Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne recently stated that they would be revealing their 5-year strategy plan in November, but as usual, things are leaking out before the deadline.

I usually dont take these leaked “reports” as anything serious because they are usually fabricated from certain “un-named sources” by some newspaper journalist that essentially went online and read rumors from down-the-line employee’s.  This one holds water though, to a degree.

At the recent Frankfurt Motor Show, during an interview, CEO Sergio Marchionne was yelled to by a reporter: “You have nothing in the pipeline” (product).  Sergio balked back: “Says who!?  Wait until November!”.

So I think its a pretty solid bet that they will unveil plans to have the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Patriot, Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Caravan face lifted and updated by 2011, as the “report” says.

It also includes information that suggests the PT cruiser will be completely re-done, although seeing that by 2011 would be extremely difficult, even it was a re-skinned Fiat 500 that is supposed to share the line with it in Mexico around the same time.

It also makes sense, because all Chrysler Group really needs is product to bring themselves out of the rut they have found themselves in after being mis-managed by Daimler and slashed up by Cerberus in an attempt to save their investment.

Actual reports coming out now state that there were entire departments carved out of Chrysler by Cerberus and that Sergio is looking to hire back X-employee’s on a contract basis.  Regardless what happens in November, expect the official report to elaborate more on these very subjects.

Refreshed Calibers,Patriots and Vans sharing the showrooms with the new 2011 Charger, 300 and Jeep Grand Cherokee is a pretty good start and to happen at the same time will help this company immensely.

No love for the Swedish car brands from their current American owners of late.  While GM is prepping to dump Saab onto super car company Koenigsegg, Ford is looking to unload Volvo, and fast.

In a hasty attempt to drop brands and shrink to the right output for current sales, both GM and Ford have been running a machete through their  brand offerings to help streamline operations.   Ford has recently sold off Jaguar and Land Rover to India’s TATA and GM is in negotiations to sell Opel to Canada’s Magna International, Saturn to Penske, Hummer to a Chinese company that reportedly knows nothing about cars (Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co.) and the Pontiac brand will be entirely phased out of existence.

Ford hopes to sell Volvo later this year to an array of investors, companies and the Swedish Gov’t.  Parties are said to include Dagens Industri, Chinese Geely Automotive Holdings Ltd wants to buy a majority in Volvo, an unidentified Swedish investor and Ford would keep a stake.

Hey, whats the worst that could happen ?

German magazine Autobild has jumped the gun and revealed the 2010 E-class wagon ahead of its official Frankfurt debut in September.

Though nothing terribly new as the E-class sedan and coupe have already been put on sale, the wagon does indeed show us how close the new E-class is to the Fascination concept from last year.

JLR owner TATA announced that they are  mulling the all aluminum construction of future Jaguar and Land Rover bodies to shave critical weight and help reduce C02 emissions.

Also stated in the announcement was that the two brands will be co-developing hybrid power trains in the on going effort to boost fuel economy.

While still a profit, Lamborghini only posted a 7.7 million dollar gain for the first half of the year.  In contrast, they posted a 50 million dollar profit the same time last year.

According to Automotive News, this was a 37 percent drop off in vehicle sales and they only delivered 825 cars.  In the USA that resulted in a 52% drop in year over year sales with only 207 cars delivered.

“We are not immune to the global recession,” Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann said in a statement. “We will maintain the profitability of the company, (and) continue our investment into the future with product technology and innovation alongside a firm ecological stance.”