The global auto market has yet to fully recover from the crash of 2008, but Nissan is ready to call its turnaround plan “mission accomplished”. Nissan revealed on Wednesday that it will soon disband a special task force put together to curtail financial losses.

Mazda hasn’t exactly been clean about its future United States clean diesel plans – saying first it would concentrate on the technology before switching alliances to hybrids — but the Japanese automaker revealed earlier this week that is seriously considering oil burners for the American market.

It’s no secret that poor management led General Motors down the path to bankruptcy, but President Obama’s auto task force was “shocked” by the level of mismanagement found in Detroit. The auto task force headed up the restructuring and bankruptcy efforts at GM and Chrysler.

While General Motors’ deal to sell its German Opel brand to Canada’s Magna International hangs in the balance, GM’s bid to sell its ailing Swedish Saab brand got a boost on Wednesday from the European Investment Bank.

There’s been something in the water over Turin way ever since Sergio Marchionne took the top job in town. The whole Fiat Group has been gathering momentum since he took charge and, while they burst onto the global scene by buying up Chrysler without paying a cent, hindsight could best remember his frenzied period for this car.

Honda’s thinly veiled CR-Z “concept” is attracting most of the attention in the Honda booth at the Tokyo Motor Show, but there is at least one other noteworthy Honda concept at the Tokyo show – the Honda SkyDeck concept.

Lexus has established itself as one of the greenest luxury automakers on the planet – thanks to a wide variety of hybrid models, including the recently launched hybrid-only HS 250h – but Japanese rival Infiniti will look to steal the eco crown in the coming years with at least one electric vehicle planned for production.

It’s been a long time coming but Toyota has officially taken the wraps off the Lexus LFA supercar at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. The LFA may have lost a hyphen during its development process, but the world’s newest supercar doesn’t appear to have lost an ounce of performance.

It’s that time of year again – SEMA is just around the corner and of course Leftlane is going to be there. This year however, up to four of you will be given the opportunity to join us at SEMA in Las Vegas.

Despite prior commitments to move towards hydrogen fuel cells as the alternative fuel of choice for Honda’s future, Honda is now focusing its short term efforts on the development of pure electric vehicles due to the slow development of hydrogen refueling infrastructure.

In a bid to speed along integration with Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Volkswagen announced on Tuesday that it will purchase a 49.9 percent stake in the German sports car maker. The move will cost Volkswagen $5.8 billion.

Following its world debut at the London Salon Privé earlier this year, the Veritas RS III has officially entered production at Vermot AG’s Grafschaft-Gelsdorf, Germany factory. The Veritas RS III has been a long time in the making, tracing its roots back to 2001’s Veritas RS3 concept car.

On October 16th if you were anywhere near Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, California you likely heard, smelled, and saw the results of the Formula Drift Professional Drifting Championship taking place. I for one knew I was close as soon as I got onto the 605 freeway and saw the unmistakable plumes of tire smoke could be seen for miles.

Nissan announced earlier on Tuesday that it will bring a version of its next-generation Micra small car to the United States market. The Micra – which is currently sold in other global markets – will make its U.S. debut sometime after 2010.

Nissan’s Infiniti luxury brand will soon be launching its first hybrid vehicle in the form of the M35 Hybrid in early 2011, but the Japanese luxury marque could become far more serious about efficiency soon thereafter. Nissan has revealed that a version of the Land Glider concept could be heading to Infiniti dealers in the not-too-distant future.

For the better part of a year, our spy photographers have seen Explorer mules wearing Taurus X and Flex body panels running all over the country. But, after months of hunting, we’ve finally caught up with the real thing!

It’s been nearly four months between sightings, but our spy photographers have once again caught up with BMW’s 2011 5Sseries and it has shed most of its heavy camouflage. We now have the latest and most revealing pictures fresh from Germany.

Images of Toyota’s all-new Sai hybrid have hit the Web ahead of the car’s Tokyo Motor Show debut. Announced last month, the Sai will join the Prius in the Toyota lineup as the automaker’s only dedicated hybrid vehicles.

Following an earlier image leak, our spy photographers have caught up with Infiniti’s next-generation QX flagship SUV. Infiniti confirmed earlier this year that a revised version of the company’s flagship QX SUV would bow sometime in 2010.

Due to the steady increase in the value of the yen, Honda is considering a new plan to shift some production of the Fit hatchback from Japan to the United States. The fuel-efficient Fit is one of Honda’s most popular U.S. models.