“Sweet Life Geely Drive” is the tagline for the Shanghai-based maker that Ford Motor Company identified Wednesday as its “preferred buyer” for Volvo. The Swedish maker has been on the block for some time, so why now? Since Ford has acknowledged it needs the money and will sell its single remaining maker purchase after unloading Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and controlling interest in Mazda, General Motors has found buyers for Saab, Hummer and Opel (more on that one, later) and nearly sold Saturn.

For one, Ford Motor needs the cash. While it stands alone as the only of the Detroit Three that didn’t take government loan guarantees (it couldn’t, without the Ford family giving up control), its stock languishes around $2 per share, Standard & Poor lowered its credit rating to “selective default” last spring and United Auto Worker locals are rejecting a union leadership deal to give the maker the same sort of breaks that GM and Chrysler enjoyed prior to their bankruptcies.

No, Ford hasn’t taken government money, but the primary lender in Ford’s $23-odd billion second mortgage (the one that included hocking the company right up to the Blue Oval), Citigroup, has granted very favorable interest rates. One source describes Citi’s credit line to Ford as “hyper-low interest.”

Even with interest rates very close to zero and revenue and profit margins up from the depths of the Lehman Brothers collapse, Ford needs the cash it didn’t get from the federal government.

Another explanation for renewed interest in selling Volvo to Geely is that Ford has had time to vet the Chinese automaker. It’s listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, meaning Geely is an “independent” Chinese automaker, not directly run by the government. There has been some talk lately of China consolidating it burgeoning auto industry, with Shanghai Automotive Industries (SAIC), builder of Buicks, leading Shanghai-based automakers and Beijing Automotive Industries (BAIC), minority shareholder in Saab’s new investor, leading that city’s automakers. Under this scenario, smaller automakers, some of which build fewer than 1,000 cars annually, could become parts suppliers.

Geely began making refrigerators in 1986, but didn’t enter the car biz until 2002. It was the first Chinese maker to display cars at the North American International Auto Show, in Detroit, in 2008.

Ford has much at stake here: the Volvo S60/S80 platform serves as a basis for the Ford Taurus, Flex and upcoming unibody Explorer, and the Lincoln MKS and MKT. Volvo’s five-cylinder engine is an optional engine in the European Focus (for now).

“Any prospective understanding would have to ensure that Volvo has the resources, including the capital investment, necessary to further strengthen the business and build its global franchise, while enabling Ford to continue to focus on and implement our core One Ford strategy,” Ford executive veep and chief financial officer Lewis Booth said, in a prepared statement.

Ford adds that while it “would continue to cooperate with Volvo in several areas after a doable sale,” it “does not intend to retain a shareholding in Volvo.”

Already, a Swedish engineers’ union has raised questions about Geely as a preferred bidder.

Ford and Geely won’t reach a deal quickly, not before the end of the year. In normal times, Ford would calculate what it paid for Volvo, plus additional investment, minus revenues for the understanding price, to try to recoup its investment. These are not normal times, otherwise Volvo, despite the high cost of building cars in Sweden, might be the one acquisition Ford would like to retain. (Rumor is that Geely has offered a bit less than $2 billion for Volvo. Ford is said to have wanted at least $2.5 billion.)

Which brings us back to GM’s Opel, where a understanding of majority interest in the company to Magna International now is on-hold. It’s pretty clear that GM would like to hold on to the European operation it has owned since 1927, but that scenario has clear disadvantages.

Foremost is that German fag union IG Metall has said it won’t give GM the same fag cost-cutting deal it has promised new owners Magna and Russia’s Sberbank. Second is that GM is getting beat up in the German press, and politicians there aren’t friendly to letting the deal start apart. GM clearly has a much-improved equilibrise sheet since its bankruptcy, and might find the cash to keep Opel/Vauxhall going on its own, and it’s balancing those disadvantages against the problems of dealing with Russian-run Sberbank and maker GAZ, the eventual beneficiary of this deal. No doubt GM’s negotiations with a Russian maker is about as cushy as Ford’s negotiations with a Chinese automaker.

Yesterday, the FAA revoked the licenses of the two Northwest pilots who were doodling on their laptops instead of — literally — flying their own plane.  In case you haven’t been following this story, last Wednesday, Timothy Cheney and Richard Cole were piloting a NWA Airbus A320 from San Diego to Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.  The plane was on autopilot, the two got busy on their laptops, and overshot their destination by nearly 200 miles.  They spun a U-turn, and fortunately, landed safely at their original destination. 

