Put more simply in actual dollars and cents, that will cost you $89,950. For those unaware, that’s the sum Nissan is asking for its updated 2012 GT-R, which recently made its live American debut at the 2010 LA Auto Show. The Japanese automaker has kindly provided a digital readout from an electronic measurement device from Digitek to silence the doubters (above). As you can clearly squint and see, the GT-R hit 60 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds and 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) in exactly three seconds.

Your move, Corvette ZR1.

Details, per usual, are both scarce and obvious. The next-generation Silvia will supposedly be built atop Nissan’s popular FM platform (370Z, Infiniti G, etc.), come in a 2+2 seating configuration and tip the scales around 2,800 pounds. Naturally, as the S15’s successor, it will be a front-engine, rear-drive setup, and is rumored to be packing a turbocharged 1.8-liter inline-four putting out around 200 horsepower. A naturally aspirated variant will also be available to keep the cost of entry low, but the turbo’d model is obviously the pick of the litter and should deliver a 0-60 time of between six and seven seconds.

IL’s man in Japan points to the Nissan Foria concept (shown above) as the stylistic inspiration, but notes that the coupe would only be “loosely based” on the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show concept. Judging by Nissan’s recent design endeavors, we doubt the Foria — or as previously rumored, the Urge concept — will be a heavy influence on this supposed Silvia revival.

Although we’re all for more budget-oriented FR sports cars, the popularity of the Toyota FT-86 is sure to be a factor in Nissan’s decision to bring the 240SX back to life. That, coupled with the unknown demand for the Hyundai Genesis Coupe (Hyundai doesn’t break out Genesis Sedan from Coupe sales in its monthly reports) makes the proposition of a new 2+2 from Nissan even more hazy. So until we hear something solid from Ghosn and Company, we’ll resume our normal respiration routine.

The British and Portuguese governments have offered financial assistance and other support for the plants, which will make lithium-ion batteries.

Nissan will build the British battery plant in Sunderland in northeast England, where the Japanese automaker already operates an assembly plant.

Sunderland was recently designated a Low Carbon Economic Area by the British government, which plans to establish a training center, specializing in low carbon auto technologies, a technology park and an open-access test track for clean vehicles.

Milano a professional racecar driver by trade found his famous beloved $75,000 modified Skyline stolen after returning from a race weekend. The industrial unit where the car was kept was broken into and the thieves made off with the racecar in less then 10 minutes.

Milano is offering a reward as the car was uninsured

News Report:

http://cbs2.com/video/?id=102480@kcbs.dayport.com

Penske and Saturn may join a venture with Nissan Motor Co., the Japanese affiliate of Renault, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

“I can’t provide any speculation on who a potential OEM partner could be,” Saturn spokesman Steve Janisse said. “There have been a number of meetings with potential partners, but it’s really going to be up to the eventual buyer who they want to partner with to provide product for the future of Saturn.”

Other suitors include an Ohio investment group that wants to build vehicles using union workers at U.S. factories targeted for closure by the Detroit automaker. The group, headed by Ohio auto industry worker Gary Marvicsin, met with Saturn officials Tuesday.

Another group, Telesto Ventures, wants to partner with a foreign manufacturer and import vehicles under the Saturn name.

The group, which includes Oklahoma City-based private equity firm Black Oak Partners LLC and several Saturn dealers, submitted a proposal last month, terms of which were not made public. Telesto proposes initially distributing GM-built vehicles through Saturn’s 400 dealerships in North America and eventually offering small, fuel-efficient vehicles produced by several manufacturers, most of which would be sold under the Saturn brand.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based carmaker Geely Automobile Holdings has submitted a bid for Saab, according to the Wall Street Journal.

GM, subsisting on $15.4 billion in federal aid, is trying to sell or phase out Saab, Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer as part of its broad restructuring.

A Geely spokeswoman could not be reached for comment today.

