This is a European-market commercial for Citroen, which is celebrating its 90th birthday in 2009. We're posting it here, because it's simply a nicely edited commercial with plenty of old, funny French cars, as well as topical stuff like Sebastian Loeb's C4 WRC car and the Citroen Gran Turismo. The soundtrack's good, too. Thanks to Bob Holland for the tip.

Just when it looked like the deal was almost complete, Penske Automotive Group said today it has ended its bid to acquire Saturn. The problem, evidently, was sourcing vehicles for the brand beyond the supply period (2010 model year) it had negotiated with General Motors. Penske had evidently identified a likely manufacturer, but the deal fell through. An excerpt from today's Penske statement:

"Penske Automotive Group negotiated the terms and conditions of an agreement with another [third] manufacturer; however, that agreement was rejected by that manufacturer's board of directors. Without that agreement, the company has determined that the risks and uncertainties related to the availability of future products prohibit the company from moving forward with this transaction."

This is not the way GM had hoped things would go, but the company is taking swift action. Aura production has already stopped and will not restart, and company spokesman John McDonald said that Outlook and Vue production will wind down "as quickly as possible."

An excerpt from the GM statement: "Saturn customers and owners will continue to be healthy to purchase and have their vehicles serviced at Saturn retailers during this process. Once the wind down is complete, Saturn owners will still be healthy to have their vehicles serviced at other GM dealerships. We will be communicating with our customers very soon to explain the next steps in this process."

Penske

GM

It would seem the U.S. Justice Department has a bee in its bonnet over R34 Nissan Skylines imported by Kaizo Industries. The GT-R USA blog is reporting that another R34 GT-R has been seized by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, who evidently showed up at the owner's home and took the vehicle.

Kaizo Skylines are shipped over from Nihon as DOT-compliant body shells, but without their drivetrain components — thus making them legal to import as "automotive components" under U.S. law. Kaizo, which has a presence on both sides of the Pacific, then reinstalls those drivetrain bits in California. It's a business, and a legal way of acquiring an R34 GT-R to own and drive in the U.S.

GT-R Blog is speculating that the car's SB 100 registration position might have stacked the decks against the owner and car. SB 100 is an exemption for kit cars (that aren't going to be driven much) that allows them to be registered without a smog test; only 500 cars statewide per year can be registered this way.

GT-R USA Blog

Mitsubishi's PX-MIEV looks a bit like the production Outlander SUV, and dimensionally, the two are evenhandedly close (177.5-inch overall length, 103.5-inch wheelbase and 61.5-inch track for the concept). But the PX-MIEV is a plug-in hybrid and in concept bears similarities to production Toyota hybrids and the Subaru's Hybrid Tourer concept.

It has a 1.6-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine up front, as well as a front-drive electric motor and a rear-drive electric motor. Together, the motors are good for 80 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque, according to Mitsubishi, and together, they effectively create four-wheel drive, albeit in the unconventional, wait-there's-no-center-differential sense.

Rated at 114 hp and 92 lb-ft of torque, the gas engine can either help drive the front wheels (like a parallel hybrid) or work as a generator (like a series hybrid – Chevy Volt) to recharge the PX-MIEV's lithium-ion batteries. Its generating capacity is 70 kW, says Mitsu. You can also plug in the PX-MIEV to restore charge, and it has the same variable-current charging system as Mitubishi's limited-production i MIEV electric car.

Mitsubishi also makes the interesting attending that when you're not driving the PX-MIEV, you can use its stored electricity to power home appliances — useful if a storm knocks the power out.

The company claims an overall fuel consumption figure of 50 km/liter (117 mpg), which is probably very theoretical.

More details and photos of the PX-MIEV's cabin after the jump.

By now, you may have seen the primeval clip of Sony's Gran Turismo for PSP commercial featuring Rhys Millen driving a Corvette ZR1 at Laguna Seca, while Tanner Foust does the very same thing on PSP from the passenger seat.

Well, Sony has prefabricated a "making of" movie about the commercial, and you can see to what lengths the company went to make the real-life action on the track match what was happening in the game. Foust is racing against a Ford GT, Nissan GT-R and an E30 BMW M5 in the game, so those same cars are on the track. Rod Millen apparently drove the GT.

In shooting the ZR1, says Stephanie Yoshimoto, senior product marketing manager for Sony, "we worked to replicate the camera used in the game. The cameras were mounted just as they would be in the game — third-person view, first-person view. That was the goal really to make sure we replicated the game with the actual commercial."

Foust, she says, picked up the game easily and didn't get carsick. "He could deal with being thrown from side to side at 130 mph, going through the corkscrew and all that."

The 30-second commercial is after the jump.

Straightline Review: Gran Turismo for PSP

Here it is, the all-wheel-drive hybrid Subaru that has been the subject of so much speculation. We're sure Toyota had some involvement in this one, given its current position as Hybrid Overlord of Planet Earth.