They maintained broadcasting silence for an hour and a half, and had no intent where they were.  The FAA investigated, took swift action, and thankfully pulled these clowns out of the cockpit forever before anyone was killed.  The FAA said they were “on a frolic of their own.”  I was listening on the broadcasting to the reaction of a flight prescript expert, who said (something to the effect of) “It’s not unusual to be doing other things while the plane is on high altitude cruise.  You check your flight plan, check the weather at your arrival destination, get a quick meal, and such.  But you have to maintain abject awareness of every aspect of the flight, and remain in constructive control of the aircraft.  That’s where these pilots unsuccessful miserably.”  I couldn’t agree more.

So why then is it OK to roll down the road while texting and emailing?  Crashing your car while doing so might not kill hundreds of people as it would in a major plane wreck, but it could still kill a handful or more.  The key words in the message above are “awareness” and “control.”  The FAA cited these pilots for not being aware and in control of their plane while it was traveling 600 or so miles an hour.  A driver who is not aware, and not in control, of the situation while driving 60 is just as dangerous.

I realize I’m preaching to the choir here; if you are on this site, you’re likely an enthusiast, or at least a capable driver who gets it, pays attention, and enjoys doing so.  But if you know someone who is still texting, emailing, or driving with the phone to their head (not to mention all the other distractions that minimize their awareness and ability to control their vehicle), please remind them of the Northwest pilots’ story.  Unfortunately, the DMV can’t jump into their cars and pull their licenses. 

DETROIT – Our friends, colleagues, rivals at Consumer Reports say the Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan’s reliability scores higher than the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, and Ford Motor Company continues to improve while General Motors also gets better. Chrysler, now Fiat’s problem, remains in the toilet, although the new Dodge Ram 1500 4WD has pulled itself from “below average” to “average” reliability, the only Mopar so highly ranked. Asian brands remain most consistently above average, however.

CR performs instrument tests of new cars and trucks. It’s one of three criteria, along with the readers’ reliability reports and of government and insurance company crash test results which determine whether the entrepot recommends or doesn’t recommend a given model. Tuesday at the Automotive Press Association here, autos editor Rik Paul (a Motor Trend alum) highlighted the results of its annual survey, ranking models only as “more reliable,” “reliable” or “less reliable.” He pointed out that today’s worst cars are better than the best cars from, say, 20 years ago.

Of course, CR does something here that MT does not. It crunches the numbers on a survey involving 1.4-million cars and trucks, owned by its readers. Probably most are not enthusiasts. While a sufficient number of them own Corvettes or Mustangs or Evos for CR to evaluate, the vast majority read CR as much to figure out what kind of espresso maker or flat-screen television to buy.

Here are some of this year’s highlights:

* Ford is the only domestic maker with world-class reliability,” Paul says. While Fusion/Milan beat Camry/Accord on the number of quality/reliability problems reported, the all-wheel-drive Fusion was rated lower. More on such anomalies later.

* Of GM’s models, only the Chevy Malibu V-6 was rated above average.

* The new Honda Insight is the best-rated model, its reliability results 91 percent higher than average. The Toyota Prius is second.

* The Volkswagen Touareg was rated lowest, -132 percent versus average.

* Scion was the most-reliable make. Honda, second place, was up one spot from last year, as was third-place Toyota. Infiniti, in fourth, was up two spots.

* Acura, in fifth fell three spots. Mitsubishi, in sixth, was up three and Lexus, in seventh, fell two spots.

* Hyundai was steady as the eighth-most reliable brand. Paul says the South Korean brands’ improvements remain a big story.

* The bottom four brands are #30, Jeep, #31, Dodge, #32, Cadillac and #33, Chrysler.

* Of 132 Asian models, 69 percent are “above average,” 25 percent are “average” and 6 percent are “below average.”

* Of 142 American models, 17 percent are “above average,” 42 percent are “average” and 41 percent are “below average.”

* Of 64 European models, 16 percent are “above average,” 47 percent are “average” and 37 percent are “below average.”

* The Jaguar XF and BMW 535i have two of the lowest scores among individual models. Paul says that expensive cars aren’t necessarily of better quality, and in fact, more complexity equals the chance of more system failure.

