Hyundai Shows First Veracruz Shots

Hyundai has released the first photos of the Veracruz, the Honda Pilot-sized crossover coming to the U.S. market by the beginning of 2007. The Veracruz is slated to make its first public appearance at the Detroit show in January. Standard stuff on the vehicle will be a stowaway third-row seat, a 240-hp 3.8-liter V-6 engine, and a six-speed automatic transmission, as well as stability control and side-curtain airbags. The Veracruz will be built in South Korea, but is derived from the U.S.-built Santa Fe. Hyundai hopes to sell 85,000 Veracruzes each year, with most going to the American market.

Lotus, Enterprise Renting Elise

No more Cobalts for you - it's time to think Lotus when renting your next car. The Atlanta-based sports car company says it's now offering its two-seat Elise roadster in select Enterprise Rent-A-Car

outlets. Some 50 Elises will make their way into the rental fleets in cities like San Francisco, L.A., Vegas, and San Diego. Lotus hopes to get the cars out in states other than California, Florida, and Nevada in the near future. The Elise soldiers on for the 2007 model year as a 190-hp, two-seat roadster weighing less than 2000 pounds, giving it better dynamics than just about anything else at the Enterprise counter.

We drive the Lotus Elise

Range Rover Detects, Deters Diesel

Diesel cars are great, because of the high torque and impressive fuel economy. But every year more than 100,000 drivers put gasoline in their diesel tank - and that figure is just for the U.K., not the twenty-odd other countries that now make up Western Europe. If you don't turn the ignition key, the cost of getting the fuel tank flushed is a minimum of $150. If the gas gets in the diesel engine, you can be talking thousands of dollars, possibly even a whole new engine. Older cars actually get written off by insurers because the driver wasn't paying attention on the forecourt. It's that big a problem.

Now Land Rover has come up with a world-first solution, and will be fitting it to the 2007 Range Rover V-8 diesel. It's a gadget incorporated into the neck of the fuel tank that can deduce if the wrong pump head has been inserted. It immediately locks off access to the tank before any fuel can get in. Not surprisingly, it's not being fitted to cars destined for non-diesel markets like the U.S. -Richard Yarrow

The Range Rover Sport SC: a new channel worth tuning in to

SAIC Picks "Roewe" For Car Lineup

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC), the company that lost out in the bidding for the Rover nameplate rights last month, has chosen a name for the cars it will build from old Rover 75 technology. The name will be Roewe, roughly pronounced "roo-eevey," according to the Wall Street Journal, which says the word is derived from the German word for lion (loewe) and is not only close to the actual Rover name, but to names like Spain's Loewe SA luxury-goods maker. Worse yet, the Journal adds, the name pronounced in Chinese sounds like "wrong way." SAIC's new cars, due to be introduced in China on the 24th of October, also will wear a badge with lions on a red-and-black shield. SAIC hopes to sell the new Roewes in the U.K. beginning in late 2007.

FROM THE SOURCE headlines from the latest press releases

Hamp to Leave Ford October 31

Toyota's First North American Hybrid Production Begins in Kentucky

2007 Audi Q7 Receives Five-Star Crash Test Ratings from NHTSA

Name	Symbol	Last	Change
Autobytel, Inc.	ABTL	3.19	+0.12 (+3.91%)
Autoliv Inc.	ALV	56.08	+0.04 (+0.07%)
AutoNation Inc.	AN	20.88	+0.20 (+0.97%)
ArvinMeritor Inc.	ARM	14.40	+0.32 (+2.27%)
American Axle & Mfr. Holdings Inc.	AXL	17.90	+0.24 (+1.36%)
Ballard Power Systems Inc.	BLDP	6.14	+0.04 (+0.66%)
BorgWarner Inc.	BWA	60.27	+0.94 (+1.58%)
Cummins Inc.	CMI	135.90	+3.99 (+3.02%)
DaimlerChrysler AG (ADR)	DCX	51.01	+1.21 (+2.43%)
Dura Automotive Systems	DRRA	0.23	-0.01 (-4.17%)
Eaton Corporation	ETN	71.70	-0.05 (-0.07%)
Ford Motor Company	F	8.23	-0.04 (-0.48%)
General Motors Corporation	GM	32.66	+0.53 (+1.65%)
Gentex Corporation	GNTX	14.29	+0.17 (+1.20%)
Goodyear Tire & Rubber	GT	14.73	+0.41 (+2.86%)
Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (ADR)	HMC	35.34	+0.24 (+0.68%)
Johnson Controls Inc.	JCI	82.27	+1.62 (+2.01%)
Lear Corporation	LEA	24.18	+0.71 (+3.03%)
Magna International Inc.	MGA	75.20	+0.36 (+0.48%)
Motorola Inc.	MOT	25.58	+0.55 (+2.20%)
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (ADR)	NSANY	23.78	+0.32 (+1.36%)
Sonic Automotive Inc.	SAH	23.27	+0.51 (+2.24%)
Siemens AG	SI	85.58	+1.60 (+1.91%)
Sirius Satellite Radio	SIRI	3.85	+0.06 (+1.58%)
Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR)	TM	116.93	+1.16 (+1.00%)
TRW Automotive Holdings	TRW	24.72	+0.37 (+1.52%)
Tower Automotive Inc.	TWRAQ.PK	0.064	-0.006 (-8.57%)
United Auto Group Inc.	UAG	23.76	+0.17 (+0.72%)
Visteon Corporation	VC	8.08	+0.27 (+3.46%)
XM Satellite Radio Hold.	XMSR	11.73	+0.12 (+1.03%)