#Sedan

The Audi A3 was caught by our spy photographers undergoing winter testing in Sweden. Despite heavy camoflague, we already know what the next A3 will look like – look at any current Audi for clues to what the front and rear treatments will resemble.

The South Korean auto market has long been dominated by domestic automakers like Hyundai and Kia, but Toyota is planning to make a play by sending 6,000 American-built Camrys to South Korea.

Dodge revealed teaser shots of their Dart compact car, designed to replace the wretched Caliber crossover, and so far it looks to be the first hit of Alfa Romeo-inspired product for North America.

General Motor‘s European subsidiary, Opel has contributed greatly to GM’s engineering and technology development. Despite this, Opel has had difficulty making profit. GM Vice Chairman and Opel’s supervisory board chairman, Stephen Girsky explained to Financial Times Deutschland, “Unfortunately, our plan for making Opel profitable this year did not work.”

Although Saab has been struggling for the past year, don’t bet against it. All but doomed when GM sought to stop Saab’s deal with the Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. and Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Youngman is now proposing a new deal with Bank of China, the country’s fourth largest bank by market value.

Reports are coming in that Japanese auto manufacturers are looking for ways to cut costs on vehicles being exported to the United States in order to squeeze profits due to the record high yen against the dollar. A prime example is the new GS 350 from Lexus, that has been highly anticipated and praised by the American media.

Our spy photographers have done it again, this time finding the 2013 Mercedes-Benz S-Class in the wild.

The S-Class is an important product for Mercedes, but this generation has the added burden of replacing the now-dead Maybach sedans, as well as acting as the flagship for Mercedes-Benz.

Expect to see VIPs, celebrities and African desposts chauffeured around in these starting in 2013. There’s a good bet your local hedge fund manager will have one, too.

Check out the video after the jump

An article in Automotive News suggests that the Cadillac ELR, which will share major driveline components with the Chevrolet Volt, will actually be rear-wheel drive.

Toyota has announced that starting in 2013, it will sell Lexus vehicles in India. No specific products were announced for sale, but likely contenders include the LS and GS sedans, as well as the RX crossover. Given India’s less than perfect roads, the LX and GX SUVs (based on the popular Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs) may also make it over.

Sergio Marchionne revealed Maserati‘s big plan to introduce three new products in quick succession during a recent interview at the CBI business conference held in London.

Mercedes-Benz‘s Maybach luxury brand will be axed, much to the consternation of rappers (pictured above), athletes and insipid nouveau riche types everywhere.

While automakers and outside research firms publish sales figures and earnings reports on a regular basis, one metric we rarely get a glimpse of is how profitable each vehicle is. In an era of re-badging and platform sharing, one would think that the most profitable vehicles are those with a large number of derivatives to spread the cost around. But a new report from Bernstein Research suggests that two factors – price point and volume – are the keys to making big bucks off vehicles. And judging by the list, longevity seems to help as well.

Tata Sons has named Cyrus Mistry as its next CEO, as current CEO Ratan Tata prepares to retire. The unmarried, childless Tata named Mistry as CEO of the holding company responsible for Tata’s numerous divisions, among them their automotive sector which owns Jaguar and Land Rover, along with the namesake Tata Motors brand.

Consumer Reports has made allegations against Volkswagen that the company provided press vehicles that were built to a higher standard than versions sold to consumers.

The 2013 BMW 3-Series will start at $35,775 when it goes on sale in February. For that amount of coin, you can walk away with a base model 328i, while a 335i will set you back $43,275.