It's customary for state officials of a car-producing nation to prefer local manufacturers for their transportation needs.

For example, German dignitaries will mostly be seen on TV stepping out of a Mercedes, BMW or Audi; their British counterparts choose brands like Jaguar, the French large Peugeots or Renaults and so on.

It's also natural to promote their domestic products, though we haven't heard of any law specifically prohibiting the purchase of certain brands for all government agencies. Until now, that is.

The Almera nameplate is set to make a return to Nissan's lineup as a compact-sized sedan model, which the company says has been developed exclusively for Russia and will be manufactured locally in Togliatti on an all-new production line starting from early next year.

According to the Japanese automaker, Nissan engineering teams in Japan, the UK and Russia developed the new Almera.

However, the single photo released by Nissan, suggests otherwise as the new Almera appears to be based on the second generation of the Japanese market Bluebird Sylphy that uses Nissan's B-platform and which was introduced in the country back in 2005.

Back in December of 2008, Top Gear tested the Tesla Roadster. The Elise-based electric sports car was panned on almost every respect, from its abysmal range and overheating engine to the failed brakes.

Last March, Tesla filed a libel suit against BBC’s TV car show, claiming that the whole test was “staged” and demanded that the channel stop airing the episode while also asking for a compensation for damages.

After its first court case was dismissed in October of 2011, Tesla modified its lawsuit and gave it another shot. Unfortunately for Tesla, the lawsuit was dismissed by Mr Justice Tugendhat.

A male driver of a rental Chevrolet Cruze was involved in what can only be described as a nightmare scenario for any road user when an 18-wheeler truck loaded with cardboard boxes flipped on its side and landed on top of the compact sedan.

The accident took place in the northbound lanes of the Dallas North Tollway in Texas in the late morning hours of Thursday.

The large rig also knocked over the concrete center barrier and hit another vehicle, a black Volkswagen Touareg, hurling it over the median and onto the other side of the road.

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne may have succeeded in signing a deal with the Italian worker unions, yet decreasing demand in the struggling European market may still force him to take extreme measures.

And while Marchionne does not expect the situation in Europe to improve “at least until 2014", on the other side of the pond, he said that Chrysler's plants are already at full capacity, necessitating imports from the group’s factories in Canada, Mexico or Europe to satisfy a third of U.S. demand.

Therefore, as he told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, it’s a perfect opportunity for Fiat’s Italian plants to increase their production and make up for the drop in local demand by exporting models to the States.

Mazda has released UK pricing for its updated compact hatchback that's available for orders now. The 2012 Mazda3 starts from £13,495 for the 1.6 TS model, however, the price includes a special £2,300 saving that ends on March 31. The regular OTR price will then be £14,795.

The revised five-door Mazda3 has improved aerodynamics (Cd 0.29) and is distinguished on the outside by the tweaked front fascia, new rear bumper and twist-spoke alloy wheels.

After we posted the poll on whether you prefer the updated European market 2012 Chevrolet Camaro with its LED taillights to the original model, we sent an email over to General Motors asking if the company had any plans to apply some or all of the upgrades to the North American version.

A Chevrolet spokesperson replied in an email that the automaker has no such plans and that a number of these changes were made to the European Camaro in order to meet local regulations.

"There are some minor changes between North American Camaro and cars for export markets," a Chevrolet spokesman told Carscoop. "Often, there are even variations between markets, to meet regional requirements. And, no, these changes will not be integrated into the U.S. Camaro."

If you have been following the news in the U.S. these past few weeks, you will have no doubt noticed that all Republican presidential candidates have attacked the Obama administration for the way it handled the auto industry bailout.

Now it's time for President Obama's campaign to fight back through a new ad that will air on television this Friday but only in Michigan, ahead of the State's Republican presidential primary next week.

The ad is named "Made in America" and touts Obama's stance on the auto bailout bill while at the same time taking a jab at the GOP and especially Mitt Romney, showing the title of his November 2008 New York Times op-ed piece, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt".

You'll most likely remember Chevrolet's recent Super Bowl XLVI ad on the Silverado where it made fun of "Dave" who didn't make it to the rendezvous point with his friends after a post-apocalyptic catastrophe because he was driving a Ford F-150.

General Motors' move to take a swipe at the F-150 has found a follower as the Chrysler Group's Ram Trucks division has launched its own commercial poking some fun at the Ford pickup truck.

The ad starts by showing the Ram truck with a deep voice (doesn't it remind you of the garbled voices shouting "they took our jobs" in South Park?) in the background asking this question:

"What would happen if you were to take away 30-horsepower from a Ram 1500, remove 27 foot pounds of torque and subtract 40,000 miles from its powertrain limited warranty?" The same voice answers: "Well, you'd end up with a Ford F-150."

Reports of the death of the internal combustion engine have been greatly exaggerated. In 2011, hybrids and EVs like the Nissan Leaf and Chevy’s Volt made many headlines, though not always for the reasons the automakers would prefer.

The truth is that, despite all the publicity and the tax incentives, sales so far have been abysmal with Edmunds reporting that hybrids account for just 2.46 of the market and electric cars not even reaching one percent.

There are many reasons why new car buyers are not willing to shell out a lot of cash for zero-emissions vehicles. First of all, they are expensive and the gains from fuel costs come in the long-term, while the sticker price is immediately visible and clearly understood by everyone.