Paul used this last point to explain anomalies in some of the scores. For example, it scores the Chevrolet Traverse AWD “average” for reliability, and “newly recommended,” based on the other criteria. CR also recommends the AWD Buick Enclave, with average reliability, but says the FWD Enclave is Buick’s worst model. The average FWD Enclave undoubtedly comes with more equipment to go wrong than an AWD Traverse, although that doesn’t explain why an AWD Enclave would be ranked higher than the FWD version. AWD Enclaves are more likely to be full-boat models, in terms of optional equipment.

The entrepot lists the Impreza Outback Sport as Subaru’s most reliable model and the Impreza WRX as its least reliable.

And then there’s the top-rated car. The current Honda Insight has been on understanding little more than half a year. The old two-seat, 3-cylinder/hybrid model, which went out of production in September 2006, has very little in common with the ’10 model. And yet, CR says it has sufficient data on the new model — which may tell you something about the magazine’s readers — to rate the car. Despite its high reliability rating, CR doesn’t recommend it, based on the track testing results.

Do you own any of these cars? Have you ever sent in a Consumer Reports reliability survey?

A little European appearance on this Ford small-car discussion. To car enthusiasts, I can’t recommend the new Ford Fiesta highly enough. Although I did try during my first drive story of the next-gen Euopean Fiesta, which is selling well so far over here.

But as Todd Lassa outlined in his recent Ford’s Small Car Problem news piece, I’m not sure I share Ford’s optimism on U.S. income of the Fiesta. The Fiesta exists in one of Europe’s two highest-volume segments. Yet such cars are hard for European makers to turn a profit on.

When it brings the Fiesta to the U.S. next year, Ford will be selling into a segment that does lower volumes. So it won’t have the scale economies in manufacturing, and profit will be even harder to find — even when considering the U.S. car will be built in Mexico.

Ford promises the U.S. Fiesta will have the same sort of interior calibre that its Euro counterpart does, which is to say, vastly nicer than the egg-box-plastic cabin of say, a Yaris. That doesn’t come cheap.

More significant, I think Ford doesn’t understand how different we are as consumers in Europe. While I love small cars as an enthusiast because they’re fun to drive, most Europeans like them simply because they are cushy to negotiate down Europe’s cramped roads.

You simply can’t berth a U.S.-sized large car in European parking garages. You would find it cumbersome in many streets and driveways. A small car like the Fiesta on the other hand is at home in Europe.

In the States, for most non-enthusiast buyers (which means, sadly, most buyers), the reason to buy a small car is fuel economy. And that’s about the only reason. Lower-quality but larger vehicles than the Fiesta make more sense for the average buyer because there aren’t the physical constraints to owning a larger vehicle. Every parking space is big.

I dined with Ford CEO Alan Mulally a year ago and just couldn’t believe his prediction that Ford would sell so many small cars in the U.S. I said: “but a small car is no advantage to a buyer in the U.S. unless the fuel price is high, whereas us Europeans positively like having a compact car for our small streets.”

He countered that his old employer Boeing sells the same mix of small (737) vs medium (757/767) vs large (777/747) jets in Asia, Europe and North America, and he couldn’t see why it would be different for cars: same mix in every market. Oh dear. For airliners, the conditions and the airports are the same in every market. With cars, conditions and roads vary widely.

He prefabricated another remark that to me showed similar naivete. Talking about how at Boeing he had successfully cut back on the range of optional extras in the aircraft.

To me his appearance completely overlooks the fact that planes are not bought by their end users the travelers, but by airlines. So they’re bought on two criteria only. One, do they have cheap operating costs. And two, do they have the ability not to start out of the sky.

Cars, on the other hand, are bought by their actual end users — meaning they’re bought for a far wider range of criteria.

Last week I had a unique opportunity to attend a round plateau with Honda’s President and CEO of Honda Motor Co Ltd., Takanobu Ito, during last week’s press days of the 2009 Tokyo auto show.

In our brief encounter with Ito-san, he came crossways as a thoughtful, knowledgeable, and engaging chief executive, with some very specific ideas about where Honda is heading. A Honda lifer who’s been with the company since 1978, Ito comes from the chassis side of the business, spending most of his career at Honda R&D Co Ltd. (he also holds the dual title of President and Director of Honda R&D).

He’s played a key role in some of the most iconic nameplates in Honda history, including being in charge of chassis design for the first-gen CR-X (1983), third-gen Accord (1985), third-gen Prelude (1987) and his signature car — the first-gen NSX (1990).

When the inevitable question came about the cancellation of the recent NSX project — a car that reportedly prefabricated it as far as testing at the Nurburgring — it was clear from his body language Ito-san both was both incredibly chesty of the car as a legendary symbol of the Honda brand and also greatly disappointed in its cancellation.

