Canada has had a cash for clunkers-like program in effect for nearly a year now.  However, Canada’s  “Retire your Ride” program which gives you a paltry $300 towards a new car or bus pass in exchange for your “ride” hasn’t caught on.

Ford Canada has upped the ante and will offer anyone an additional $2700 on top of the $300 ($3000) for your 15 year old vehicle in exchange for a new Ford.  Chrysler will offer $1500 and Hyundai $1000 in similar programs.

Apparently due to the epic success of the American $3500-$4500 version, the Canadian Government is said to be reviewing the entire program as I type this and Ford Canada CEO David Mondragon has been quite vocal about the issue…

“If the government decides to make changes to the program, we hope it will be complementary to our program, but that said, in today’s hyper-competitive market, we could not afford to wait.”

Canadian auto sales have been in a free fall for the past 10 months and Canadian auto companies are screaming for an in increase to the current $300 offered for older vehicles from the Canadian Government.

Roger Penske’s recent purchase of GM’s Saturn unit comes with grave news for Canadians employed at the 60 Canadian Saturn stores.  They are leaving.

Saturn never truly caught on in the Canadian market (their words, not mine) and Penske has decided to pull Saturn out of the frozen north.

The truth?  Most new Saturns are just rebaged Opels and Canadian Auto Parts giant Magna International is in the final stages of purchasing Opel from GM.  Magna has stated that they would sell Opels in Canada as they believe Canadians will purchase vehicles from a Canadian company and it makes no sense at all to have the same cars with Saturn badges on them at a dealer across the road.

Americans, enjoy your Saturns.  Canadians..enjoy your Opels.

It seems Porsche will be heading back to their roots of only building sports cars. Rumor has it that VW board members have just voted to kill the SUV and sedan after their product cycles are complete.

“VW Group has plenty of SUVs and saloons [sedans] — it doesn’t need Porsche to build them,” an inside source told Car Magazine.

The Panamera has just recently launched and a newly designed Cayenne will debut in 2011 but neither will continue on after their product cycles are completed in 2016.

Porsche will instead bring out an entry level vehicle that will come in under the Porsche Boxster and share underpinnings with the VW Bluesport concept.

With VW having plans for Porsche to double their sales by 2016, I assume you are about to see and hear about more VW-based Porsche’s very soon.