This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:00 AM. 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: Toyota's Landmark 22 Million Owner, $1 Billion Settlement
Toyota's $1.3 billion settlement for unintended acceleration is in its final stages of approval, and it looks like 22 million owners will be getting a piece of the action, whether it be financial compensation (nine million of the owners are eligible for between $37.50 and $125) or repairs.
The settlement has other expenses than just restitution to owners. $30 million will go to an automotive safety fund, $14.2 million to driver safety education, and $15 million for safety research, $800,000 to study defensive driving. Oh, and there's $200 million in lawyer fees and $27 million in costs.
2nd Gear: Nissan's Altima V8 Racer Wants To Make An Impression
The Australian V8 Supercars are hitting the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX this weekend. It marks the debut of the Aussies' own NASCAR-esque series on our shores here in the USA. Nissan just entered the series with the Altima, which is going on sale in Australia in Q4 of 2013.
And since the Altima is built in Tennessee, this weekend's event is a homecoming of sorts for the car. The car has done ok so far this year, so fingers crossed they can make an impression on home soil.
3rd Gear: Cadillac Isn't After Volume
Selling a lot of cars is a good thing. But sacrificing your values to sell every car you can isn't a good thing.
BMW, Audi, and Mercedes have been on a model onslaught for the last few years with cars designed to bring in buyers that some probably never knew existed. 5-Series GT, anyone? Cadillac has said that they will not be matching their German competitors model for model.
Cadillac is still revamping the core of its lineup, like the new CTS, so focusing on those instead of random, incremental models makes sense.
4th Gear: 12-Cylinders Of Aston Martin Awesome Heading To The N24
The Aston Martin V12 Vantage is one of the great cars of our times. In fact, if you want a V12 and a stick shift, it's the only car that you can buy. Now, the GT3 version will be hitting the Nurburgring for the 24 hour race coming up.
Not only will the V12 Vantage GT3 hit the track, but so will a hydrogen Rapide S and a nearly stock V12 Vantage.
We're telling and showing you this because the V12 Vantage is basically pornographic.
5th Gear: GM's Building A New $258 Million Data Center
GM has been using outside vendors for its servers and other IT equipment for years. They're now making a big investment to bring it all back under their own roof.
That includes a new data center in Milford that will cost $258 million and be completed next year. It's part of a larger play to be more in line with how other companies take care of their IT. GM was outsourcing 85 percent of its IT work, which is far more than the 25 to 35 percent average.
A truly great company is good at IT, so it makes sense that GM would want to bring this in house.
Reverse: Daimler Chrysler Gets Out Of The Chrysler Business
Neutral
What do you think of Cadillac's decision to stay out of the grab for more buyers in random classes of cars? Smart decision, or an oversight?