From AutoGuide.com:

Infiniti may develop its own version of Nissan’s famous GT-R sports car. Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan was asked if Infiniti would tap into the existing products through Nissan and use the brilliant GT-R sports car platform for a high- performance Infiniti.

‘Are we going to do that, I would say “no”, I don’t think so,’ said Ghosn. ‘If your question is “could we do that”, I would say “yes”. The idea of using existing technologies on the body of an Infiniti, yes. All the technologies developed for Nissan are available to Infiniti.’ Ghosn basically beat around the bush leaving the question unanswered. A GT-R type sports car is unlikely to be a priority because the company is busy prepping for the 2014 release of a small car that will rival the BMW 1-series and the 2013 release of an electric car.

Read the full article.

Infiniti has shared an exciting new project with Dashboard News! For the past few months, they’ve taken the 400-HP engine of the QX56 from a towing workhorse to a luxury boat motor with the help of local community college students. They’ve provided a press release with more information, which you can check out below.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (July 27, 2011) – The Infiniti QX56 full-size luxury SUV might be best known for its leather-trimmed, 7-passenger interior and technological advances like the world’s first Around View™ Monitor, but its real claim to fame could be its powerful, 400-horsepower 5.6-liter V8 engine and 8,500-pound towing capacity. Offering strong low-end torque, smooth operation throughout the entire RPM range and peak torque of 413 lb-ft, the Infiniti QX certainly has “power to go, power to tow” credentials in spades.

Now, in a unique twist on putting the cart before the horse, Infiniti has embarked on a one-off project to add QX power to what’s being towed – a boat modified around a QX engine and designed with the luxury, performance and craftsmanship of its flagship SUV.

“The genesis for the Infiniti QX-powered luxury boat project came about when a group of us were talking about our full-size SUV’s standing as the perfect luxury tow vehicle – capable of carrying tons of weight, and lots of people and their cargo, in style,” said Infiniti Americas Vice President Ben Poore. “So what better object to tow than a boat custom-outfitted to QX-inspired standards, starting with its powerful but fuel-efficient engine and continuing with semi-aniline leather on the seats, XM® satellite radio system with NavWeather™ and Bose® speakers, and signature Infiniti analog clock.”

The first step in the Infiniti luxury boat project is well underway with the extraction and maritime prep of the QX engine. With assistance from Infiniti engineers and training managers, a team of automotive technical training program students from Tennessee Technical Center-Nashville and Nashville State Community College removed the 5.6-liter engine and 7-speed automatic transmission from a 2011 Infiniti QX. Infiniti donated the rest of the vehicle to Tennessee Tech for continued use in their automotive curriculum.

The assignment, supervised by school instructors, was to not only remove the engine but to determine how to make it work outside the vehicle, using components such as the starter and electronic control unit, as well as removing extraneous systems, such as the power steering pump, which aren’t needed to power a boat. And, given the complex nature of today’s advanced engine electronics, controllers, processors and emissions systems, engineers at the manufacturing facility in Decherd, Tenn. – where the Infiniti QX56 engine is built – lent a considerable amount of time and knowledge to making sure the engine performs as well on water as it does on terra firma.

“It’s great to involve students from the local community in this project, especially since Infiniti QX engines are manufactured in nearby Decherd, Tennessee,” added Poore. “It’s our hope that someday students in these automotive programs who will learn from the Infiniti QX we donated to the Technical Center will go on to work at our company or Infiniti retailers’ service departments.”

With the engine removal completed, the Infiniti QX-powered luxury boat project is now being prepped to debut by next boating season. Project updates, with teaser photos, will be provided along the way at facebook.com/infiniti and twitter.com/infinitinews. Fans and followers of these sites will soon also have an opportunity to name the Infiniti-powered boat.

About Infiniti
Infiniti offers a full-line of luxury performance automobiles, including the G Coupe, Sedan and Convertible, M sedan, EX and FX crossovers, and the QX full-size SUV. More information about Infiniti and its Total Ownership Experience® can be found at www.InfinitiUSA.com.

Chevy has built some incredible cars over the years and now want you to select your favorite Chevy of all time! With the 100 year Celebration of Chevrolet upon us it’s only natural that there’s plenty of debate over which is the most splendid machinery that rolled off one of their assembly lines. Cast your vote at Chevrolet.com see how your favorite Chevy stacks up!

From the Detroit Bureau.com:

If all goes according to plan, General Motors will be producing tens of thousands of plug-in hybrids annually in the coming years. So, what to do with the batteries when it comes time to sent vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt to the scrapyard?

