This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place every weekday morning. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
1st Gear: A New LFA? Hell. Yes.
Lexuses have always been solid, reliable cars, but they have never been cars that one would consider truly exciting. That all changed with the LFA, a supercar that was under development for nearly a decade and is a car that any enthusiast would want.
And now another one is coming, it just might take a while.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Lexus wants to build a successor to the LFA for the next generation of supercar buyers. It has the backing of the Lexus brass as well as race car driver/boss/Jalop fan Akio Toyoda.
The thing is, it might take a while. That "next generation" that was referenced in the Bloomberg piece sounds like it'd be soon, but it's not. At all. A Lexus spokesperson said a new LFA "could be 30 years in the future." That's a really long time, hell, I'll be nearly 60. Which I guess means I'd be almost able to afford an LFA, maybe. It did also take forever to make the first LFA, so the 30 year estimate might not be that far off.
2nd Gear: FBI Confiscates Alleged Ford Spy's Emails
The saga of the alleged Ford spying scandal continues. After the FBI went to Ford HQ in Dearborn and confiscated a number of listening devices, the Bureau has now confiscated former engineer Sharon Leach's work email account. They had previously taken a personal account and a number of listening devices from her home.
Leach has not been formally charged with a crime. Her lawyer says she hid listening devices to "take better meeting notes."
3rd Gear: More GM SUVs Recalled Since They Might Start On... Fire
In yet another setback for GM's reputation, a third recall covering 189,000ish trucks has been issued to cure a problem that has been ongoing: Spontaneous combustion. Seriously.
Owners of Chevy Trailblazers, GMC Envoys, Buick Rainiers, Isuzu Ascenders (there's one of these in the US, owned by a man named Jim. Hi Jim!), and Saab 9-7Xs have been told to park their cars and leave them outside as a faulty window switch could cause the cars to, uhhh, start on fire.
GM doesn't expect to have parts to repair the cars until October. GM has ordered dealers to not sell these cars until they are fixed. Cool.
4th Gear: Chinese Auto Growth Slows
Chinese car sales grew 6.7 percent in July. That's good. But that's also the slowest rate of growth the burgeoning market has seen for the entire year. The market sold 1.36 million cars in July, up from 1.24 million cars in July of 2013.
China says that the sales slowed due to "hot weather and the soccer world cup." Sounds about right?
5th Gear: Western Europe Sales Grow
Hey, Europe has been in a bit of a car sales slump lately, but is the turnaround coming? Sales were up five percent in July to more than one million cars sold, and the year is at 7.4 million and counting. Compare that to 7.0 million at this time last year.
I bet it was all Lotus. Lotus sold a ton.
Reverse
On this day in 1963, the 15 thieves involved in the Great Train Robbery, one of the most famous heists of all time, escape in an ex-British Army truck and two stolen Land Rover four-wheel drive all-terrain vehicles, making off with some $7 million in stolen loot.
[HISTORY]
Neutral
What form do you think the future Lexus LFA will take (other than being a hybrid, cause we know it'll be a hybrid. It has to be, right?)?