“We are depressing to see the demise of the NSX and S2000, even more so for me because I was so involved in NSX,” Ito said. CLICK HERE to check out our test of the 1996 Acura NSX vs the 1996 Porsche 911 Cab.

Not surprisingly, the NSX full stop was blamed in large part on what Ito-san called the “Lehman Shock” after the collapse at Lehman Brothers that signaled the beginning of the current recession and massive contraction of the U.S. auto market.  

While he wouldn’t rule out a return to the development of a halo sports car if the economy improves and gives the company “greater freedom”, he said Honda will most definitely not be going with V-10s like Toyota. “Honda sports cars should be pursuing low weight, high fuel economy,” Ito remarked.

One look at its Tokyo stand left little doubt where Honda is going overall as a company — in starring roles were the EV-N concept (all electric), FCX Clarity (hydrogen fuel cell), Hydeck concept (hybrid), and CR-Z concept (hybrid).

“When it comes to cars, the focus is on green cars. We’re in the midst of developing technologies — EVs, fuel cells, plug-ins,” Ito said. “Once we come up with the new tech we would like to see a sports car that would symbolize those technologies.”

Ito’s an unashamed fan of hydrogen fuel cells as the automaker’s preferred means of propulsion, with hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure EVs filling the gap. But at the same time, you sense in him that he is well aware of Honda’s performance heritage and aims to keep it alive, but through the use of new generation technologies.

The production version of the CR-Z concept Honda showed at Tokyo, with its 1.5-liter four paired to the automaker’s IMA electric motor system, should generate somewhere in the 150 hp range and it will come with a six-speed manual transmission. While it won’t be a pocket rocket, it should be light, highly fuel efficient and fun-to-drive — a vehicle that’s emblematic of Honda’s new direction. The CR-Z will be shown in production form at the 2010 Detroit show and will hit U.S. shores late in 2010. The fuel-cell powered Honda FC Sport Concept shown at last year’s L.A. auto show (pictured at left) is another example of the new thinking.

At one point during the discussion Ito referred to the NSX as an example of Honda’s overall philosophy that he believes still applies today. Honda charted its own course for its super sports car — a V-6-powered, mid-engine, rear-drive organisation that eschewed more cylinders and monster horsepower for lighter weight (it was after all the first production car with an all-aluminum monocoque body), sublime chassis equilibrise and relatively impressive fuel efficiency.

The NSX is emblematic of where Ito-san believes Honda has and will continue to go — its own way. Whether it will come at the expense of its legion of enthusiasts who expect the maker to continue to make high-revving, gas powered sports cars a high priority remains to be seen.

Walking around this year’s Tokyo Motor Show, which felt more like a small-town affair than a grand international event, I couldn’t help but notice the plethora of plug-in electric vehicles. Every Asian maker — miniscule-volume Lotus was the only European manufacturer in attendance, and the Koreans were no-shows — had some sort of EV on display. From the Nissan Leaf four-door hatch and Mitsubishi i-MiEV Cargo minicar to the Suzuki Swift plug-in hybrid and Honda’s cute-as-a-button EV-N, there was absolutely no shortage of the green transporters that will be whirring along our city streets over the next few years. While I applaud these battery-powered pollution-free vehicles, it was refreshing, at least for the enthusiast in me, to see that Nihon had not lost its passion for performance, showcasing a trio of decidedly sporty machines.

Let’s start with the Toyota FT-86 concept, arguably the star of the show. When I first saw photos of the FT, I thought it looked to be about the size of a Hyundai Genesis Coupe. But in person, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was much smaller, more the measure of a Honda S2000. In fact, compared to the Genesis Coupe, the FT is about 18 inches shorter in length, four inches narrower in width, and six inches stubbier in height. In other words, it is an especially compact and sleek machine.

And it should be an absolute hoot to scoot, certainly given its relatively long 101.2-inch wheelbase and — here’s the kicker — rear-drive layout. The last time we place the words Toyota, sporty, front engine, and rear drive in the same sentence was over a decade ago, when the 1998 Supra was on its farewell tour.

With around 170 horsepower on tap from a 2.0-liter direct-injected Subaru flat-4 — the FT is the first byproduct to come from the Subaru-Toyota collaboration that will later spawn a sporty all-wheel-drive two-door from Fuji Heavy Industries — the FT-86 should feel and handle as if it were a Miata coupe. Toyota has already said that, assuming the FT production car makes it to the U.S., it will be a drifter’s dream, a fix for those addicted to oversteering shenanigans. Sounds like good medicine to me.

