With emerging markets buying more and more vehicles every year, it seems as though almost every automaker is looking to expand into new regions. Sports car makers are no exception — Aston Martin announced that it would be moving into China and now comes word that Lotus will be heading to India.

Although in the beginning stages of its move to India, Lotus is currently searching for a dealer network. The first vehicle planned for the Indian market will be a version of the Elise.

Lotus has seen recent success with expansion into Thailand and Mexico.

Source: Lotus to expand to India

General Motors captured four of the six spots for finalists for the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards; a Honda and a Mazda rounded out the roster.

Finalists for the 2008 North American Car of the year are: Cadillac CTS, Chevrolet Malibu and Honda Accord.

Finalists for the 2008 North American Truck of the Year are: Buick Enclave, Mazda CX-7 and Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid.

The finalists for the prestigious awards were announced Wednesday at a luncheon sponsored by the Detroit Economic Club to promote the Detroit auto show. Winners will be announced at the first press conference of the show on Jan. 13, 2008.

GM swept the 2007 awards, with the Saturn Aura winning car of the year and the Chevrolet Silverado winning truck of the year in January. An encore sweep could be in the offing. If that happens, it would mark the first time a manufacturer won both awards two years in a road since the awards were created in 1994.

Honda is the only other automaker to sweep the car and truck awards. That occurred in 2006 with the Civic and Ridgeline.

Chrysler was snubbed in this year's voting. Chrysler's new minivans were left off the nominations list from which the finalists were selected. Despite several new models, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury branded products were excluded from the nomination list.

Established in 1994, the NACTOY awards honor vehicles that set new standards or become new benchmarks in their class. Each vehicle is judged and ranked by various categories. Those include general design, safety, fuel economy, handling and general roadworthiness, performance, comfort, assembly quality, functionality, technical innovation, driver satisfaction and price. Value for the dollar and affordability are particularly important factors.

The jury of roughly 50 people comprises a wide range of professional journalists across North America who report on cars and the auto industry. They created their own organization to independently determine the best new products automakers offer each year.

Earlier this fall, journalist-jurors winnowed a very long list of new models introduced in 2007 to a short list of candidates that consists of 15 cars, including minivans, and 13 trucks, which also includes sport utilities and crossovers.

In this second round of voting, journalist-jurors dispersed 25 points to the various candidates in the two categories. Jurors can give a maximum of 10 points to one vehicle, but no other vehicle may receive more than nine of those points.

In round three, jurors will disperse 10 points to the three finalists in each category.

Photos by the manufacturers
1 – Cadillac CTS
2 – Chevrolet Malibu
3 – Honda Accord
4 – Buick Enclave
5 – Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
6 – Mazda CX-7

Source: GM Has Four of Six NACTOY Finalists; Mazda, Honda Round Out the Roster

Officials from Spyker have confirmed that it’s in exclusive talks with Lithuanian bank Snoras Group to help refinance and possibly sell a stake in the company. Spyker also confirmed that it’s in talks with several other potential investors and that no final decision had been made.

Spyker has been in financial troubles recently and was forced to drop development plans for several new models as well as sell off its F1 team to help turnaround its rising debts. Officials are hopeful a deal will be reached with Snoras Group soon and expect an outcome within the next ten days, reports DutchNews.

Previous talks with Lichtenstein-based firm ACI have since been dropped despite the signing of a letter of intent earlier this month.

Source: Spyker in talks with Lithuanian investor