While watching football last night, I got a heavy dose of the new Hyundai marketing campaign, and I have to say, I found it way less annoying than the "this is our country" spiel. Anyway, here’s the news:

• Kia says the future is here, today. By "here" I mean "Frankfurt" and by "future" I mean "strange looking car." Enjoy: Winding Road
• The BBC found six more reasons that I’m not a Formula One driver. Surprisingly, none of them have anything to to with my driving ability: BBC Sport
• There’s a feel good article in Detroit Free Press today that doesn’t do anything to make me want to buy a Ford, but it does make me want to want to buy a Ford. That’s something, right? Freep
• It looks like there are going to be plenty of plug-in hybrids on the roads in the next couple years. Don’t worry though, most of them will be way more expensive than normal cars: LA Times

This is a car blog, but I’ve got to say I’m pretty pumped about football season starting. Anyway, here’s the news:

• The day after Jim Press is announced at Chrysler, people are falling all over themselves to praise the guy. Good move, Cerberus: Freep
• If you’re like me, and you’ve got a few hundred grand laying around for a hot whip, but you want to really get your money’s worth of jealousy from your insanely rich neighbors, the LA Times has some great car-buying advice. [Note: While I was writing that last sentence I found out that my request for a $10 mil raise didn't' go through. There's always next year]: LA Times
• Ford has big plans for a plant in Romania. I don’t even have anything to say about that, except, "Romania has a stretch of sea coast along the Black Sea, and the eastern and southern Carpathian Mountains run through its center.": Leftlane News
• Want to know why GM makes more money overseas than here? Internationally, they make cars that meet the market needs, not based on what will show up in a rap video: Car and Driver
  

Yesterday, our lovely and talented editor thought I slighted his favorite brand of cars that don’t run. John, I want to apologize to you and your beautiful car that I’ve never seen on the road. I love Jags:

• I linked to news on this yesterday, but here’s another article talking about Jaguar being unprofitable: Drive.com.au
• I don’t want to be seen as a Jag-hater, so here’s some good news—Jaguar placed #10 in this year’s automotive dependability survey. A top 10 finish is nothing to sneeze at: Bloomberg
• Mattel has recalled die-cast toys based on cars from the movie Cars. Sounds like an opportunity to hoard recalled toys and resell them on EBay in 10 years. Cha-CHING! Consumer Product Safety Commission 
• Ford is expanding its discount program in what is possibly the worst-named promotion since the "Don’t-Buy-This-Car-athon" of 1973: Freep

The Boston Tea Party was almost 234 years ago, but we’re still throwing off our colonial oppressors, as evidenced by Ford Motor Company’s continuing struggle to sell off its British brands [Jason, let's not make fun of Jag, please. And your Mom called. She said not to worry about your Barbies, they're safe and sound. Ed.]

• According to Jalopnik, BART sucks. I maintain that Seattle’s mass transit system is more of a joke, but I think we can agree to disagree: Jalopnik
• Ford announced a 29% increase in sales January-July! Wait, that was in China: Leftlane News
• The German Leremo has some pretty interesting stats: Does 117mpg sound good to you? How about 0-60 in 20 seconds? Not so much, eh? Fortunately, they have a performance version than can do 0-60 in under 10 seconds and still gets over 100 mpg (all according to the manufacturer): Top Gear
• Toyota is already claiming that Prius exceeds JDM 2015 fuel standards: Winding Road
• DaimlerChrysler had its bond rating boosted after closing the Chrysler sale. Apparently, the guys at Standard and Poor’s like the ’08 C-Class more than the ’08 Town and Country: Freep

Wow, two lanes of I-5 were closed this morning in Seattle and everyone got to work on time anyway. This is a minor miracle:   

• I bought a Nintendo Wii, but I might have held off if I knew someone was making a wee-controled video game system: Top Gear
• BMW and NASA just completed an 8 week test of hydrogen-powered 760Lis: Freep
• Tesla’s CEO stepped down after production delays continued on the Tesla Roadster: CNet
• Detroit says the minivan is dead. No word yet on how kids are supposed to get to soccer practice: DetNews
• DaimlerChrysler led(?) the industry in warranty payouts last year, paying over $6.1 billion in warranty costs. This could be an area where Chrysler is better off on its own, as it has cut warranty payments 40% over the past five years: Leftlane News