Look for a Solstice coupe

Pontiac has completed the Solstice portfolio, Auto Week reports, with the 2009 coupe, which will have a removable (but not on-board stowable) 31-pound hardtop roof. A soft top will be available as an option. The Solstice coupe will be offered in a base model with a 2.4-liter, 173-horsepower inline-four-cylinder engine or the GXP version powered by a direct-injection 2.0-liter, 260-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The cool coupe goes on sale in early 2009.

Some Volvo production may be done in U.S.

Volvo is said to be contemplating building cars in the U.S., Motor Trend reports. "It doesn't make good business sense that we produce everything in Europe but achieve 25 percent of our turnover in North America," says Volvo boss Frederik Arp. The magazine speculates that this idea is a good one, especially considering that Ford now has plenty of spare manufacturing capacity in North America.

Oldsmobile, Studebaker brands hang in there

A recent survey by the website Brandchannel.com, run by the branding consultancy Interbrand, asked which brands readers wanted revived. The BrandJunkie survey found that after top entries Pan Am and Atari, Oldsmobile was the highest automobile brand, at No. 6, with Studebaker showing up at 11 - not bad for a firm that hasn't actually sold a Studebaker in more than 40 years. Less lamented was Plymouth at 14. These survey findings were reported recently in the New York Times. In other survey considerations: Age played an important role in the responses. The younger generation answered that they hadn't experienced any memorable brand deaths yet or chose tech-related brands such as Netscape and Cingular. The older generations would bring back everything from the Marathon candy bar to Canadian Airlines.