New crash tests replicating some of the most deadly head-on collisions show less expensive midsize cars do a better job protecting the driver and front seat occupants than many luxury and near luxury midsize cars.

"This is a surprise to us," says Adrian Lund, President of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "It shows you don't have to spend a lot of money to get state of the art crash protection."

(Read More: Whoa! 1.7 Billion Cars on the Road by 2035.)

The latest IIHS small overlap crash tests measure how well mid-size cars handle accidents involving their front quarter panels. Small overlap crashes are responsible for approximately one out of every four frontal crashes. The Insurance Institute says more than 10,000 people are seriously injured or killed in small overlap crashes every year.

At a time when pickup truck sales are picking up, General Motors has taken the wraps off of the next generation of its bread and butter pickup trucks: The Chevy Silverado and the GMC Sierra.

"This is a gorgeous truck," said Mark Reuss, President of GM North America. "This isn't going to be ostentatious. It is going to be highly engineered, highly thought out and positioned well from a market standpoint."

The new Silverado and Sierra each feature much needed updating both in styling and performance. The look of both trucks has been updated with an all new cab, and come with a V-6 or V-8 engine — delivering competitive fuel efficiency. (Read More: Ford Hybrid MPG Dispute Won't Slow Sales)

Reuss noted the new trucks are "positioned quite differently than our competition."

Ford CEO Alan Mulally has said it himself: Fuel economy is the number one factor for people when deciding what car to buy. Just a few days after Mulally made that claim while making the rounds on morning TV shows, the miles per gallon (mpg) ratings of two Ford hybrid models are being questioned.

Consumer Reports says it tested both the Ford Fusion Hybrid and the Ford C-Max Hybrid and found both models got 8-10 miles per gallon less than the automaker promises.

Ford and the EPA say both models get 47 mpg. Consumer Reports says the Fusion Hybrid gets 39 mpg (city/highway combined) while the Ford C-Max Hybrid gets 37 mpg (city/highway combined).

In explaining its results, Consumer Reports wrote, "Yes, the disclaimer on EPA fuel-economy labels notes that 'your results may differ.' But the overall mpg for these C-Max and Fusion models is off by a whopping 10 and 8 mpg, respectively, or about 20 percent."

A wider range of car buyers in America were able to take out loans and finance their purchase, with many buyers stretching out their payments, according to a new report from Experian Automotive.

In the third quarter of this year, the average credit score continued to drop as automakers and banks wrote more loans for those with subprime credit scores. While more people with less-than-stellar credit took out auto loans in the third quarter, the number of delinquent loans and auto repossessions fell once again.

"Based on the numbers, the auto finance market is the strongest we've seen in years," said Melinda Zabritski, Director of Automotive Credit for Experian.

The report is a snapshot of the 4.5 million auto loans written in America during the third quarter. (Read More: Sticker Shock: New Car Prices Are Going Up.)

The news from Tesla was long expected. Less than six months after delivering the first Model S, the electric vehicles maker is raising the price of the Model S by $2,500.

The base Model S will sell for $59,900 ($52,400 after the federal tax rebate) for those ordered after January 1st. (Read More: Tesla Delivers the Model S, Will It Live Up to Expectations?)

Tesla has said for some time that it would be raising the price of its first sedan, but it's not the only automaker hiking prices.

"There's no doubt you're going to see sticker prices go up," says John Humphrey, Senior Vice President of J.D. Power. "With the content going into new cars and trucks, the costs will have to be passed along to buyers."

In a city where it's all about building buzz, the auto industry is quietly generating the kind of optimism it hasn't seen in at least five years.

Even veterans attending the L.A. Auto Show admitted you have to go back to the mid '90s to find this much enthusiasm for auto sales in the U.S.

"I'm not sure I've ever seen the auto industry this upbeat," said Mark Reuss, President of General Motors North America.

Heading into this year's Los Angeles Auto Show Toyota finds itself in a familiar position:

• it's poised to eclipse GM as the world's largest automaker this year
• in the U.S., it has gained more market share (up 1.8%) than any other automaker
• and Toyota has shored up its biggest weakness the last four years: quality

In short, Toyota finds itself close to where it was back in 2009 when it stumbled badly.

In the auto industry, this is the kind of deal that makes a ton of sense.

General Motors, just three years out of bankruptcy, is taking a big step to bolster its captive finance operations overseas. The world's largest automaker bought the international operations of Ally Financial for $4.2 Billion.

What does GM get in exchange? It will acquire Ally's operations in Europe, Latin America and a 40 percent stake in a Chinese auto finance company. (Read More: GM to Buy Ally's Europe, Latin America Operations.)

In short, GM s acquiring another piece of the GMAC international portfolio it owned before the company started selling it off six years ago.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Two years ago, when General Motors went public the consensus on Wall Street was overwhelmingly positive. I remember being on the floor of the NYSE as GM CEO Dan Akerson rang the opening bell. While some analysts highlighted challenges facing GM, most said it was a stock and company poised to move higher from its pricing at $33 a share. (Track GM Stock Here)

For a while, it did. In fact, shares of GM rose to just under $39 a share within two months of its IPO. There was plenty of talk of GM shares rising above $50 a share. Then gas prices started rising and GM shares started falling. By December of 2011 the stock had dropped under $20. Talk of General Motors surging to strong sales was replaced with chatter about mounting losses in Europe and whether the new GM was still too much like the old GM.

In the world of auto plant openings, platitudes from union leaders, government officials and other dignitaries is part of the routine script.

So when Chrysler announced its latest investment (and plan to hire 1,250 workers) in Detroit Thursday the comments from UAW leader General Holiefield struck me as out of the ordinary.

Holiefield lauded Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne for the turnaround he has overseen with the smallest of the Big 3. But Holiefied went beyond the usual congratulations. He praised Marchionne as the type of auto executive who follows through on his word and wants a genuine partnership with the United Auto Workers.