A few weeks ago, we bid a fond happy 40th anniversary to the automotive dark ages of 1973-84 that have come to be known as "The Malaise Era" – the performance ice-age when 160 horsepower was a lot and a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of under 10 seconds was remarkable. Like music in the 1980s, everything in automobiledom didn't suck, however. There were a few bright spots. Here are five of our favourites:

1976-79 Porsche 930, aka 911 Turbo Carrera (above)
Photo Credit: Dorotheum

Porsche didn't get the Malaise memo either, and while Chevrolet beat them by a decade with the turbocharged Corvair Corsa, the Germans more fully developed turbocharging through racing where General Motors couldn't. Early 930s (known technically as 911 Turbo Carreras) were a bit crude, with turbo lag that could be measured with an egg timer. They lacked an intercooler as well as brakes that were up to the task, but performance was sensational, with the buff books reporting 0-60 mph (96 km/h) times of anywhere from 4.9 to 5.8 seconds and quarter-mile times of under 14 seconds. This was '60s muscle car performance at the height of the Malaise Era. Sadly, the 930 cost about six times as much as your average muscle car did.

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While monthly sales figures might be an easy way of tracking the progression of the auto industry and individual automakers, looking at market share might be more indicative of how each company is actually standing up against its competitors. For the Detroit Three automakers, they have collectively lost almost 30 per cent of the market over the last 20 years, but now, for the first time since 1993, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have each posted market share gains at the same time.

According to Automotive News, Ford's share increased the most by 0.7 per cent, GM was up 0.5 per cent and Chrysler rose marginally by 0.2 per cent, giving the Detroit automakers a total market share of 45.6 percent. As for Japan's Big Three, the article reports that Toyota is up by 0.7 per cent, Nissan is down the same amount and Honda has seen "little change."

Scroll down to watch a video showing the history of the 'Big Three.'

Want proof that the Shanghai Motor Show is gradually becoming more and more important with each passing year? Up until now, our coverage of the Chinese expo has never been as in-depth as it was for 2013, and this post marks our first round of Editors' Choice picks for the show.

Sure, a lot of what we're seeing in Shanghai will never come to North America, and a lot of it is purely conceptual, but because the Chinese auto market is growing at an incredible rate, more and more automakers are lining up big debuts for this show. Because of that, there's a lot to talk about regarding Shanghai, and we've tallied up our votes to give you the five (okay, six – there was a tie for fifth place) best unveilings from this past weekend's expo.

Scroll down to check them out, and sound off with your own personal opinions in the comments.

2013 marks the 50th anniversary of icons like the Corvette Sting Ray and the Porsche 911. If Corvettes and Porsches aren't your thing, it's also the 50th of the Aston Martin DB5 and the 60th of the last great Packard, the Caribbean. Lost in the hoopla, however has been any mention of the fact that it's also the 40th anniversary of the Ford Mustang II, the de facto standard bearer for the automotive dark age that came to be known as "The Malaise Era."

Pollution regulations, safety standards and a fuel crisis that saw pump prices skyrocket created the perfect mediocrity storm that forced many Americans – and most of the rest of the world – into cars that were as bland and gutless as the Carter administration. The start of the malaise era is roughly marked by the Arab oil embargo of 1973 and the resulting great muscle car extinction, and it lasted until the introduction of the 200 hp + Buick Regal Grand National and the Ford Mustang GT 5.0 in 1985. Here are some of the malaziest from the era.

1974 Ford Mustang II (above)

The Pinto-based Mustang II nearly killed the Mustang franchise. Its sole claim to fame being a bit of product placement on the original Charlie's Angels series. Plain chick Sabrina drove the notchback Ghia model, smoking hot Kelly (played by Farrah Fawcett) naturally got the Cobra. But the joke was on her – its smogged-choked V8 put out about 140 horsepower. In a rare moment of understatement, Road & Track simply called it "neither fast, nor particularly good-handling."

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A Compelling Story Counts As Much As Performance



Following his ill-fated efforts to save Saab, Victor Muller is again back at Spyker as CEO working hard on a comeback for the Dutch-based maker of exotic cars.

