BMW USED CARS

Ford will spend $550 million to transform it’s Michigan truck plant into a facility that bill be used to built the new Ford Focus, including an electric version of that vehicle.

By transforming the Michigan Trunk Plant into a compact car facility as many as 3,200 jobs will be saved as demand for large SUVs declines. The Truck Plant was the location where behemoths such as the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator were manufactured.

The all new Focus will begin production next year with an electric version of the compact car due out in 2011. This zero-emissions Focus is being built in partnership with Magna International and will be powered by an electric motor mated to a Lithium-Ion battery pack and can be charged though a conventional household outlet.

General Motors has once again posted a massive quarterly loss, coming up short to the tune of $6 billion for Q1 of ‘09. That is roughly the equivalent of the value of 473,000 Chevy Aveos.

The company burned through $10.2 billion during the period, lowering its cash reserves to $11.6 billion from $14.2 billion at the end of ‘08. The difference was made up by loans from the Federal Government which amounted to $13.2 billion.

General Motors has now posted seven straight quarterly losses and in total has dropped into the red on an annual basis since 2004 - for a staggering total loss of $84 billion. For those keeping score that amounts to a loss roughly equivalent to the value of 1.3 million Escalades.

With the entry-level premium marketing continuing to grow in Europe, Lexus is planning to get in on the action by bringing a vehicle to market that will complete with the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series.

BMW is currently looking at adding three new vehicles to the Mini lineup, including an enthusiast-targeted GTI model. U.K. auto pub AutoCar is reporting that the car would be build on the new five-door Mini platform that will also underpin the company’s upcoming crossover.

We’d welcome such a vehicle as Mini is already an enthusiast brand… so a more hard-core model from Mini can only be a good thing. The sporty new model is likely to have a base powerplant that develops 180hp, with a John Cooper Works version delivering upwards of 220hp.

With the new A3 due out in 2011 rumors of performance and hybrid versions of the car have already emerged.

In the performance category Audi is expected to release an RS3, which will be powered by the same turbocharged five-cylinder currently found in the TT-RS. Output won’t be quite as significant, but expect lots of boost on tap and a much as 335hp and 332 ft-lbs of torque. The RS3 will also make use of Audi’s quattro system and will use a new seven-speed DSG gearbox.

As General Motors continues to report record losses, there are still some small success stories to report. The reborn Chevy Camaro is one of them.

While plants are being idled and employees being let go across the company, at the Camaro assembly plant in Oshawa, Canada, workers can’t keep up with demand.

The Peterborough Examiner is reporting that workers at the Camaro assembly line will start working Saturdays through the summer to keep up with the popularity of the vehicle. The plant has even postponed holidays, which were scheduled for the week of June 29th, to continue manufacturing the popular new sportscar.

When Lotus first showed the Exige 270E Tri-Fuel at the Geneva Auto Show back in 2008 it was seen more as an engineering project than a concept car. That, however, may change.

Recently the vehicle was put on display at the Shanghai Auto Show in China and interest was so high China’s Lotus distributor is pushing for a production model. Youngman Auto, a joint-venture between Lotus and the Chinese government (that’s how they do things in China), has now made an official request to Lotus in the U.K. to build a consumer version of the sports car.

Maserati is planning a convertible version of the GranTurismo, similar to the Alfa Romeo 8C Compitizione drop-top which is based on the same platform.

It doesn’t exactly take the foresight of a Nostradamus to predict that Maserati will bring a drop-top version of the GranTurismo to market, but the gents over at Car & Driver seem to have the inside scoop.

The new model is due out in 2010 (or possibly 2011) and the surprising thing is that it will feature a cloth-top instead of a retractable hard-top.