Details are sketchy, but Subaru says Hybrid Tourer concept has a turbocharged and direct-injected version of its 2.0-liter horizontally-opposed four-cylinder as the gasoline power source. It joins forces with a 10-kilowatt front-drive electric motor and Subaru's Lineartronic continuously variable transmission (CVT). In back, there is a 20-kilowatt rear-drive electric motor. Add them together and you get all-wheel drive, though not in the usual Subaru sense since there would be no center differential. But this is exactly how Toyota creates "AWD" in the Lexus RX 450h and Highlander Hybrid.

Batteries are of the lithium-ion variety.

More photos after the jump.

2009 Tokyo Auto Show: Subaru Takes Wing With Hybrid Tourer Concept

Cute electric cars should be around every corner at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show, but we think there might be more to the Honda EV-N concept than a lithium-ion battery pack. The sheetmetal on this concept is all retro'd up in the style of the original Honda minicar, the 1967 Honda N360, which used a 354cc, 2-cylinder motorcycle engine good for 31 hp at 8,500 rpm.

The EV-N is a touch more advanced than the N360 and features Honda's "HELLO" technology to enable it to communicate with other Hondas and apparently the world at large. Your Asian kei car might as well stay connected, you know, even if you can't legally send a text message.

More darling photos after the jump.

Like most show cars with carbon fiber on them, the Subaru Impreza WRX STI Carbon is meant to draw a certain demographic of auto show attendee over to the Subaru stand. You know who we're talking about. Subaru claims the carbon fiber roof on this car provides a "significant weight reduction" and a "lower center of gravity," but doesn't give any hard numbers. Given that this STI, part of the Japan-spec A-line series, has the company's five-speed automatic transmission (with paddle shifters!), we suspect it might be more about appearances than numbers.

The STI Carbon also has a lovely suede dash, and yes, those JDM-spec Recaros that we can't have in the U.S.

More photos after the jump.

Inside Line tests hundreds of vehicles a year, but not every vehicle gets a full write-up. The numbers still tell a story, though, so we present "IL Track Tested." It's a quick rundown of all the data we collected at the track, along with comments direct from the test drivers. Enjoy.

We're doing something a little different this week. We've tested a 2010 Suzuki SX4 hatchback with Suzuki's new 150-hp 2.0-liter engine; it's the red car in the photo. This isn't a huge increase over the 2009 model's 143 hp, but the new engine makes a huge difference in how this car feels. Although it's hardly an apples-to-apples comparison, for some perspective, this 6-speed-manual, front-wheel-drive 2010 SX4 is over 3 seconds quicker to 60 mph and 2 seconds quicker through the quarter-mile than our 4-speed-automatic-equipped, all-wheel-drive long-term Suzuki SX4 (11.7 seconds, 18.3 seconds at 76.3 mph). Yes, both the 6-speed gearbox and the front-drive configuration for the SX4 hatchback are new for 2010 (SX4 sedans have always been front-drive).

But here's the different part. Although supplied to us by Suzuki, this 2010 SX4 has suspension, brake and tire modifications by Road Race Motorsports (RRM), plus a cold air intake and less restrictive exhaust that are likely good for a slim increase in horsepower. So this is a production car with light modifications that a typical owner could conceivably make. We've included a list with prices.

The blue SX4 in this photo is even more of a curiosity. It's called the Suzuki SX4 "Zuk," and it was originally developed as a show car for the 2008 SEMA show, borrowing aesthetic elements from Suzuki's Hayabusa and GSX-R. It has the turbo kit that RRM developed for the 2007-2009 SX4, so it's quicker than the 2010 hatch, but as you'll see from the handling numbers, the suspension mods aren't fully resolved on this car. It's also 200 pounds heavier than production SX4s, thanks largely to an elaborate rollcage fitted for aesthetic reasons (it's meant to mimic a motorcycle frame) — yes, gotta love SEMA.

All the numbers are after the jump, along with video of the "Zuk."

Japanese customers have an endless appetite for cool minivans, so no Tokyo auto show would be complete without at least a half-dozen. Here's Honda's entry for 2009: the Skydeck concept.

The Honda Skydeck is a 6-seat hybrid minivan. We know that Honda wants to take the Insight's hybrid formula and expand it into new areas of the market and the captivating Skydeck is one doable direction. But the appeal of such a vehicle would likely be limited to Japan, where the minivan is sacred. In the U.S., a hybrid minivan still seems like a tough sell to familymobile buyers who, no matter what they, always, always have their eye on the bottom line and won't necessarily spend big bucks on hybrid tech.

For now, at least, the Skydeck is a pure concept with no word of what's under the hood. But the Skydeck could be more significant than it initially appears with its flamboyant scissor-type doors. You see, it relocates the Insight's hybrid system battery to sit within the centre console that runs along the cabin floor — perhaps a clue to a next-generation IMA hybrid system designed to power bigger vehicles.

More photos after the jump.