You could say he's a dreamer, like his fellow countryman Henrik Fisker. But having established Spyker as a credible player in the ultra-exclusive exotic car niche and tempered by his experience at Saab, Muller is also a realist about both the capital requirements and the complexities in building automobiles. As volumes grow, the chance increases that even the littlest mistake can derail the whole enterprise.

Muller believes there's room for small, boutique exotics like Spyker, Pagani and Koenigsegg in a market saturated by supercars from players like Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, VW Group's Bugatti and even Lexus with its LF-A.

Hit the jump to read the rest.

The trouble with Ford's Lincoln brand is that no one cares about it any more.

Not long after I heard that Mark LaNeve, chief operating officer of Ford agency Team Detroit, was moving to take over direct operations of the New York ad agency Hudson Rouge for Lincoln, I heard that JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson was ousted (JCPenney is a US chain store not unlike Sears Canada - and yes, there are parallels here). The two events are connected.

There can be all sorts of reasons why LaNeve, former head of sales and marketing at General Motors, is taking over the office that was under the direction of Cameron McNaughton since it was opened last year to serve Lincoln. But the bottom line reason: The plan to save Lincoln is not working.

As I was listening to the discussion about JCPenney's Johnson and his mistakes, I heard two talking heads discussing it. One said it perfectly: "Johnson's mistake was not in moving JCPenney to an everyday low-pricing strategy, it was taking the job in the first place. JCPenney has no reason to exist. It's reason for being is gone. It was once the place where America bought its underwear, but now they buy their underwear all sorts of other places."

I have been saying for about two years now that the trouble with Ford's Lincoln brand is that no one cares about it any more. Okay, Lincoln dealers and some current and ex-Ford employees, some of those in the airport livery and hearse businesses care. That's not a business model, though. Ford is going to try and force Lincoln on China, I hear. The Chinese want Lincoln? I doubt that.

Soon after BMW Canada wowed gathered media at the 93^rd annual Vancouver International Auto Show with Canadian bronze medal-winning swimmer Brent Hayden while announcing a four-year sponsorship commitment to Canada's Olympic team that will include both vehicle and financial support, we sat down with BMW Canada President and CEO, Eduardo Villaverde to discuss the new sponsorship, BMW Canada's record-setting sales and also learn a little more about this extremely personable business executive.

Click here to read on for the full interview.

What's Happening To This Once-Exclusive Segment?



What comes before "A"? That's the problem Mercedes-Benz apparently has to cope with as it works up plans for an all-new premium minicar that's currently being referred to as the X-Class.

It's been three decades since the German maker first introduced – after much internal debate – the original "Baby Benz," the line that became today's C-Class. It's more recently added downsized B- and A-Class lines, as well, the X- expected to be even smaller. And that's on top of all the other new models that have rapidly fleshed out the Teutonic marque's lineup, from the G to the GLK, not to mention CLS, CLA (above) and SLK.

It's an alphanumeric soup, and Mercedes isn't alone, as a quick perusal of the BMW and Audi lineups – never mind the expanding mix at Cadillac, Lincoln, Lexus and Jaguar – reveals. These days, luxury makers seem to have an adversity to white space. They're struggling to fill in every possible gap in what is a luxury market that is both rapidly growing and quickly changing.

Hit the jump to read the rest.

We hope you appreciate the time, thought and care that goes into an Editors' Choice list like this. If you think the debate that will follow in Comments is contentious, you should see us arguing over the merits of each car. We take these picks anything but lightly, as we know you do the results.

Our Editors' Choice picks for the 2013 New York Auto Show were voted on this time around by the entire team of Autoblog editors, and we used a points-based scoring system instead of voting for a single favourite vehicle. Each editor was given 25 points to assign to their five favorite vehicles. The points could be distributed among the chosen five any which way, with a limit of 10 points for any one car and all 25 points having to be assigned.

There was no criteria to guide our choices other than picking our favorite vehicles that debuted at the show – not significance, not technology, nuttin'. So without further delay, we present to you our 2013 NY Editors' Choice list. Now go forth, and tell us why we're right or wrong in Comments.