Last night, the web went abuzz with a pint size photo of a new Hot Wheels model allegedly depicting the upcoming 2013 SRT Viper sports coupe.

The picture was posted on Brazilian Hot Wheels enthusiast website T-Hunted alongside several other car models from the toy maker's 2012 lineup, but the news quickly spread around like wildfire to websites all over the world including Jalopnik and Autoblog.

Now, you might be wondering why we didn't post the story last night. Well, to be frank, we were not yet convinced about its authenticity so we set out to do our own research before telling you about it.

The new Ford Focus ST with its 250HP 2.0-liter turbo'd four might be nice and dandy, but the Blue Oval has another surprise for hot-hatch aficionados under its sleeves: a replacement to the much acclaimed Focus RS.

Last summer, Ford green-lighted the third generation of the RS, though details remained sketchy. Now, CAR magazine has more information on the hottest production Focus yet, which is scheduled for production in 2014.

According to the publication, the new Focus RS will be powered by a new 2.3-liter four-cylinder EcoBoost engine that is currently under development in North America and which is also tipped to power the next-generation of the Mustang as well - though this is something that has yet to be confirmed.

In a press statement issued on January 31, General Motors announced that its OnStar call centers receive more than 150,000 calls a day. That equates to almost two calls per second.

Yet for the past few days, some of the more than 6 million users of the telematics service have been unable to use it.

Some OnStar users reported very long waiting times while others that they received automated messages to call back later. The problem, as told by OnStar spokeswoman Cheryl McCaren on FoxNews, was caused by an upgrade to the operating system on Sunday, February 12, which affected non-emergency “Blue Button” services.

Ray LaHood is the U.S. Transport Secretary. He is also a man on a mission: to reduce those driving distractions that are believed to be partially responsible for some 5,500 deaths and 500,000 injuries in 2010, accounting to almost 10 percent of all traffic deaths, according to data provided by the Department of Transportation (DoT).

Although LaHood does not support extreme measures, like completely banning hands-free calling while driving, he is determined to limit the use of any equipment that distract the driver’s attention.

“Distracted driving is a dangerous and deadly habit on America’s roadways”, said LaHood. “That’s why I’ve made it a priority to encourage people to stay focused behind the wheel.”

It is amazing how the new crop of internal combustion engines have become so much more powerful yet at the same time, more fuel-efficient and greener than their predecessors of past years.

Ford's new 1.0-liter EcoBoost petrol unit is a prime example of how far automakers have gone. Despite its small capacity and proportions, the three-cylinder engine that features turbocharging, direct injection and other technologies, develops up to 123bhp, which is an impressive number in itself.

In an interview with radio station Europe1 on Tuesday, French Labor Minister Xavier Bertrand revealed that PSA Peugeot-Citroen CEO Philippe Varin informed the government that the automaker is talking to General Motors about forming an alliance.

Reuters reported that GM, which is the world’s number one automaker, and the PSA Group, which is the second largest carmaker in Europe, are not discussing a merger, but sharing vehicles and parts. Furthermore, any capital exchange between them would be minimal and purely symbolic.

The latest results from Euro NCAP, which is equivalent to the IIHS in North America, brings good news for some, and bad news for others.

The two vehicles tested by the European body are the new 2012 Honda Civic 5-door hatchback and the redesigned Jeep Compass crossover.

Starting with the good news, Honda's compact model was awarded the maximum five star rating, achieving high scores in all areas of assessment and putting it on a par with the top models in its category.

Euro NCAP said that the passenger compartment remained stable in the frontal impact while the car scored maximum points in the side barrier test. It also offered adequate protection in the more severe side pole impact, and scored top points for the protection it offered to pedestrians.

The SL63 AMG may have been a nice surprise, but the real reason why the press was gathered today at the Circuit de Catalunya track in Spain was the launch of Mercedes’ brand-new fighter for the 2012 Formula 1 championship.

Mercedes GP chose the first day of FIA’s second official pre-season test in Barcelona to unveil the W03. Admittedly, it has come late to the party, as the company's F1 racer was launched later than most of its competitors, but the team reckons that this was a good thing, since it gave them more time to hone the car.

It's amazing how fast people react these days. While campaigning in Suwanee, Georgia, a couple of days ago, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich attacked President Barack Obama on his plans to increase subsidies for alternative fuel-powered cars.

Gingrich started by making fun of the green car lobby. "How dare we go out and drive vehicles bigger than their bicycles!" said the former House Speaker before he aimed his guns on the Chevrolet Volt.

"You know the Volt is an interesting experimental car," said Gingrich. "The average family that buys it earns $170,000 a year. This is Obama's idea of populism. And in this new budget he wants to increase the amount given to every Volt buyer to $10,000. Which is an amount which a lot of people would by a decent second-hand car, but it wouldn't be an 'Obama' car."

President Barack Obama is determined to make cars in the U.S. as clean as possible. After reaching an agreement with major manufacturers about the 54.5 mpg CAFE target set for 2025, he now plans to increase the federal income tax credit for alternative fuel-powered cars.

The proposal, which is included in the 2013 budget, raises the maximum credit by as much as US$2,500 for certain plug-in models. Currently, the maximum tax credit is US$7,500.

Under the provision, vehicles with a MSRP of US$45,000 and above would received up to US$7,500, while models below that price would be eligible for the full US$10,000 credit.