Today in Car News: Volt, Cruze, and Cash for Clunkers Redux

By Marty Padgett

Marty Padgett

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Marty Padgett is High Gear Media's Editorial Director, overseeing the words that skim across High Gear Media's portfolio of automotive destinations... More

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1,812 views September 1, 2010

2011 Chevrolet Volt

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Without a Cash for Clunkers boost, August car sales were soft. Recovery summer, where for art thou? [Detroit Free Press]

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is close to reality: production begins on Veterans' Day. [AutoBlogGreen]

GM is seeking to trademark "range anxiety" as it pitches the Volt at nervous-nelly electric-car likers. Snarky Tesla PR folks are "looking into trademarking 'Tesla grin.'" [CNNMoney]

The Volt's kissing cousin, the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, will get 26/36 mpg in its non-hybrid form. [KickingTires]

Toyota's steering recall from last week has a new companion on the NHTSA list--the 2008 and 2009 Pontiac Vibe. [Inside Line]

YouTube is a great place to leak videos of your new Fiat-based Jeep crossover--but boy, couldn't you at least call the Compass beforehand? Rude. [Autoblog]

A small Toyota MPV will be introduced to the Paris auto show crowds, who will put down their Gauloises long enough to smirk, "It's no Citroen." [WhatCar?]

The stop-start Toyota plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, has almost 10,000 people interested in working on its lines. That's a Facebook page waiting to happen. [Edmunds Auto Observer]

Americans are fat and getting fatter. Corollary concern for coronaries: ambulance builders have been forced to upsize their offerings to suit patients bigger than 300 pounds. [Jalopnik]

Lastly, Barry Meguiar of car-polish and classic-car fame is doing great after a bout with pneumonia. Cheers to that. [AutoWeek]