It’s easy to confuse weird with bad. The Mitsubishi i is weird. It looks like a computer mouse. It has windshield wipers that resemble Ultraman’s arms in attack mode. It is powered by a 66-hp electric motor mounted under the rear seats. It carries onboard the energy equivalent of less than half a gallon of gas. Its front tires look like compact spares. We could go on. But despite being weird, the i isn’t bad.

Keep Reading: 2012 Mitsubishi i Electric Vehicle — Instrumented Test

At 7.6 seconds, the 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon is 3.9 seconds quicker to 60 mph than the SUV it replaces, thanks to its new 285-hp, 3.6-liter V-6 and five-speed automatic. To put that in perspective: You could run a BMW M3 sedan to 60 mph and then, very immediately ?thereafter, run the new ?ute to 60 mph in the same time it would take the old one, with its four-speed auto and 3.8-liter noisemaker, to huff ?its way to that speed.

Keep Reading: 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon – Instrumented Test

Saab apparently is not dead—it’s just in a persistent vegetative state. A total of five parties have stepped forward to bid on all or parts of the Trollhättan-based automaker as a bankruptcy court in Sweden manages the sale of the company’s assets. The aim is to recover some money for Saab’s creditors. The three parties receiving the most attention are two Chinese companies and Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian automaker.

• Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. is said to have made a bid in the hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars range for as much of Saab as it can get. Details of the offer haven’t been disclosed, but some very careful contracting must be on the table: Youngman tried to buy Saab before the bankruptcy, but General Motors ultimately vetoed that deal since it would have put so much GM-engineered Saab technology into the hands of a relatively small Chinese firm. It’s not clear what’s different this time around that might placate GM.
• Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Company (BAIC) also has expressed serious interest in picking at Saab’s carcass. Saab sold the tooling and rights to build the old 9-5 to BAIC in 2009—it’s re-skinning them with more-modern sheetmetal—so this seems like a predictable move. Analysts like to say that the Chinese auto industry is developing quickly, which it is, but the benefit of building a car on even an old western platform can’t be understated.
• Indian firm Mahindra & Mahindra—a major manufacturer of passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and agricultural equipment—is reported to have entered preliminary discussions to buy at least portions of Saab. These reports date back to December 30, however. As of this writing, Mahindra spokespeople weren’t available for comment.

If you’re confused by this quagmire of news, it’s understandable. And you’re not alone. Saab is a relatively large industrial firm, and it’s going through a sophisticated bankruptcy process in Sweden. State- and privately held Chinese manufacturers are in some cases declining to be forthcoming about their positions in negotiations—and in other cases are legally required to stay quiet. Even international news organizations with staff on the ground in Sweden and China are relying in part on second-hand information.

We’ll bring you more news if and when it develops.

Photo by Phil LaCombe

Volkswagen’s latest Beetle dropped a few things relative to the New Beetle it replaces, including the word “New,” the height of its roof, and the cutesy demeanor. Now the Beetle line regains something lost a few years back: a fuel-efficient TDI diesel iteration. The 2013 Beetle TDI will debut at the 2012 Chicago auto show.

Keep Reading: 2013 Volkswagen Beetle TDI — Official Photos and Info

When the first-generation Mazda Miata debuted way back in 1989, the reveal took place at the Chicago auto show. The city therefore remains special to the brand, and the intervening years have seen a long line of special-edition Miatas zip through McCormick Place.

Keep Reading: 2012 Mazda MX-5 Miata Special Edition — Official Photos and Info

Please do not confuse this with news. It is merely something that happened, about which we’ll make the following comments:

• Jeep says these custom Grand Cherokee SRT8s were identically prepared. If true, this could be the first time Alonso and Massa were given identical cars.
• Ferrari Rosso Corsa paint, a matte-black roof, and a red interior look pretty damn good on the SRT8. We’re not loving the red-trimmed seven-slot grille.
• While this is the first American product to get the Ferrari treatment, it is not the first such Fiat Group mash-up; the Fiat 500–based Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari wore a similar schema di vernice.
• We’re told the Jeeps wear rear spoilers that have their undersides painted like the Italian flag. This is not a direct tribute to the country, but rather a tribute to the wing on the Ferrari F150th Italia Formula 1 cars, which is itself a nod to the sesquicentennial of Italy’s integration. So, a tribute to a tribute of the original.
• We predict that these loaners inevitably will be replaced by identical Ferrari-engined Maserati Kubangs, which, conveniently, will be built on this Jeep’s platform and produced in the same Detroit-area plant. Isn’t globalization fun?

Fiat’s new 500L five-door MPV will—if you believe the company—go on sale in the U.S. in 2013, several months after debuting at the upcoming Geneva auto show. Fiat had already confirmed that such a model was coming, but now it has released photos. U.S. sales of the 500 hatch and convertible have been disappointing, so the bigger, more practical 500L is a critical addition to the Italian automaker’s American lineup.

Keep Reading: Fiat 2013/2014 Fiat 500L — Official Photos and Info

On Tuesday, we posted an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note. To hear it again, click play above. A few of you successfully determined the exhaust note was from something large, but no one figured out that the sound came from the 5.0-liter V-8 of a 2012 Land Rover LR4.

Like that sound? Download the MP3 and quiz your friends, make your own ringtone, or just lull yourself to sleep with sweet, sweet vehicular ear candy.

2012 Land Rover LR4 MP3 (Right-click to Save As…)

If you’re like us, you’ve bored holes through pictures of the new 3-series sedan trying to discern the styling changes versus the outgoing model. Yes, there are some. A new face features headlights that puddle in toward the chrome-wrapped kidneys and a broad, blunt-faced front bumper that creates a sort of grimacing overbite into the lower grille. Move around to the sides and tail, and it all looks very familiar, even though the new car is 1.9 inches longer in wheelbase and 3.7 inches longer overall, which gives it more of a sleek, sprinter-on-blocks profile. But what’s really new about the F30, you ask? Well, after 600 miles in a brand-new 2012 F30-generation 335i Sport Line—and a couple of plates of South Carolina barbecue—we have a pretty good idea.

Keep Reading: 2012 BMW 335i Sedan — Instrumented Test