Nutson's Nuggets: Last Week's (January 30-Feb 4, 2012) Automotive News In Case You Were Sleeping

Auto Central Louisville KY February 5, 2012; Each week Larry Nutson, The Auto Channel's Chicago Bureau Chief, along with Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Detroit Bureau give you a nugget of the past week's automotive news you may have missed. If you are a car nut like we all are, you can easily "catch up" on these stories as well as the past 16 years 901,102 automotive stories, articles, reviews, rants and raves by just searching for the subject you are interested in The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive...Have fun I hope your team is the Super Bowl winner, see ya next week L.N.

* 2012 is off to a good start for the U.S. auto industry as reported sales for January outpaced the best industry forecasts. Sales overall were up 11% at an annualized rate of 14.2 million units, the best since August 2009. Chrysler Group was up 44% and Ford Motor up 7.3%. GM sold the most units but sales declined 6%. VW Group was up 40%. The disasters in Japan seem to be behind all with Mazda up 68%, Toyota up 7.5%, Honda up 9.3% and Nissan up 10%. Hyundai-Kia is up 20%.

* Next week begins the Chicago Auto Show. While it will have just a fraction of the introductions we see in Detroit it is an important and fun show. We''ll see a concept car from Kia called "Track'ster" that will probably give a hint of what the next Soul might look like, the new Scion FR-S compact sports car surrounded by a new video display, Nissan Pathfinder Concept, Cadillac Ciel and lots more. Watch this space for full coverage next week.

* Rumoring ahead to the Beijing Motor Show, we hear that Lamborghini is poised to reveal a concept SUV intended to gauge interest as a replacement for the garish LM002, a large, rear-engined, V8-powered, pseudo-military vehicle sort of like a Hummer. This new one won't be nearly as big or crass as the LM002, rather it will compete with the Maserati Kubang we saw in Detroit, the BMW X6 and other luxury SUVs. Audi owns Lambo and the concept car will share a platform with the redesigned Q7.

* A California women won nearly $10,000 in her small claims suit against Honda claiming the company knowingly misrepresented the mileage she would get with her Civic Hybrid. Facing many similar complaints Honda had offered a couple hundred dollars and a grand toward the purchase of another Honda vehicle to complaining customers who had been herded into a class action law suit. Honda says they will appeal but many more owners of the 2006 Civic Hybrid may be going the small claims route.

* Images were released of the Fiat 500L ("L" for large) to be built in Serbia and imported to the U.S. to augment the little Italian car. A seven-passenger version will be sold in Europe but not on this side of the pond.

* The sixth iteration of the Mini is coming this month - a two-seat convertible. Shown as a concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show nearly three years ago, and at a variety of shows since it will have three engine options from a meager 122-hp to an awesome 211-hp, as well as a 1.6-liter diesel.

* MOPAR, Chrysler's parts division and notorious purveyor of racing and performance parts, celebrated it's 75th anniversary this week at their Performance and Accessory Lab in Center Line, MI this week with famous drag racer, "Big Daddy" Don Garlits blowing out the candles on the cake. MOPAR's first branding was on antifreeze in 1937. Inspiring a great deal of loyalty there are 400 MOPAR clubs worldwide.

* As part of the celebration, four new special edition Mopar vehicles were unveiled. The new vehicles, which will make their debut at the Chicago Auto Show, include Mopar versions of the Chrysler 300, Fiat 500, Jeep Compass and even the 2013 Dodge Dart, which has not even arrived in showrooms yet.

* The Jeep Liberty SUV is getting greater scrutiny from Federal safety regulators after 50 people reported they were hurt when the air bags inflated even though the vehicle wasn't involved in a crash. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started investigating Liberty SUVs made by Chrysler from the 2002 and 2003 model years in September. The investigation was upgraded to a full engineering analysis last week.

* California has new rules requiring by 2025 that at least one of every seven vehicles sold to be a plug-in hybrid, extended-range electric vehicle or pure battery-electric vehicle, or BEV. Many of the car companies support the new ruling but question whether an infrastructure to support and service these vehicles can be developed. Of course, then you need customers willing to buy them. CLICK HERE for co-publisher Marc Rauch's Opinion of this ruling

* Chrysler Group LLC reported a net profit of $183 million for 2011, swinging back into the black from a loss of $652 million in 2010. It was the first time the Auburn Hills automaker has reported a full-year profit since 1997. On this subject, it's interesting to watch the political scene and the ongoing Republican primaries and to see how many folks around the country still do not support the use of taxpayer money to have helped the US auto companies.

* It's Super Bowl time once again. The automakers are back in full-swing. By the time you watch the game every ad will have alread been seen online.