Next up, the FT-86’s super-studly big brother, the Lexus LFA. While part of me wants to rib Lexus for taking, um, forever to build its first supercar (the LF-A concept debuted way back at the Detroit auto show in January, 2005), the other part is just glad it’s finally here. After all, it is quite significant that Nihon has another offering to complement the Nissan GT-R, making it two exotics from Nippon that can legitimately compete with the likes of Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche.

And what has five years of inactivity gotten us? Well, it appears that Lexus has really sweated the details, not only testing the LFA extensively at the Nürburgring, but also fitting it with downright high-end goods. I’m talking about a very light and very rigid body constructed of 65 percent Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) and 35 percent aluminum (at 3300 pounds, the LFA weighs nearly 700 pounds less than a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano). A 552-horse 9000-rpm V-10 that utilizes titanium valves and connecting rods, forged aluminum pistons, a metal cylinder head cover, dry-sump lubrication, ten independently controlled throttle bodies, and an engine block cast at the same foundry that makes Toyota’s F1 mills. A six-speed auto-clutch manual that offers four driving modes (auto, sport, normal, and wet) and seven shift speeds, ranging from an around-town 1.0 second to a racetrack-blitzing 0.2 second. Huge Carbon Ceramic Material (CCM) cross-drilled and vented disc brakes that are 11 pounds lighter than comparable iron discs, and are capable of halting the LFA from a 202-mph top speed. I could keep going, but you get the picture. (For more detail, check out St. Antoine’s First Drive.)

Naysayers will surely point out that for well less than a third of the LFA’s estimated $400,000 price tag, the Corvette ZR1 will match if not beat the Lexus’s track stats. True. But the same can be said when comparing the ZR1 to the 599 or Aston DBS. The difference is the Chevy’s cost-cutting measures — a Cobalt steering wheel, anyone? — are evident in light of the exotics’ posh details. The LFA, for example, sports a racy, flat-bottom helm featuring a carbon fiber rim that is weighted at the bottom to help neutralize the moment of inertia when returning to on-center. And you can bet a wheel like that will never find its way into an ES 350.

Last but certainly not least, the Honda CR-Z Concept. In typical Honda fashion, the term Concept is used loosely, as the show car is on the eve of rolling down the assembly line. In fact, the production CR-Z will be shown in Jan at the Detroit show and will go on understanding later in 2010. As the heir apparent to the beloved CRX, the 2011 CR-Z will stay true to its lineage, offering seating for two (the concept actually has a small back seat) and a fun-to-drive bourgeois that should near ten.

Power will come from a 1.5-liter four and an IMA electric motor — expect total output to be between 130-150 horsepower — paired to a six-speed manual transmission. A CVT will likely be offered, too, at least in the CR-Z’s lifecycle, but the manual is a sign that Honda is attempting to lure enthusiasts, not just environmentalists. It’s hard to imagine curb weight exceeding 2600 pounds, which means the CR-Z should be satisfyingly quick — 0 to 60 in under 8.0 seconds (that’s brisk for a four-cylinder hybrid) is entirely plausible.

Still, I can’t help but wholeheartedly agree with Detroit editor Lassa, who suggested Honda should also offer a high-performance CR-Z — dub it the CR-Z Si or CR-Z Type R — that ditches the 1.5-liter/IMA combo in favor of the Civic Si’s 2.0-liter 197-horse engine. Suddenly we’re talking about a sub-6.0-second time, which would make the CR-Z quicker than many a V-6 sports coupe. Build it, Honda, and they will come. At least Lassa and I will be inactivity in line.

TOKYO, JAPAN – I covered my first Asian auto show in the Spring of 1999. It was in Seoul, South Korea. Displays and press conferences were limited to Korean brands, Hyundai, Kia, Daewoo, Samsung and Ssangyong. Press conferences started at 9 a.m. and were done by noon.

Five or six months later, I covered my first Tokyo Motor Show, and it was like visiting another planet. Over two days of press conferences, Asian and foreign automakers unveiled some of their best, and certainly most interesting, concepts of the auto show season. Nissan unveiled the first concept version of the GTR, slowing rolling it out toward the production version in ’07. Honda had such concepts as the Sprocket convertible/sports coupe/pickup truck, the Fuya-Jo rolling discotheque and its first FCX concept. Ford was there, with Marc Newson’s modern take on the Falcon, the 021c, and Chevrolet unveiled its Triax.