Even after a decade of use, the lithium-ion battery pack in the typical Volt should have 70% of its capacity left, according to Pablo Valencia, GM’s senior manager for battery lifecycle management. And that means that even as the old Volt is melted down for scrap, those batteries could find new life propping up the nation’s electrical grid.

Starting next year, GM will partner with energy systems giant ABB to begin testing the use of Volt batteries as an energy storage solution that could serve a variety of purposes from preventing blackouts to helping level out the ups-and-downs of alternative energy sources like wind and solar.

Read the entire article.

The Street compiles the 10 Best Convertible Car Deals for Summer 2011.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Buying a convertible during the summer is a quick way to drop both tops and account balances, but there are a few models that won’t put the heat on car lovers by wilting their buying power.

Convertibles haven’t had the smoothest ride during the recent economic downturn. In 2008, automotive marketing company R.L. Polk noted that convertible registrations were down nearly 9% from the boom years of the mid-2000s and made up only 1.9% of the total marketplace. Since then, six of R.L. Polk’s top 10 convertibles — the Toyota(TM_) Camry Solara, Pontiac Solstice and G6, Chrysler PT Cruiser and Sebring and Saturn Sky — have disappeared like a ragtop on a 90-degree day.

During that time, they also became the playthings of the privileged classes. Only the base Mazda Miata ($23,111), Mini Cooper convertible ($25,550) and Smart Fortwo Passion Cabriolet ($17,690) have starting prices below $26,000.

Check out the full article.

Breaking News!

This morning, Infiniti released the first official image of the seven passenger luxury crossover, the Infiniti JX, which is shown above. The global debut of JX will take place on August 18, at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

What do you think of this sharp ride?

From the Detroit Bureau:

It seemed like the best of times; following its takeover by the German Daimler AG, Chrysler counted nearly 71,000 hourly workers on its U.S. payroll. But by the time the partnership collapsed and the maker was rapidly plunging into bankruptcy, in 2009, the blue collar workforce had slipped to just 21,000.

The situation wasn’t all that different across town. As the industry sank into its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and many analysts began to doubt whether Detroit’s Big Three makers would survive, the makers raced to close plants, abandon unpopular brands and slash employment. Once employing close to a million hourly and salaried workers worldwide, General Motors emerged from its own run through Chapter 11 with a workforce barely a tenth that size.

But two years later, there’s a very different situation. Chrysler, for one, has boosted its blue collar headcount by more than 2,000 since hitting bottom in ’09, and several company sources tell TheDetroitBureau.com that the maker is likely to keep rebuilding its factory rolls, especially if sales and share keep rebounding. GM and Ford are also hiring.

Read the full article.

From the Detroit News:

The three Detroit-based automakers all reported double-digit U.S. sales increases in June, led by Chrysler Group LLC’s 30 percent increase from a year ago with 120,394 vehicles sold and the best June for the automaker since 2007.

That is followed by a 13.6 percent increase reported by Ford Motor Co. with 194,114 vehicles sold.

The third domestic automaker, General Motors Co., reported a 10.2 percent increase on sales of 215, 358 vehicles compared with June 2010.

Among the top Japanese automakers, who continue to struggle with earthquake-related shortages, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. reported a 27.1 percent decline for the month with total sales of 83,892. The Honda brand suffered a 27.4 percent drop in sales for the month while the luxury Acura brand was off pace by 24.5 percent.

Toyota Motor Corp. saw a 21.1 percent falloff for the month with 110,937 vehicles sold. The Toyota brand dropped 18.7 percent; Lexus division sales fell 37.8 percent compared with a year ago, when Japanese production was at full throttle.

“June marked a significant turning point for Toyota as sales moved up over last month (May),” said Don Esmond, head of U.S. operations. Supply and selection are improving daily, he said.

Read the full article.

From AutoBlog.com:

If you ever looked at those old Volvo ads that suggested their station wagons were the next logical step up from a Lotus, well, you can stop snickering. Sure, it may still be a long shot, but Volvo appears to be getting serious about offering performance-oriented automobiles.

A couple of weeks ago, we brought you a report that indicated Volvo was forging a closer relationship with Polestar, the racing outfit that fields the company’s entries in the Scandinavian and World Touring Car Championships. Volvo, it seemed, had already turned to Polestar to squeeze a bit of extra juice from its S60 and XC60 R-Design models, and according to the report, was prepared to utilize Polestar’s talents even more in the future.

A clearer picture of that that partnership is now emerging, and so far, it looks promising. Their first collaborative project is tipped to be a production version of the baby-blue, 400-horsepower, all-wheel drive C30 hatchback unveiled last year. If given the go-ahead, we could be looking at a limited run of 500 cars priced around £50,000 in the UK – about the same as a BMW M3.

Read the full article.