The new Aston Martin Cygnet is an innovative concept car that debuted at the Geneva car show this year, not only because of its small size (just over 11 feet long, smaller than the Yaris, and based on the Toyota IQ), but the luxury commuter will be available in a wide array of colors, including several animal prints. So whether you are into tiger stripes,zebra, or leopard print, or any other color combination imaginable, the Cygnet can accommodate your request.

According to an Aston Martin spokesperson, “Because the Cygnet is finished by hand, and not mass produced, in no other car in this segment can you exercise such a degree of personalization.”

There is no doubt that oil is the resource that makes nearly every component of the US economy function, either directly or indirectly. It provides 40 percent of the nation’s power supply and provides a whopping 97% of the country’s fuel used for our transportation system, including cars, trucks, airplanes, etc. We have put our entire economy (and means of survival) in the hands of a non-renewable resource that may be used up within the next 30 years.

I am not a big fan of the trend of vehicles that resemble boxes more than the sleek works of art that we are all accustomed to. I know that these vehicles are probably rather functional in a utilitarian way but I just can’t get over the look. Out of this bunch of cubist friendly land dwellers came the Ford Flex; I hated it right off the bat. But as time goes by and I encounter the Flex in parking lots, on the highways, and around town, the vehicle is growing on me…

If there’s one thing that’s indisputable about the Flex, it’s that nothing else on the road looks quite like it. With a body-color contrasting top, the only place you will find some resemblances is if you look upon the much smaller Mini or the much higher-priced Range Rover—…both style icons in their own right. The fit and finish on the Flex leads to the look that is nothing short of high end.

The Chinese auto market is currently up by an estimated 40% according to a recent Car News online report. The China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATRC) shows that sales of domestically made vehicles are at 1.39 million for April 2010, that is up over 9% from March reports and 40% more than the same time last year. 

Break out the laudanum and oxygen tents, we've got Recall Fever! Today's lucky contractee, (drummrollllllllllll) Infinity! Or, Infiniti, whichever. Why yes, even Nissan's severely swoopy luxury brand has fallen pray to the Recall virus, just like counterparts Chevrolet and Dodge, yesterday. It's going around folks; Toyota is still taking antibiotics. And having relapses.

Terrible disease, this "Recall Fever." It's so nasty it will even attack parts of the automotive anatomy intended to keep us safe. The Porsche Panamera was affixed with seatbelts whose tendencies leaned more toward "Lynch Mob" than "Luxury Missile." So it seems with Infiniti, we have a similar safety system mutiny. The dreaded Airbag Narcolepsy. Read on for more information on this devastating ailment . . .

In recent car news, Ford has announced that they will be phasing out the infamous Crown Victoria. The car that everyone knows as a police squad car will no longer bear the Crown Victoria model name, but Ford has no intention of forgoing its contract to provide vehicles for the police department, a segment that provides over 65,000 sales per year to the Ford Motor Company.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration announced that General Motors has issued a recall for 2005-2006 Chevrolet Corvettes. The recall is for all Corvette models built between March 2004 and January 2006 with tilt and telescoping steering wheels.

Movement in the steering column could cause signal interruption and illuminate the message “Service Active Handling System” warning light. This problem could also cause the brakes to pull the car to the left or right, thereby causing an accident. This recall affects a total of 40,028 Corvettes. For more information contact the NHTSA’s vehicle safety hot line at 888-327-4236 or call Chevrolet at 800-630-2438.

In order to please the AutObama administration and its investors, (re: Us!) GM has go about streamlining its business operations. Simplifying the complicated, downsizing the unwieldy. One way to go about skinnying up a corporate dinosaur is to limit complications in production. Do a few things really well. As it applies to GM, those "things" would be the Traverse, Equinox, Malibu, and the upcoming Cruze. GM plans to remain efficient by limiting the number of new models its American factories are pumping out.

To this end, GM’s president for North America, Mark Reuss, has leveled the proverbial "ax" on the Chevrolet Orlando. According to Reuss, this action is being taken in order to maximize the output of current top-sellers, the Malibu and Equinox. Along with the Traverse, GM has added a third shift at the plants that produce these cars. There are even plans to produce the Equinox and Malibu at other facilities.

Considering the Orlando will still be offered in other markets, could this be a good sign for the Volt MP5? Perhaps the Orlando is deemed to similar to the Equinox, and Chevy is trying to avoid the sort of inter-company cannibalization that led to GM's financial melt-down in the first place. Answers to those questions are not going to come soon, or easily. If you ask Margaret Brooks, Chevrolet’s product marketing director for small cars and crossovers, you might come away a little disappointed. She isn't all that specific . . .

The Dodge Caliber is being probed for sticky pedal issues. Chrysler says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating a problem with sticky accelerator pedals in the 2007 Dodge Caliber. The NHTSA said, in a document posted on its Web site, five consumers reported that the accelerator pedal became stuck and would not return to the idle position when released. But it is not aware of any accidents, injuries or property damage.

Chrysler says in a statement that the problem is limited to a small number of vehicles built during a five-week period in March and April of 2006. The automaker says the problem appears to be with a parts supplier and is mechanical, not electronic. The parts in question were made by CTS Corp; if that name sounds familiar, it should. CTS is the supplier of pedals involved in Toyota Motor Corp.'s January recall of some 2.1 million vehicles. Chrysler says it will cooperate fully with the investigation. There has been no recall of the vehicles.

In car news this week, according to a recent press release, Honda has recalled over 160,000 Acura TSX Sedans due to a potential safety hazard—a faulty power steering hose and o-ring gasket which has the potential to deteriorate prematurely, possibly resulting in a fire hazard.

Recent federal fuel efficiency protocols announced by the Environmental Protection Agency were considered a major success by the Obama administration and automakers, but many new car dealers feel reluctant to make the transition to offering so many hybrids.

“With tight family budgets and a shaky job outlook, consumers want to maximize their transportation dollars, not pay more for redundant rules and an unnecessary bureaucracy,” said Ed Tonkin, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association. “Under these new mandates, the price of new cars and light trucks will rise significantly, meaning fewer Americans will be able to buy the new vehicles of their choice.”

Based on the new EPA regulations, the average fuel economy for cars is mandated to be no less than 37.8 MPG by 2016, while light trucks are expected to average 28.8MPG. Automakers are already beginning to design all types of new hybrids in greater numbers to meet the standards that the government has set.