Retiring Saturn chief Lajdziak to take over Smart USA

Saturn general manager Jill Lajdziak spent several months this summer and fall working closely with Roger Penske and his staff, trying to iron out the details of the brand's proposed purchase from General Motors. As we all know, that agreement fell apart when Renault's board of directors vetoed a deal to supply cars to a Penske-owned Saturn. When GM decided to shutter Saturn, Lajdziak promptly announced that she would retire from General Motors at the end of this month.

Apparently, in spite of the Saturn deal's collapse, Penske was impressed by Lajdziak and has now hired her to take over sales and marketing at another of his enterprises, Smart USA.

Lajdziak will become VP of Smart USA on January 1, and will have quite a challenge in front of her. Smart sales have gone into free fall of late. For the year, sales are down 38 percent, and in recent months, they've dipped as much as 70 percent. It seems that everyone who wanted one of the tiny two-seaters has now bought one.

Former Volvo directors and politicians fear sale to BAIC

Back in October, Ford anointed China's Geely Holding Group as its preferred bidder for Swedish Automaker Volvo. The move made perfect sense for Ford, simply because Geely was offering money and the recent happenings in the auto industry proved that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, you can never have too much money. But it should come as a surprise of nobody that there is a significant delegation of past and present members of Volvo management that aren't all that thrilled with being engulfed by an up and coming Chinese company.

Sweden news site The Local is reporting that eight former Volvo directors have collaborated on a letter to Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. asking the Blue Oval to reconsider a sale to Geely. The letter reportedly states that Geely doesn't have the technical competence to keep the Swedish automaker going. The letter also allegedly stated that Volvo is concerned about technical details being leaked to Geely -- a situation Ford likely wouldn't be too happy with.

While past Volvo directors appear to be very concerned about the prospect of Geely taking over the company, current Volvo management is speaking out in favor of the deal. That's probably a good idea considering the real possibility that the Chinese automaker could soon be the masters of the current management's future with the safety-oriented automaker. Politicians are getting in on the debate as well, as democrats are reportedly likening ceding control of Volvo to Geely to selling the company to China and to Communism.

BMW prices the ActiveHybrid X6 starting at $89,725

2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid – Click above for high-res image gallery

For your hard-earned $89,725, you can have your pick of V8-powered BMW X6s. That substantial pile of dosh will secure you the keys to the Bavarian automaker's monster 555-horsepower X6 M or its new X6 ActiveHybrid. Unlike rival Mercedes-Benz which has opted to make its ML450 hybrid available exclusive by lease, BMW will sell the ActiveHybrid X6 outright to all comers, whoever they may be. Unlike most BMWs, the option list for the hybrid is relatively limited, although we suspect the folks at BMW Individual will be only too happy to customize one to your heart's content.

During our recent first drive of the gas-electric version of Bimmer's so-called "Sport Activity Coupe," we only saw 16 mpg in a test loop that consisted primarily of Miami traffic, a bit shy of official 17/19 mpg EPA estimates. Aside from the hood bulge and the wheels, there isn't much to visually distinguish the hybrid from non-M X6s, and with its still-considerable appetite for fuel, we have hard time seeing the value in ponying up nearly $90k for this vehicle – especially when you can get the giggle-inducing lunacy that is the X6 M for equal coin.

Of course, a flawed value equation hasn't stopped many other vehicles we know from selling – especially ones sporting a green halo – but we'll find out if BMW has played their cards right when the X6 ActiveHybrid goes on sale beginning December 5. High-res gallery below, official press release with option pricing after the jump.

2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6

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