“Chrysler has attempted in recent weeks to sell product lines and other units to a number of Chinese companies, but these efforts too have been unsuccessful,” Chrysler Co-president and Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said in an affidavit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

Chrysler hosted potential Chinese buyers at its Auburn Hills headquarters in February for five days, offering to sell engines, transmissions, vehicle lines and Chrysler’s Newark paint shop.

“Chrysler sent letters to parties, primarily in China, whom we thought would be potentially interested in purchasing our assets,” LaSorda wrote. “Over the next two months, several companies, including Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., Tempo International Group, Hawtai Automobiles, and Chery Automotive Co., expressed interest in purchasing specific vehicles, powertrains, intellectual property rights, distribution channels and automotive brands.”

But none of those deals was completed because of the struggling economy.

A partnership with Fiat SpA could lead to the Italian automaker controlling Chrysler outright and was the best outcome, LaSorda said.

The filings show Chrysler’s extensive efforts to find a partner. Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli called then General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner in January in a vain attempt to resurrect merger talks.

Fiat, it turns out, was the best option, LaSorda said.

“It is Chrysler’s last best hope. I know because I have spent over two years looking for, talking to and evaluating potential partners,” LaSorda said. Chrysler’s efforts to form alliances with Nissan, GM, Volkswagen, Tata Motors, Magna, GAZ, Hyundai, Honda and Toyota “have been determined and undertaken in good faith, but have met uniformly without success.”

Chrysler approached Toyota in June when LaSorda “submitted a formal request to discuss potential joint opportunities.” Toyota rejected the request in July.

Honda Motor Co. rejected a proposal in December — one day after it was made.

LaSorda’s filing disclosed that Chrysler got much further with Nissan than had been previously known.

Chrysler began talks in spring 2007, even before Chrysler was sold to Cerberus Capital Management LP.

In early 2008, Chrysler spent three months in talks with Nissan about a wide-ranging alliance and exchanged term sheets in July, but the deal fell apart “due to the inability of Nissan’s finance company to provide the needed support.”

In February 2008, Chrysler and Nissan “assembled teams of executives, engineers, technicians and other personnel to analyze the synergies that would result from a merger across different areas,” LaSorda wrote.

“In May, the teams reported that an alliance between Chrysler and Nissan could generate operational synergies on a gross cash basis of more than $11.8 billion in cash flow for Chrysler only,” LaSorda said, and $18 billion for both companies.

Nissan and Chrysler executives held more than a half-dozen face-to-face meetings in Auburn Hills, Paris, New York and Tokyo.

After the talks failed in July, the companies returned to the bargaining table in September.

Key executives of both companies, including Nissan’s Carlos Tavares and top executives from Cerberus, met in Paris “for a full day of face-to-face negotiation, particularly centered on the financing arm,” LaSorda wrote.

“Negotiations in Paris were extensive, but no deal could be achieved.”

In January, LaSorda again contacted Tavares to see if Nissan was interested in a tie-up — but Nissan said it wasn’t.

Chrysler disclosed its talks with General Motors Corp. began in June 2008, when LaSorda called John Smith, GM’s senior vice president for product planning and development. By August, GM and Chrysler had held significant talks.

The talks were called off in November.

Chrysler and Fiat began talks in March 2008, initially focused on producing and selling the Fiat 500 in the United States.

Beginning in the summer of 2008, Fiat and Chrysler were analyzing potential cost savings in a Fiat-Chrysler partnership.

In November, they said they would save $3.7 billion over eight years. Nardelli wrote to Fiat on Dec. 23 asking Fiat to start talks toward reaching a formal alliance and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne wrote back Dec. 30 with a detailed proposal.

The companies signed an agreement Thursday.

U.S. car and truck sales totaled 857,735 units last month — a 24 percent improvement over February’s total, but 36.8 percent less than the 1,356,926 vehicles sold in March of 2008.

Analysts had been expecting March to be much worse. Just a day earlier, some were predicting an annualized selling rate of 8.9 million units, but it came in at 9.9 million. “We are starting to see some signs of life in the March numbers. That doesn’t necessarily mean that February was the bottom,” said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com.

“We’re going to need to see at least three months of consecutive improvement.”

