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It used to be that manual transmissions almost invariably had more speeds than their automatic counterparts. A car with a five-speed stick might have a four-speed or even three-speed slushbox, while another might offer the choice between a six-speed manual and a five-speed automatic. But that's quickly changing. These days we're seeing automatic transmissions emerge with seven, eight or even nine forward gears, and there's really a limit to how many gears you can expect a driver to shift on their own.

One notable exception (or throwback, depending on your perspective) is the 2014 Corvette Stingray, which comes with a seven-speed manual or six-speed automatic. But that, according to the latest industry intel, is about to change. Speaking with Chevrolet spokesman Monte Doran and citing a Society of Automotive Engineers' paper that's since been taken down, Edmunds reports that General Motors is preparing to shoehorn an eight-speed automatic into the new Corvette. The gearbox, according to Edmunds, is codenamed 8L90, and considering that GM doesn't have another eight-speed gearbox to slot into the Corvette, we're assuming this is an entirely new transmission for the company.

We'd also have to assume that the new eight-speed will replace (and not join) the long-serving six-speed automatic in the Stingray, and will probably not be offered in the soon-to-be-released, track-focused Z06 - but will surely prove a popular option on the Stingray coupe and convertible. As we reported in October, even with the current six-speed auto, three-out-of-five early Corvette buyers are specifying the two-pedal setup, with Chevy expecting that ratio to climb as time goes on. We can also expect improved fuel economy numbers to result, but whether performance will improve with the addition of two more gears remains to be seen.

Akerson himself previously noted that a female CEO at one of the Detroit Three was "inevitable."

Mary Barra is set to become the first woman to lead a global automaker. The executive will succeed General Motors' Dan Akerson, a former private equity bigwig who was appointed in 2009 to help lead the company out of bankruptcy. Akerson, 65, will be retiring in January, although rumors have been swirling about his potential replacement for months.

Barra, 51, has been at GM since age 18. Most recently, she has been executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. Barra has previously served in various positions within the company over her 33 years, including vice president of Global Manufacturing Engineering, executive director of Competitive Operations Engineering, and vice president of Global Human Resources.

We reported just four weeks ago that Akerson probably wasn't leaving until next year, and that a dedicated search for his replacement - widely believed to be either Barra or President of GM North America Mark Reuss - had not yet begun. In the official press release announcing Barra's appointment, GM notes that Akerson pulled ahead his retirement date after his wife was diagnosed with advanced cancer. That said, the news of Barra taking over isn't entirely shocking, as Akerson himself previously noted that a female CEO at one of the Detroit Three was "inevitable."

For his part, Reuss, 50, will slot into Barra's role, giving up his position as executive vice president and president of North American operations.

In other appointment news, Dan Ammann, 41, GM's CFO and executive vice president, has been named its president, with Chevrolet and Cadillac reporting directly to him, as well as GM Financial.

For the rest of the details, check out the official press release below.

To say that Opus makes books is like saying Bugatti makes cars. Sure, it's true, in the strictest literal sense, but it hardly does it justice. Opus makes tomes, high-end luxury albums in tribute to icons of sport and culture. Its past editions have focused on sports franchises like Arsenal, the Boston Celtics and the Superbowl itself. Opus has profiled Ferrari, and, of course, they've done one on Formula One.

If you're so inclined, you can pick up a copy of The Official Formula 1 Opus for $3,200, or upgrade to the $16k Legends Edition (signed by an array of former world champions) or the Champions Edition that goes for $32k and comes in a carbon-fiber box. But if spending the price of a new car on a book strikes you as a bit much, just look at the latest edition.

Called "The Bernie," it's named after (and signed by) F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone. Its 850 pages are filled 1,200 photographs immortalizing the sport, half of which have never been published anywhere else. It measures a foot and a half square by 8 inches thick and weighs over 77 pounds. Oh, and it costs a million dollars. Or we should say that it has a million-dollar reserve price, because there'll only be one made, and it'll go to the highest bidder. Of course for a million bucks, you'd expect to get more than a book, and indeed The Bernie comes with what essentially boils down to carte blanche at every grand prix in the 2014 Formula One World Championship.

The winning bidder will get a table in the Paddock Club for the entirety of each race weekend, an all-access red pass for the owner and three guests to walk the pit lane and take tea with Ecclestone himself. In short, the owner gets to play Bernie Ecclestone, only instead of making millions, he'll have to pay a million for the privilege. The all-access pass strikes us as an enviable position to be in – we're just not sure it's worth seven figures.