The 2013 Vancouver International Auto Show (VIAS) was back in the city's beautiful new waterside conference centre this year, a facility that packed all automaker displays into a very large single room. After last year's unprecedented number of new reveals, including the 2013 BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe and 2013 Audi RS5, the 93nd annual Vancouver auto show didn't create quite the same level of buzz on the show floor.

The big news item of the day included the British Columbian provincial government's renewal of the full-electric and plug-in hybrid rebate program, good news for the makers of electrified vehicles attending the show.

Hit the jump for the complete story.

Not The First, Nor The Last Dreamer To Fail



The departure of Henrik Fisker from his self-named car company adds yet another name to the list of dreamers who thought they could be successful automakers. Whether or not he goes down in history a Gaston Chevrolet or John DeLorean depends on the current managers at Fisker, with whom Henrik cited as having irreconcilable differences over the future of the hybrid luxury car company.

Like DeLorean and Preston Tucker before him, Fisker
underestimated the amount of capital it takes.

This is not to say that Fisker's dream is doomed, but the company he founded faces a number of severe challenges to its survival as an independent make. Like DeLorean and Preston Tucker before him, Fisker underestimated the amount of capital it takes to be in the business. While the business model of having a supplier, in this case, Finland-based Valmet, building a high-priced limited-edition car had merit, in execution Fisker fell short of the mark of meeting expectations. It took far longer than anticipated to bring the Karma to market. Quality problems, issues with battery supplier A123 and the port disaster during Hurricane Sandy that destroyed 300 cars dogged the company.

Click here to read the rest.

One of the things that dogs the full comeback of General Motors is the instability of its marketing. That part of the automaker got yet another big shakeup today when GM confirmed what I have been tweeting for a few days – strong rumours that the Chevrolet and Cadillac ad accounts are walking to new ad agencies.

Cadillac, GM's luxury brand, is going into review from Fallon Worldwide, Minneapolis and the indications are that Campbell-Ewald, Chevy's old ad shop, will end up with most or all of it. C-E just announced that it was moving from its long-time home in Warren, MI to a new downtown Detroit office next to Ford Field, just blocks from GM.

The other shoe to drop shortly will be the shift of GM's most important brand, Chevy, from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco to McCann-Erickson of Troy, MI. McCann used to be the agency for Buick and GMC, as well as GM's corporate advertising, and has retained some pieces of business over the last few years. Sources have even told us that it was McCann that did a lot of the creative work on Chevy's new ad platform, Find New Roads. (Not to be confused with a former McCann tagline for Saab, "Find Your Own Road.")

The Amelia Island Concours d'Elégance is a serious car show in the sense that it's run in a highly professional manner and features high-calibre cars and judges, but not in the sense that it takes itself more seriously than any car show should.

Proof of the latter was the "What Were They Thinking" class of automotive oddities at this year's event, which happened over the weekend. Our friend Rob Sass, Publisher of Hagerty Classic Car Magazine, was at the show and submits these five as his favourites:

1974 Fascination (above)

Looking like a prop from a bad sci-fi movie or a "cars of the future" illustration from a 1930s issue of Popular Mechanics, eccentric would-be auto tycoon Paul M. Lewis originally envisioned the car to be propeller-powered. Eventually, he abandoned the idea of a pedestrian Cuisinart and settled on this Renaut-powered creation. Five of these oddities were built in Sidney, Nebraska before Lewis' obviously saner board members ousted him and put an end to the madness. All five cars survive today in the hands of just two collectors.

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Click through to continue checking out the abstract auto-art.

The Australian GT Championship is one of the more entertaining race series going. Racers compete head to head in hardware plucked from our supercar dreams. Drivers campaign bruisers like the Ferrari 458 Italia, Porsche 911 GT3-R, Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Audi R8 and even the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and Ginetta G55. There are few other places where you can see so many excellent vehicles go fender to fender. This year, the series got started at the infamous Bathurst circuit. If you want a better picture of what the Australian GT Championship has to offer, look no further than the video below.

The first round saw Shane Van Gisbergen and Klark Quinn in their Porsche 911 GT3-R take the checkered flag followed by a four-man team in the No. 88 Ferrari 458 Italia GT4. The series headed to the Adelaide Street circuit this weekend with the main event happening yesterday.

Feel free to check out the clip below for a better idea of what the action is all about.