Some automakers were not willing to wait that long.

“We’re maybe starting to put the bottom of this in our rear-view mirror,” said Mark LaNeve, vice president of North American sales for General Motors Corp.

“I think we have the worst behind us … I look for April to be a little better than March.”

GM sales fell 44.7 percent in March, compared to the same period a year before. Its share of the U.S. market declined from 20.7 percent to 18.1 percent.

Chrysler LLC reported a 39.3 percent decline in sales, which left it with 11.8 percent of the U.S. market, compared to 12.3 percent a year ago.

“The bad news waterfall has stopped,” said Chrysler Vice Chairman Jim Press.

“It’s a teeny sign of light, a seedling to nourish.”

Ford did the best, Toprak said.

While Ford’s sales were down 40.8 percent year-over-year and it lost another point of market share, he said the automaker posted the biggest percentage gain over February’s totals of any manufacturer, and did it with substantially lower incentives than its domestic rivals.

Ford offered an average of $3,675 per vehicle in incentives — more than $1,000 less than GM or Chrysler, though higher than the average incentive of $1,628 for the three Japanese automakers.

“The market is very challenging, but with the things we can control at Ford we’ve had a lot of success,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s global head of sales and marketing.

“We’re seeing a lot more cash buyers,” he said, noting that used vehicle prices also rose in March.

“That’s an important leading indicator in our business.”

Toyota Motor Corp. saw its March sales drop 39 percent year-over-year, and its share of the U.S. market fell from 16 percent to 15.5 percent.

Honda Motor Co.’s sales were down 36.3 percent, but its market share increased slightly to 10.3 percent from 10.2 percent.

Nissan Motor Co. reported a sales drop of 37.7 percent. It lost a tenth of a point of market share, slipping to 7.8 percent from a year ago.

Korea’s Kia Motors Co. posted the smallest decline in March at just .6 percent, and its share of the U.S. market increased from 1.8 percent to 2.9 percent.

Toprak said March sales are, on average, 20 percent higher than February’s, largely because the warming weather brings out buyers. But this year, March sales were up more than 24 percent.

“Having the market trundle along at a 9.6 (million) rate is not a very satisfying situation for the entire industry, let alone a company like ours with the situation we’re in,” Toprak said in an interview with The Detroit News. “So it was nice to see.”

The strong value of the yen is becoming increasingly worrisome to the Japanese automakers, with the current collapse in new car sales only compounding the problem. Nissan estimates that every one-yen change in the yen-dollar exchange rate has an $85.7 million impact on operating profit, meaning the yen’s 15 percent growth against the dollar in the last six months has cost the company about $1.3 billion.

Chrysler already has an alliance with Volkswagen AG to produce a minivan for VW and with Nissan Motor Co. to build a pickup for the Japanese automaker in exchange for Nissan building a small car for Chrysler.

Chrysler plans to sell a 35 percent stake to Fiat in a non-cash deal that needs Treasury Department approval under the terms of Chrysler’s $4 billion government loan. Fiat could later purchase an additional 20 percent.

“It will make the government a lot more confident that the repayment is going to occur on schedule,” Press said of a tie-up with Fiat.

He said policymakers would see the deal as a “big advantage.”

Fiat is swapping assets for equity, Press said. “They’re giving us billions and billions and billions of dollars worth of hardware,” and Chrysler gets access to small car and fuel efficient platforms.

Press said Chrysler needs another $3 billion by March 31, in line with its original $7 billion aid request in December.

“Even without Fiat, we have a good viability plan to get the balance of the $7 billion we requested,” Press said.

Press said Chrysler needs the money to operate past March, although it had some cushion if it did not receive the funds by then.

Chrysler sales chief Steven Landry said Chrysler has been reviewing what vehicles from Fiat would make sense to sell in the United States.

“By allowing us to use the capacity of North American plants to build those (Fiat) vehicles and export them, they’re preserving American jobs — a lot of American jobs,” Press said.

“It’s a lot cheaper to preserve jobs than to go out and create them… By doing that, they’re helping save the U.S. auto industry. The funds from the loans will not go to Fiat.”