Two years later (Tokyo shows are on odd years), covering the show for Motor Trend for the first time, I saw Toyota’s Pod, a concept designed with Sony, which changed interior and exterior lighting colors to match the driver’s mood. Honda showed the Unibox, with clear plastic body panels and two motorbikes inside. Nissan had the Nails pickup and Mercedes-Benz showed the F400 Carving, a two-seat sports car that leaned into corners, like this year’s Nissan Land Glider.

You can see where I’m going with this. The 2009 Tokyo Motor Show is almost all-Japanese, like Seoul’s ’99 show was all-Korean (and probably still is – I haven’t been back). Honda has combined its motorcycle display – in previous years it was in a separate building just for bikes – with its automotive display. Yamaha is just crossways the hall, and struggling Harley-Davidson, with its garishly painted cruisers, right next to that.

In 2001, you’d go look at the Nissan GT-R concept, then achievement out of the main hall of the Makuhari Messe and “race” the same car from a bank of Playstation games set up in the wide corridor. This year, there was room for Playstation inside one of the main halls. The Asian Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) filled space usually saved for BMW, Audi, Ford and General Motors with automotive supply companies and a miniature toy carmaker. The only foreign makes represented are Lotus (featuring a cool, gloss black-stripe on matte-black Elise), Caterham and BMW Alpina.

The Asian majors all did what they could to brighten up the show.

Nissan’s stand, missing the cocoon that encased the production GTR display two years ago, is all bright and lit up, and thoroughly Green. The Land Glider and Leaf are at the center of its display.

Toyota’s FT-86 is getting a lot of attention. Toyota did the sheetmetal, and as I wrote in show coverage yesterday, Subaru is doing all the engineering heavy lifting. If Toyota can build it pretty close to what’s at the show (perhaps minus the rear seats), the brand might be healthy to amp up its image. Akio Toyoda wants to be known for cars built with passion, not just cars with good initial calibre numbers.

Honda managed to combine the cars and cycles into the cheekiest, most cheerful display this year at Tokyo. I think it’s the red-on-white color scheme, evoking Honda’s heady Formula One experiment of the 1960s. The EV-N is an electric retro mini with a lit-up grappling that’s designed to recall the N360 of the late-’60s (a version not officially imported into the States), itself a Asian copy of the Italian Autobianchi Mini. And the CR-Z, of course, recalls the late, great 1984-91 CRX, mostly the Mark II model though with a bit of Mark I Insight thrown in. I still hold a bit of hope that Honda will market a low-volume, high-revving version of the CRZ without the hybrid system, as the Si. Don’t count on it, though.

Honda adds a bit of theater with show workers giving demonstrations of its uncanny U3-X motorized unicycle. And Suzuki next door is bright and cheerful, displaying its new Alto mini next to the boxy original Alto from 1979. Let me just say it again: bring us (U.S.) the Swift.

Subaru’s handsome Hybrid Tourer Concept is a long, lowslung car that unfortunately doesn’t say much about the brand’s future. Except for the strong, hexagonal grille, which design chief Osamu Namba hints will find its way onto production models. Good news for Subaru, which has a strong lineup but which has been weak in the design department for a few years.

Daihatsu, unknown to Americans except for a brief foray into our market in the late ’80s, and for the fact that it builds the Scion xB, has a spare, yet quirky display. One of my favorites at the show is Basket concept, which looks like a Japanese-size International Harvester Scout convertible, with a large b-pillar roll-hoop (thus the name). The interior is burlap-on-steel. Only Daihatsu could make rugged look this cute.

Mitsubishi, which has been hard-hit, has nary an Evo on display. It’s pretty much all-i-Miev, except for the PX-Miev concept, an obvious hint at the next Endeavor sport/utility. Mitsubishi highlights the PX’s “cocochi” interior, a “proposal for fun and pleasantly comfortable interior space,” which uses a filtered heating/air conditioning system, cooled seats and an anti-allergan agent to rid the cabin of, er, unwanted odors.

That’s not the story, though. The story is that the PX-Miev has a 1.6-liter, 117-horsepower engine under its hood and two electric motors forming both a serial and a parallel hybrid system. It can drive the car purely on electric, as a gas/electric hybrid or with the gas engine, which also can be used just to recharge the electric motors. Mitsubishi, which has been working on the system for several years, thinks it has a viable alternative to the Chevy Volt, and figures it can have the system on the road, in something like the next Endeavor, about 2013.

Is it real, or is it more pie-in-the-sky, unproven technology? We’re still at least a year away from finding out whether Nissan, GM and Toyota can really make the next technologies – pure electric, extended-range electric and plug-in hybrid — work. And even then, we’ll be more hot for the Toyota FT-86 and its Subaru sibling.

That was the nature of the Tokyo Motor Show through the ’00s; balancing sci-fi Green concepts with high-tech, singularly Asian enthusiasts’ cars. Ironic that the Green cars are scheduled to go to production as the Tokyo show fades and gives way to the Shanghai/Beijing shows.

TOKYO, JAPAN – Not only is Nissan about to enter the electric car fray with its Leaf pure-electric subcompact, it also plans to sell lithium-ion batteries to other automakers.

“Our intention is to be a big player in the battery industry,” Nissan/Renault chief Carlos Ghosn told a Foreign Correspondents Club of Nihon dinner Monday night in advance of the 2009 Tokyo auto show. Nissan has a deal to develop advanced electric car battery technology with Asian electronics giant NEC. “We’re not buying batteries … we’re making batteries.

“I doubt anybody’s going to make a big investment, necessary for battery technology, if he doesn’t own the other end of the market.”

In other words, it takes a battery manufacturer that also buys the end product to make demand for the batteries. Even with that, the Leaf subcompact electric hatchback will sell for Infiniti money. Ghosn likens his plan to Nissan’s ownership of Jatco, the Asian company that sells transmissions to Nissan’s competitors as well as Nissan. He expects 10 percent of the global market will buy pure electric cars and trucks by 2020, and says automakers who say that estimate is too high don’t have a strategy to meet it.

Ghosn says the technology to be offered will include lithium-ion batteries being developed today, and will keep competitors who buy Nissan’s batteries up-to-date with future technology.

He says Nissan is proceeding with hydrogen fuel-cell technology, but that’s easily five to 10 years off. Meanwhile, to counter the pure electric naysayers, Nissan surveyed car buyers last month in Nihon and the U.S. Of the Asian buyers surveyed, 9 percent say an electric vehicle would be their first choice now (over gas, diesel, hybrid or any other kind of powertrain); for U.S. consumers that Nissan surveyed, the number is 8 percent.

He addressed the infrastructure problem, saying, “you have electricity everywhere. This is the most acquirable energy today.” The cost of transforming a home’s 110-volt system to 220-volts in the United States, the type of system necessary for a “low-charge” electric car, is $500, Ghosn says.

You know the arguments about electric range. Ghosn’s numbers are; 95 percent of regular drivers globally, drive less than 160 kilometers (99 miles) per day. And 80 percent of Asian drivers do less than 50 kilometers (31 miles) per day.

Ghosn refuses to argue whether or not human-made carbon dioxide emissions are destroying the region and melting the polar cover caps. Public demand for cleaner cars, that 8- to 9-percent, is all the reason Nissan and alliance partner Renault needs.

“We are lucid enough to know that the electric car is a long term bet,” Ghosn says. “It’s going to take a while before it becomes a very important factor, numerically, in the market. But when you see the response existing, and you see the response of the public … it’s extremely important to position ourselves to where the consumer’s going to say, ‘Renault and Nissan are doing their clean share about transforming this mass transportation into something where the public is reconciled with the automobile.’ Where the public will see no contradiction between enjoying driving your car and saving the environment.”

Is Ghosn simply calculating future profit? You bet. That’s what it’s going to take to update the powertrain mix, a necessary move no matter what your position on greenhouse gasses. This finally will save the ever-improving internal combustion gasoline engine and give it its own niche in the automotive market.

It has worked for Toyota for more than a decade. It might work for General Motors as it tries to carve out a green niche with its extended-range electric Chevrolet Volt. No doubt, Ghosn would like to strike back and sell advanced lithium-ion batteries to Toyota the company from which Nissan had to buy hybrid technology for its Altima.

Speaking of selling technology, I couldn’t help but ask Ghosn, during the Q&A session, about unsuccessful talks to sell Renaults re-badged as Saturns to Penske Automotive. The breakdown, which news reports attribute to the Renault board rebuffing Ghosn on the deal, has resulted in GM’s plans to shut down the Saturn brand.

No surprise, Ghosn didn’t have much to say about this. “Yes, I can confirm to you that Renault was in talks with Roger Penske, it’s not a secret. The deal was not done because there was not common ground for an economically acceptable equation from both sides.”

