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: Compensation Is Coming
We all expected GM to pay a lot to victims of it's faulty ignition switch that has caused a number of simply massive recalls. Now, according to sources close to the situation, GM will offer victims payment from a fund that will be unlimited.
According to Bloomberg, Ken Feinberg, the man in charge of putting out a compensation plan for the victims of the recall, wants a plan that will attract the most claimants as possible. As such, there is no limit set to the fund, since they just don't know how many people will come forward.
In order to minimize external legislation and lawsuits, it seems GM will pay drivers, passengers, and bystanders of ignition switch issues, and will do so while requiring basically no evidence. Bloomberg even says that GM won't deny payments if the accident was caused by something that wasn't the ignition switch, like alcohol or lack physical evidence like a wrecked car or a black box.
Full details on the amount of payments are yet to be released. The claims are expected to be accepted starting August 1st.
2nd Gear: Prius Delayed
Toyota was supposed to start production of the next generation Prius in spring 2015, but now it seems those plans have been pushed back to December 2015.
The reason? Automotive News says that it isn't totally clear, but an engineer has said that Toyota wants more time to maximize the MPG, which could be pushing 60 this time around. That also means they need more time to make it even more boring.
But that level of boredom doesn't come easy. Toyota is looking to maximize efficiency in every single part of the Prius, and that takes time. So look for final prototypes to hit the road at the end of this year, the car to hit dealers at the end of next year, and a plug in version to follow in late 2016.
3rd Gear: Trumpchis For Everyone!
GREAT NEWS! Well, ok not great news, or even good news, but news!
Following its appearance in the newest Transformers, Guangzhou is considering importing the Trumpchi GS5 into America as early as next year, using the appearance in Transformers as the launching pad.
Chinese cars have taken a lot of flack, but who knows, the Trumpchi might be good. For their part, Guangzhou have said that Americans will find their cars "competitive." Talk about overwhelming, cocky confidence, right?
4th Gear: The Macan Is Sold Out, But Why Not Get A Different Porsche Instead?
The Porsche Macan is a car that I rather liked when I drove it. Seriously. It's easily the finest premium compact crossover on the market. That's a ton of disclaimers.
But the Macan's entire first year of production is sold out, so what do you do? Lease something else, silly! Porsche will offer Macan buyers who don't have their cars yet the opportunity of a short term lease on a Boxster or a Cayman until the Macan arrives. The good thing is that the Cayman and Boxster have basically the exact same utility as the Macan. It's a shrewd move on Porsche's part, since it gets more Caymans and Boxsters out there and it gives dealers low mile used cars to sell.
Smart.
5th Gear: Here Come Goofy Lightweight Springs
Audi has been talking a big game lately, what with laser headlights and a suspension that can produce power, and now they have something else: lightweight spring technology.
Instead of standard steel springs, Audi is introducing springs made of glass fiber reinforced polymer. The idea is to use them to replace steel springs to reduce weight over steel springs by roughly 10 pounds. That sounds like it almost isn't worth it, but every little bit of weight reduction helps efficiency and performance.
This is a good thing.
Reverse:
On this day in 1953, the first production Corvette is built at the General Motors facility in Flint, Michigan. Tony Kleiber, a worker on the assembly line, is given the privilege of driving the now-historic car off the line.
[HISTORY]
Neutral:
If GM is so lenient with its compensation policy, will a ton of people just take advantage that didn't have any relation? Will it backfire on them?