The article is titled “Lutz: U.S. won’t embrace small cars at today’s gas prices” from autonews.com and he talks mainly about how everyone should be making car-manufacturing more convenient for GM. I’ve put my thoughts in bold.

DETROIT — General Motors sees E-85 and biofuels as the best near-term solution to lowering U.S. usage of petroleum.

But new federal fuel regulations will only mean higher vehicle prices, slower new vehicle sales and continued consumer resistance to smaller cars. What small car options do we have to resist against?

“We refuse to let the price of fuel rise gradually in the United States and therefore we fail to induce change in consumer behavior,” Bob Lutz, GM’s vice chairman of global product development, said at the Automotive News World Congress on Wednesday evening. I think you need to refuse a little louder, Bob, cause right now no one seems to be listening. Prices seem to continue to go up.

This makes me wonder how much I could get for those extraneous body parts I don’t use like that second kidney.

From autoexpress.co.uk

Power to the diesel! That’s the message from Mercedes, as bosses prepare to follow Audi into the high-performance oil-burning market.

Auto Express can reveal the firm is closer than ever to launching an AMG-badged diesel model. With Audi unveiling its R8 V12 TDI concept at the Detroit Motor Show and Ferrari taking the wraps off its Biofuel F430 prototype, the pressure is on for Mercedes’ performance division to follow suit.

From news.com

Following announcements from EcoMotors and Transonic Combustion, San Diego’s Achates Power has said on its Web site that it’s creating a clean, light, fuel-efficient diesel engine.

The company has also received investments from Sequoia Capital, a relative newcomer to energy investments, Rockport Capital Partners and Interwest Partners. (VentureWire has a brief interview with Achates CEO James Lemke.)

Achates has not said how its engine will work, the company has three patent applications on file with the U.S. Patent Office. Two of the patents describe what’s known as an opposed piston/opposed cylinder engine. In this type of engine, two pistons sit inside a single cylinder. That makes it different than most other motors where pistons have individual cylinders. (Some car makers have made engines with horizontal pistons, similar to an opposed piston engine, but they have their own cylinders.)

From afp.com

PARK CITY, Utah (AFP) — Activist Josh Tickell has been using and promoting bio-diesel for about 10 years as an alternative to fossil fuels, helping America lessen its dependence on foreign oil.

In his documentary film “Fields of Fuel,” premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week, he outlines the historical origins of and the political constructs that support petroleum use.

As well, he presents the benefits of bio-diesel, how it can be grown locally anywhere in the world to shift multi-national energy companies’ clout to local communities, mustering applause from audiences here.

But not everyone is buying into his message.

Subaru will be launching their 2.0L four-cylinder diesel following the Geneva auto show, offering it as an option in its Legacy and Outback models. Unfortunately, it will be at least 2 years before we see it in the States. Further insult to injury is that we will most likely not be able to get the five-speed manual that is being designed specifically for the diesel. Instead we will have to wait for the automatic that is currently being developed.

Oddly enough, though the engine is built in Japan, it will not be available to the Japanese until after the US launch.

PARADE magazine and the Network for Good are co-sponsoring a contest that could help the Biodiesel Foundation win $50,000 for biodiesel education efforts. The eight organizations that either raise the most money or have the greatest number of donors will receive $50,000.

Time is of the essence, and the National Biodiesel Foundation (a 501-C3 organization) needs your help today. Please consider giving a tax-deductible gift of at least $10 to the Foundation by Jan. 31st. If the Foundation can get 1000 people to donate $10, it will be in a good position to win.

Please donate to the National Biodiesel Foundation by January 31, 3:00 PM EST. Donate here and follow the steps as directed.

The Audi A3 Cabriolet

Sporty, elegant, and emotion-packed – the new A3 Cabriolet is set to roll into showrooms in spring 2008. This four-passenger convertible model is the premium product in the compact class. It brings with it the distinctive sportiness, highly developed technology, and uncompromising quality that mark all Audi models. There are four powerful and efficient engines to choose from – two TFSI and two TDI – as well as a broad range of individual equipment options.

In this installment it goes into more of the racing of diesel. How it can win races because of its fuel economy and how Gale Banks is trying to turn diesel into the “cool” thing. In the end he talks about the basics of do-it-yourself upgrades and how they can be beneficial which I’m sure anyone reading this already knows. Again I wish they wouldn’t mute out all the engine sounds, but it’s still great that such a popular site is doing this series.

By concept, the new Audi A4 is already a dynamic, exciting and powerful car – and therefore this new sedan car made in Ingolstadt offers a perfect starting point for the engineers and designers with Abt Sportsline. With the AS4, the world’s leading tuner of cars from the Volkswagen group succeeded in creating a car which is in every respect harmonic and sporty, as well as elegant: the front skirt, which emphasizes the distinctive headlight area, makes the AS4 look very dynamic and self-confident. Side skirts and fender inlets meet the sporty design and harmonize perfectly with the rear section of the car; the 4-pipe rear muffler, the rear skirt inlet and the rear spoiler form a perfect unit.

• Brand with four rings offers chauffeur service in Davos
• Cars are powered by environmentally sound GTL fuel
• Diesel fleet of 81 Audi A8 3.0 TDI models deployed

Audi will premiere a new fuel concept at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 in Davos, Switzerland, from January 23 to 27. The brand with the four rings, which provides a chauffeur service at the World Economic Forum, will power its complete fleet of Audi A8 models with environmentally sound ‘GTL (gas-to-liquid) Fuel’ for the first time. In combination with efficient Audi TDI diesel engines, the fuel will allow CO2 emissions from the Audi fleet to be reduced by about 13 percent compared to last year. “We develop innovative premium cars that are environmentally friendly to drive. Our highly efficient TDI and TFSI engines are proof of this. The fact that our Audi A8 diesel fleet in Davos will be using GTL fuel also shows that we are working intensively toward achieving sustainable mobility,” said Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG.