Buick is continuing to improve and expand its lineup of vehicles and build itself into a legitimate luxury car brand. The latest addition to the Buick lineup is a new mid-sized sedan with a familiar name: Regal.

The car will slot in under the new LaCrosse, which is priced from $27,085 and will be based on the European Opel Insignia. Currently such a vehicle is offered in China (pictured above) with a choice of two engines, a 164hp 2.4-liter four-cylinder and a 211hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four cylinder. And considering its European heritage we should expect a solid vehicle with some decent handling characteristics too.

“The transformation of Buick began with our luxury crossover, the Buick Enclave and continued this year with the launch of the 2010 LaCrosse premium sedan,” said Susan Docherty, Buick GMC General Manager. “We’re thrilled to announce that the Regal will be the next member of the Buick family.”

Buick has decided to bring back the Regal name as its one of Buick’s better known badges, despite the fact that the company hasn’t made a Regal vehicle (no pun intended) in six years.

Buick has yet to announce when the new Regal will arrive.

GALLERY: Chinese Market Buick Regal

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Daimler AG has announced that the second generation Smart fortwo electric drive will go into series production starting in 2012. The announcement was made during the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to the facility where the electric Smart cars will be built in Hambach, France.

A small number of vehicles will begin production in November of this year as Daimler continues to test the product durability and battery capability. Using a more compact lithium-ion battery pack sourced from U.S. electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc., the second generation of the Smart fortwo electric drive doesn’t compromise space and has adequate room for two adults. Power is rated at 30 kW (40-hp) and 120 Nm (89 ft-lbs) of torque, with a range of 135 km (84 miles). The initial vehicles will begin testing this year in cities across Europe and the U.S.

Smart claims the cars can hit 60 km/h in 6.5 seconds (the same as the gasoline models) and are speed-limited to 100 km/h (60 mph).

GALLERY: Smart fortwo Electric Drive

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Corvette Racing driver Jan Magnussen almost saw the top of the podium during the American Le Mans Series finale at Laguna Seca, but instead he saw the track-side hospital. Magnussen, driving the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R spent the last several laps of the race battling alonside Jörg Bergmeister in the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, before crashing into the wall just feet from the finish line, allowing the Porsche to finish first just 1.037 seconds ahead. (Skip ahead to the 1:52 mark for the best action).

Magnussen even took the lead several in the second last lap, but had to give the position back as it was determined (quite obviously) that he had passed over the pit-exit line to do so.

“I’m definitely sorry Jan went into the wall,” Bergmeister said. “I didn’t want that to happen. But it was a banging game. I’m glad he’s OK. It was tough racing. The Corvette passed me the first time at the hairpin but he went in way too deep and I was able to get back around him. He was a little quicker I have to say. I wasn’t trying to figure out where he was gaining time on me. I was trying to stay on track and in front.”

Magnussen recalls the incident slightly differently. “I didn’t think I even had a chance after I had to give the position back,” he said. “Going into the last corner I was too far away to make a proper attack, but Joerg parked the car. I didn’t see that, so I slid up and hit him a little – he went sideways and I managed to get on the inside. It was a drag race up the hill, and I managed to get ahead of him. Then he turned me into the wall, and he kept turning in. Then I spun around the nose of his car.”

Corvette Racing is looking into the incident but it’s hard to point fingers as there was a lot of bumping going on in the final laps of the race. “It’s unfortunate it ended the way it did. I think we’re going to review the videotapes and see what we can do to ascertain what went wrong there,” said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. “I’m sure we’ll be working with the sanctioning body to address it and put into place safeguards to make sure incidents like this won’t happen again.”

Still, Fehan had to admit that, “Those last six laps were as exciting as I’ve seen in motor racing in a long time – two great teams, two great cars, two great drivers.”

The podium spot is the fifth consecutive podium for Corvette Racing in as many races, since the team joined the GT2 class.

[Source: Corvette Racing and ALMS]

There will no doubt be numerous modified GT-Rs at this year’s SEMA Show. One of the nicest, is sure to be WALD’s Black Bisson model. WALD’s U.S. distributor, Jonari Corp., has said it is building a GT-R for the aftermarket trade show. The car will feature the full aero kit including side skirts, rear fender arches, a new front bumper with carbon fiber accents, a carbon rear wing and a carbon diffuser. Also included in the build are a set of 22-inch WALD P13F wheels with Yokohama Advan tires, WALD lowering springs and a full titanium exhaust from Arqray Japan.

We’ll be sure to bring you more on the car with live coverage of the 2009 SEMA Show starting on November 3rd.

See AutoGuide’s live SEMA Coverage here!

GALLERY: WALD Black Bisson GT-R

Volvo will bring diesel engines as well as diesel-hybrids to North America in the future says the company’s North American CEO. Doug Speck made the comments to Automotive News, as the automaker is faced with the same lofty corporate fuel economy standards as the rest of the industry, which will see automakers average 35.5 mpg by 2016.

Volvo has already announced a plug-in hybrid vehicle will arrive in Europe in 2012 (shown in prototype form above) and while this car is expected to make its way to North America shortly thereafter, no time frame has been given.

We’re more likely to see diesel-powered models (which are big sellers for Volvo in Europe) much sooner as the technology is already here – and has been for some time. It continues to improve, however, and at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September, Volvo had on display its C30 1.6D DRIVe model, which gets an incredible 74.3 mpg.

[Source: Automotive News via LeftLaneNews]

Mitsubishi has just released details and pricing on the move civilized and luxurious Lancer Evolution MR Touring model and for the first time ever the base MSRP of a Lancer tops the 40k mark. Starting at $40,990, the EVO MR Touring model gets leather Recaros, added soundproofing, a higher resolution digital display and a moonroof. One item has also been deleted from the usual EVO package – the car’s significant sized spoiler. Instead it has been replaced with a subtle lip spoiler.

The car also comes with all the goodies you’d expect, like a 291-hp turbocharged four-cylinder engine with a six-speed paddle shift dual-clutch transmission, Brembo brakes, 18-inch BBS wheels and Mitsu’s amazing Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC) setup.

Mitsu is hoping the new Lancer Evolution MR Touring model will appeal more to typical European sports sedan buyers and it certainly has a price that’s in the ballpark. A long list of options are available, like a $1,999 navigation setup. A fully optioned-out model could come close to the $47,000 mark.

GALLERY: 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR Touring

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Ford has officially unveiled the first of the 2010 Mustang race cars that will join the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The car was revealed at Roush Fenway Racing headquarters in Concord, N.C., which it was also announced that 2008 Truck Series Rookie of the Year Colin Braun would drive the No. 16 Con-way Freight Mustang.

The car will enter NASCAR for the first time in July 2010 at Daytona International Speedway.

Ovalo, Texas native Braun moves up to the Nationwide Series after running in the truck series, and his Con-way Freight sponsor comes with him. “I’m so happy that Con-way Freight decided to move up with me to the Nationwide Series for 2010,” Braun said. “They have been a great sponsor for the past two years in the truck series so it means a lot to me that they will continue to support me in the future. I’m also looking forward to driving a Mustang next year. I’ve always thought they are such incredible cars, but have never owned one. Maybe when I win my first race the guys at Ford will want to give me one of my own.”

“This truly marks the start of the next era of Mustang racing,” said Brian Wolfe, director of Ford North America Motorsports. “We fully expect this Mustang, with drivers like Colin behind the wheel, to start to enjoy the kind of success so many other Mustang racing programs have enjoyed throughout the last four decades. Mustang is a proud and historic brand for Ford. This is a car born to race, and NASCAR is the next logical step for its racing pedigree.”

Currently the Mustang competes in numerous other professional motorsports including the NHRA Funny Car and Pro Stock divisions, the Grand-Am KONI Challenge, SCCA World Challenge and the Mustang Challenge Series.

GALLERY: NASCAR Nationwide Series 2010 Mustang

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Saleen Performance Vehicles has released pictures of the 2010 S281 Mustang ahead of the car’s official unveiling at the SEMA show in Las Vegas.

The three  pictures, posted on Saleen’s Flickr and Facebook pages, provide a peek of the S281′s front and the rear, which a couple of Facebook commenters called an improvement on the 2010 Mustang’s original rear.

Full details will be released at the 2010 Saleen S281 Mustang’s unveiling Nov. 4 at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

We’ll be sure to bring you full details and photos from SEMA.

See AutoGuide’s live SEMA Coverage here!

Gallery: 2010 Saleen S281 Mustang

General Motors has sold its Hummer brand of SUVs to Chinese heavy industrial machinery builder Sichuan Tengzhon. No details have been released but the sale was reportedly made for a sum of just $150 million.

GM CEO Fritz Henderson had estimated in documents filed during GM’s bankruptcy proceedings that the brand could be worth as much as $500 million.

The once glamorous brand of massive and massively expensive SUVs began to suffer when the price of fuel spiked last year, but the recession hurt the company far more as it has recorded a 64 percent decline in sales so far in 2009. That drop is the largest sales decline recorded by any automobile brand this year.

Tengzhong will take over Hummer’s brand network as well as it’s manufacturing processes, however, GM will continue to build the H2, H3 and H3T on contract until June 2011. Brand CEO Jim Taylor will remain on with the company.

The sale of Hummer is actually the first successful one in GM’s brand elimination process. The company announced it would eliminate Pontiac, while selling off Saturn, Saab and Hummer and keeping four core brands: GMC, Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet. The sale of Saturn to Penske recently fell through while GM has yet to sign a contract with Koenigsegg group, which is interested in Saab.

[Source: Automotive News]

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Aston Martin has released a stunning piece of video that shows the company’s new sports sedan driving both the Nürburgring and the famous Stelvio Pass in the Alps.

Dubbed “the most elegant four-door sorts car in the world,” the Rapide is powered by a front-mounted 5.9-liter V12 engine. Power is rated at 470hp at 6000 rpm with 443 ft-lbs of torque coming on strong at 5000 rpm. And if we know Aston, it probably sounds like a wicked beast at about 4000 rpm.

The Rapide will be offered exclusively with a six-seed automatic transmission.

As for the design of the car, it’s all Aston up front and even the rear maintains Aston’s signature subtle duck-tail spoiler, which is integrated into the rear hatch. And of course, all four doors flip slightly upward, just like the rest of the Aston fleet. The cabin of the car seats four with 10.6 cubic feet of space behind the rear seats or 26.5 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down.

“Rapide is the culmination of the Aston Martin range of sports cars, a car that seals the revival of a truly admired marque,” said Aston CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez. “There is now an Aston Martin for every taste and for every use. With Rapide, the entire family can enjoy their Aston Martin together in unison, in an invigorating yet comfortable environment, sitting low, with plenty of visibility from every seat and with new levels of comfort, refinement and entertainment.”

GALLERY: Aston Martin Rapide

GALLERY: Aston Martin Rapide at the Frankfurt Auto Show