-car company in 1952, he was in his late 20s. The young engineer's first assignment was setting up a gearbox test stand for the company's new all-syncromesh Type 519 transaxle. Thirty-one years later, he gave the go-ahead for the development of a car that was to be the ultimate bleeding edge of what Porsche knew about building a rear-engined sports car.