Fiat has “opened all platforms and all technology to us in this partnership except for Ferrari,” Press said.

Chrysler must cut costs and streamline operations as it tries to rebound from a dramatic drop in sales amid the weak economy and prove its long-term viability. Press said January sales are about where they were last month, but the automaker had seen an increase in market share because of generous sales incentives, including zero-percent financing on some models. Chrysler was able to roll out the deals after its lending arm, Chrysler Financial LLC, got federal money to help get credit flowing.

Press said industry sales in this month remained about where they were in December, but that the company had seen an increase in market share this month.

“We’ve had an uptick in sales because of the zero program,” Press said, noting that in the wake of a $1.5 billion government loan to Chrysler Financial, the company has been able to offer zero percent financing and offer loans to customers with credit scores as low as 620.

Citi auto analyst Itay Michaeli said in a research report Tuesday that the firm still forecasts 2009 U.S. auto sales at 10.9 million units, “which would mark a modest improvement from the fourth quarter 2008 selling rate but would still amount to another down year from total 2008 sales of 13.2 million units.”

Chrysler launched its “Employee Pricing Plus-Plus” plan last week, which includes zero percent financing, and up to $6,000 cash discounts over the employee price.

So far, Chrysler Financial has financed about 5,000 vehicles this month, after getting its first $100 million in government loans.Chrysler sales fell 53 percent in December, stung by a sharp decline in lending by Chrysler Financial, which financed just 3,800 vehicles versus 50,000 in December a year earlier.

Press and Landry are holding meetings with dealers across the country urging them to order additional vehicles from Chrysler, which shut down all of its plants for at least a month on Dec. 19, drying up its revenue stream. Automakers book revenue when a vehicle leaves the factory, not when it is sold to a consumer. The executives were in the Washington area Tuesday and were headed to Atlanta next.

In St. Petersburg, GM will slash the work week to three days after restarting the assembly line on Feb. 9 following repeated shutdowns, company spokesman Sergei Lepnukhov said. “This will last for the next few months,” he said.

GM opened its new $300 million plant outside St. Petersburg in November with plans to produce 70,000 Chevrolet and Opel cars a year. But with the Russian market already contracting, the plant closed down for an extended holiday from Dec. 20 to Jan. 19. Production resumed for only one week before being shut down again.

In Togliatti, the GM-AvtoVAZ venture is cutting back to one shift and laying off some 400 workers, about one-third of the work force, company spokeswoman Lyudmila Murycheva said.

The steps were necessary “due to the current situation on the market,” she said.

The production cuts in Russia come as GM cuts 2,000 jobs at two U.S. plants and halts production for several weeks at nine other U.S. factories. The U.S. car industry is facing the worst sales slump in 26 years.

Foreign car sales in Russia increased 26 percent in 2008 — continuing a trend of several years — but were down 15 percent in November and 10 percent in December.

Foreign automakers had been looking to the Russian market to bolster flagging sales in the more saturated Western countries, but those hopes have been dimmed as Russia’s economy is hammered by the financial crisis. Falling oil prices have sapped the mainstay of the country’s economy.

A credit crunch has also hit car sales in Russia as many banks have stopped granting affordable car loans. The swift devaluation of the ruble, which makes imports more expensive, and rising unemployment have exacerbated the problem. Before the global financial crisis struck, Russia’s car market was on track to become Europe’s largest.

Ford, Renault, Scania, Toyota and Volkswagen have opened plants in Russia within the past six years.

Like GM, Ford and Renault also shut down for a month over the New Year’s and Orthodox Christmas holidays, two weeks longer than usual. Both companies said Tuesday that they had resumed production as scheduled and were working at normal capacity.

Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Suzuki and Peugeot Citroen have announced plans to launch new production in the next three years. It was not yet clear whether the financial crisis would delay or scuttle any of these projects.

The Russian government — and some regional administrations in particular — have offered substantial incentives to foreign producers to set up assembly plants or manufacture auto parts in Russia.