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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.

LX-rated love-in: Web forum members make their virtual passion real

The Dodge Charger, the Challenger and the Chrysler 300C share more than what Chrysler calls its LX platform. They also share an enthusiastic owner base at the www.lxforums.com Web site, where for the last six years more than 33,000 enthusiastic owners have met virtually to share information, photos and love for their cars. Event founder and 2005 300C owner John Fortuno calls it a "modern-day version of the car club." Five years ago he decided to "bring the virtual to reality" by staging a Spring Festival car show in Southern California where members could meet in person.

Vogon poetry: Mercedes-Benz shows off S63 AMG Coupe

Depending on your taste for the "crown of literature," the above video is either barbaric hokum or sublime wordplay -- image-laden poetry, in AABB rhyming scheme, appealing to car enthusiasts making full use of their expensive English majors. "Darkness has a companion tonight," reads the passably Vincent Price-ish voice of a poem written exclusively for AMG by a "Betty Stewart," over sounds of the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG Coupe roaring mellifluously across abandoned runways and through the world's largest parking garage. "Small creatures prick ears and tremble with fright.