A lot has changed for automakers in the last year, not the least of which would be General Motors. Just last year, GM CEO Rick Wagoner managed to grab the top spot on Motor Trend's list of most powerful people in the automotive world. As you might imagine, it's tough at the top and a bankruptcy that was barely avoided thanks to a set of last-minute, low-interest loans from the Feds has, not surprisingly, prompted MT to move Wagoner down from his perch as numero uno. In fact, Wagoner has fallen completely out of the top 25 and been lapped by Ford's Alan Mulally and even Bob Lutz, Ed Welburn and Tom Stephens – all men who report up to Wagoner. Ouch. Chrysler execs are also conspicuously absent from MT's latest Power List of People Who Matter. Wondering who managed to make the cut? There are the usual suspects, such as Carlos Ghosn and Takeo Fukui, along with a few others that you might not expect to see. We don't want to spoil it all for you, though, so click here to see the whole shebang.

[Source: Motor Trend]

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There's no hiding these days from Big Brother. The nutcases in the tin-foil hats would tell you there never was, but now even automakers have to watch fully. Development teams out testing prototypes on public roads used to have to watch out in the place of professional spy photographers, but with the advent camera phones and now Google Street View, there's no hiding anywhere. That's what the boys at Garage419 discovered when they found shots of several Porsche prototypes on service while searching for a good driving road in Colorado.

Hard to tell much from the shots of the Boxsters, Caymans and 911s, except to say that the automakers' dev teams and the paparazzi alike have a new kid on the block to watch out for.

[Source: Garage419]

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The Ford F-150 may have taken home the title of best-selling vehicle in America for 2008, but a new report by Kelly Blue Book shows the list of most researched new cars was dominated by foreign makes. KBB released its list of the 20 most researched new cars of 2008 earlier on Tuesday.

Not surprisingly, the highly-efficient Honda Civic took home top honors of most researched new car of 2008, reflecting the high gas prices seen during the middle of the year. The Honda Accord and Toyota Camry rounded out the top three, marking the fifth consecutive year the trio has filled the top three spots, according to Automotive News.

Ford’s Escape crossover was the highest-ranked American car – taking the number 12 spot – by the Ford Mustang (16th) and the Chevrolet Malibu (17th) representing the only other Detroit iron on the list. Although the Malibu fell well short of its Japanese competition, it’s worth noting that the Malibu’s redesign sparked a massive improvement from last year’s 72nd place finish.

In all, 15 of the top 20 spots were occupied by Asian nameplates. Only two European cars made the list – the MINI Cooper at 19th and the Volkswagen Jetta at 20th.

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