Dodge to stop Viper production next July, new car set for 2012

The future of the Dodge Viper came into focus on Wednesday during Chrysler's strategy briefing for media and analysts. Ralph Gilles, recently named chief of the Dodge car brand, said that production of the current Viper production will cease at the end of next July. The final 500 cars have been earmarked to be special vehicles, Gilles said.

Hyundai dealers will get Elantra coupe, redesigned Azera

Hyundai is continuing its recent product onslaught with two new or redesigned models to be launched by January 2012. Hyundai told dealers attending the NADA convention in San Francisco that a two-door coupe version of the 2011 Elantra will go on sale this spring and a redesigned Azera sedan will go on sale in January 2012. “They showed us a photo of it and it's gorgeous,” Doug Fox, a multi-franchise dealer who owns a Hyundai dealership in Ann Arbor, Mich., said of the Elantra coupe.

BMW Zagato Roadster

BMW and Zagato turned heads at the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance with its latest collaboration: The BMW Zagato roadster, just months after the unveil of the unveil of their coupé at Villa d'Este. The car, developed in just six months, features a low-set kidney grille – complete with tiny matt-sheen Zagato 'Z' letters – and circular headlamps on a sharply lined contoured hood, while Zagato's signature double-bubble design is seen again on the car and serves to extend the lines of the hood to the rear. Like the coupé version it is again the work of Norihiko Harada, Zagato's Chief Designer.