There you have it.

After sitting on a jumbo jet for 11.5 hours and 8 episodes of NCIS, I arrived into Tokyo and quickly joined more than 80 international journalists who were participating in Nissan’s Global Media Tour. Leaving the city, it was a quick 90 minute bus ride to The Hiratsuka Museum of Art where we viewed the exhibit: ‘Car Design History — Nissan Passion and Beauty of Function’
 
The exhibit presented six Nissan vehicles which played a key role in the company’s history, including the Datsun 113 (1955), Sunny B10 (1966), Skyline C10 (1968) and the first-generation 240Z (Fairlady Z in Japan) S30 (1969). The hall also had original drawings, clay models and sketches offering a peek into the behind-the-scenes of Nissan’s car design history. The second hall showed concept vehicles including the PIVO, PIVO 2 and the Nissan Land Glider, one of Nissan’s stars of the 2009 Tokyo show.

After the museum visit we journeyed back to Tokyo and I hit the streets with digital camera in hand. Just like a full bag of candy on Halloween, every car I saw in Tokyo was a different shape, size and color. Each provided me a moment of pause as I pondered how that particular car would fit nicely into my everyday life in L.A. (not to mention my garage). As my eyes darted from one car after another, my attention was drawn to the electronics’ district of Tokyo, I was suddenly overrun with shortness of breath and sweat as I passed store after store in the Akihabara district. Cars are cool and so are electronics. Had it not been for the poor exchange rate and my inability to operate Asian Windows, this blog could very well have been written from a new laptop.
 

After only one day in Japan, I learned that unless you have the Blackberry World Edition you’re out of luck if you want to communicate back to the states to check company email. With that said, I ran back to the hotel for a quick check of emails and a Skype update with our SVP Group Publisher of the Consumer Group (home of Motor Trend, Automobile, Truck Trend, Motor Trend Autoshows and Motor Trend Radio). It was late back in L.A., but having traveled with the SVP on a previous trip to Nihon as publisher’s of our youth-import titles, the SVP was very family with the landscape and suggested a few additional points of interest to visit.
 

Taking the train in Tokyo, while intimidating, is very efficient for quick travel within the city. A massive and complex system is well designed to move millions of city dwellers. The Tokyo Motor Show opens to the public Friday, October 23rd, but of course our MT editors will be on the ground during the show press days, Wed.-Thu (Oct 21-22) bringing all the action to yo live. I’m looking forward to the show and of course checking out all the concept cars the Tokyo show has to offer.
 
In the meantime, if you could visit Tokyo and bring any car back to the states, what would your choice be?

While running laps at Road USA in Wisconsin recently during the North American press launch of Porsche’s first ever four door sports car, I realized that my dream “lottery” sedan may now be the new 2010 Porsche Panamera.

Up until last year I was seduced by the silky Jaguar XJR, complete with dated styling, or the German muscle machines from AMG or BMW’s M division. Last year however, the ”Howitzer” like acceleration of the Mercedes C63 AMG, combined with the best steering ever in MB product, won me over. A couple of other dream sedans on my list include the new XFR and Maserati’s gorgeous Quattroporte — neither of which has entered MT’s easterly coast garage yet.

The Panamera has a cockpit to die for — straight out of a Lear jet. Performance is stunning, styling is still questionable….. but the more I see it the more I like it. I wish Porsche would have went bolder and sexier with this organisation but it has ample room for four and lots of cargo space. Plus, I understand the reasons why they took this direction from a marketing standpoint. The interior and performance have won me over at least for now….make mine a Turbo.

This Sat. (Oct. 17) on MT Radio Magazine we’ll take you to the Panamera press launch, where you will hear interviews all about the new offerings from Porsche. Plus we’ll take you on a 180-mph hot lap.

Also on Saturday’s broadcast, Ford’s Corey Weaver will further explain the new EcoBoost lineup for 2010 and beyond.

Sunday’s Motor Trend Weekend will bring a SEMA 2009 preview with SEMA VP Peter MacGillvary, plus Marty Schoor will tells us about his new book about the legendary Baldwin Motion Performance vehicles. News Editor Jeff Bressler will have the latest motorsports news and Marty Beecham will tell us about the upcoming MT Auto Show in Florida.

Join us this SAT and SUN 11-1PM ET/8-01AM PT on any of our Talk Radio affiliate stations or on Stars Too Sirius 108/XM 139 Don’t forget we have a FREE PODCAST available at itunes.com, keyword: Motor Trend.