This is the Morning Shift, our one-stop daily morning roundup of all the auto news that's actually important to you — all in one place at 9:00 AM. Or you know, 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: Great news! Here's the just-revealed Panamera S Hybrid — with a total power output of 380 hp driven by the same engine combination from the Cayenne S Hybrid. That gives the big-bottomed S hybrid a 0-to-62mph time of just 6.0 seconds and a top speed of 168 mph. Err... huh... actually, that makes the S hybrid even faster than the V6's 6.3 second 0-to-62 time. Err... maybe it really is great news. Oy.
2nd Gear: GM Inside News reports GM is saying goodbye to one of the Tri-Lambdas, electing to cancel the Lambda-based next-generation GMC Acadia crossover. Sources familiar with GM product planning say the decision's being made to reduce product overlap in Buick-GMC stores between the Acadia and it's Lambda-platformed sister product, the Buick Enclave. NERDS!!!
3rd Gear: Neither the hybrid Chevy Volt or all-electric Nissan Leaf could topple the natural gas-burning Honda Civic GX from the top of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's list of greenest cars. How did a 29 MPG car beat the latest electrified offerings? Because "greenness" is a slippery beast. Indeed.
4th Gear: The U.S. House is expected to vote this week on a proposal to bar the Treasury Department from employing a "car czar" by eliminating the funding. Good work, guys. It's only been vacant for a month now.
5th Gear: Speaking of the Volt, it's European brother, the Opel Ampera, is showing off some new "polizei cruiser" duds. Jeez, even European hybrids look better than ours.
6th Gear: The thing I love about automotive design is there can be beauty in even what could seemingly be the most boring of things. Take, for example, the diff cover for the new Ram Heavy Duty pickup above. Sexy. Then I see the gaping maw of the new Pagani, and I kinda want to "Huayra" in my mouth a little bit every time I see it.
Reverse:
⏎ Fiat will unveil a special edition of its subcompact 500 model branded by Gucci in Milan on Feb. 23. Probably a better choice than the Berlusconi "bunga-bunga" edition they were toying with. [Bloomberg]
⏎ GM's recalling 44,117 2009-10 Cadillac CTS models for a loose joint condition that could cause a rear wheel to become unstable... which could lead to fiery death! [Detroit News]
⏎ So Tesla lost only $0.47 per share, rather than the analyst-expected $0.50 per share — and that's a good thing?! [CNBC]
⏎ I like my credit easy, like my... wait... or is it like my credit tight? I haven't seen Airplane! in a while. [Automotive News]
⏎ So Turkey beats the USA in taxi design? How far the Ford has fallen. [NY1]
Today in Automotive History:
On February 16, 1997, 25-year-old Jeff Gordon claims his first Daytona 500 victory, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the 200-lap, 500-mile National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) event, still, since yesterday, dubbed the "Super Bowl of stock car racing." [History]
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