Jaguar has been on a campaign to replace any and all retro cues with modern ones. Just look at the current XJ and the one it replaced, or the XF and the S-Type that came before it and you'll know what we mean. The one remnant is the XK and its oval grille, in and of itself a throwback to Jags of old (which started to look more like a certain Star Wars alien in above-pictured XKR-S form). But don't expect it to hang around.

Newer Jaguars have been ditching the oval aperture for a more squared-off one, and the next XK will have to fall in line. But don't expect that to be the only change in store for the next-generation Jaguar coupe and convertible.

With the new F-Type now holding the more enthusiast-oriented ground, the next XK is expected to grow bigger, softer and more luxurious. That will likely mean a more commodious back seat as well, though that shouldn't be hard to do considering the lack of space in the back of the current model...

Just because the new 2015 Ford Mustang has officially been released, you didn't think that would be the end of the matter – did you? Of course not. There'll still be plenty of rumors, reports and video footage to bring you. Like this, the first non-official footage of the new pony car in the wild.

Shot by YouTube user SotA1080 and dug up by our friends at CarBuzz, this clip shows the new Mustang posing for photos (alongside other Mustangs) and starting up its engine at the most recent gathering of Cars & Coffee in Irvine, CA. And this being the GT model, it's not packing the V6 or the turbo four, but the red-blooded 5.0-liter V8 that tells us and enthusiasts worldwide that the new Mustang has not lost its way. Scroll on down to watch the footage for yourself.

Last month, BMW showed off a motorsports version of its new 2 Series Coupe called the M235i Racing. While that single image was obviously a rendering or design model, BMW Motorsports has now released a video showing the real deal being tested.

From what we can tell from beneath the camouflage, the wide-body fenders ­– to accommodate a 3.5-inch track stretch – are slightly different than the image BMW previously released. Still, the body is noticeably different from the stock coupe. The video, which is posted below, shows glimpses of the race-prepped interior, including a full FIA roll cage, but more importantly we get to hear the 333-horsepower engine and its throaty exhaust in action.

Jeff Bracken, Lexus' US group vice president and general manager, knows his company lost its position as America's biggest luxury brand back in 2011, and it's a mantle that his employer probably won't be getting back any time soon. That's because Lexus is electing not to follow the luxury segment's downmarket trend any more than its $32,500 CT 200h hybrid hatchback. "Since we won't be going down below $30,000, it will be very difficult for us to ever regain luxury leadership," Bracken admitted on Autoline After Hours late last week.

Rivals Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi all have new low-end entries on sale or in the wings to entice new buyers and fortify their CAFE scores, but Lexus has Toyota and Scion to capture sales underneath its lineup. Instead, Bracken hints that Lexus is going upmarket and higher-performance, fueling ongoing rumors of a LFA successor, or perhaps a new offering based on the lauded 2012 LF-LC coupe concept shown above, a production version of which could also slot in where the unloved SC convertible left off. "We need to begin bringing to market luxury performance... higher performance vehicles. IS-F certainly was the beginning of that, maybe on the lower end," says Bracken.

Later in the online video interview show, Bracken gets even more candid:

We've revealed the LF-CC now as an RC, right? Do you like the styling? So we feel the same way, and that would be a great example of Akio's thumbprint on where he's trying to take the company as it relates to beautiful styling. IS, RC, and hopefully these concepts you've become familiar with will ultimately make it to production."

The "Akio" in the quote above is, of course, CEO Akio Toyoda, who has made injecting emotion into the way his family's companies vehicles drive and look a top priority.

To that same end, earlier today, Lexus announced plans to reveal an unnamed new F-branded performance model at next month's Detroit Auto Show, but it isn't going exclusively top-shelf with future products – a compact crossover based on the LF-NX showcar is expected to slot in underneath its hugely successful RX CUV, bringing along with it a new turbocharged four-cylinder (an engine also expected shortly in the new IS sedan).

Lexus has not diversified its alternative fuel powertrains as much as its key rivals, most of which now offer both diesel and hybrid variants in at least one or two key models. On this subject, Bracken remains pessimistic, saying, "We have elected at this point not to head down the diesel path," while also saying that Lexus has no near-term plans for a plug-in model, nor any firm plans for a bi-fuel compressed natural gas offering.

For more of Bracken's musings on Lexus' future, scroll down to watch the Autoline After Hours episode video below.

The story we posted about a dealership accepting Bitcoins as payment for a Tesla Model S is reportedly only partially true. Lamborghini Newport Beach instead used BitPay to exchange the electronic currency for US dollars before completing the sale, according to "Squawk on the Street" on CNBC.

"We found out that by using a little program that Bitcoin uses, which is actually BitPay, we would have received US dollars," Pietro Frigerio, general manager of the dealership, says in the interview. "It's like if you come into the dealership and you want to buy a Lamborghini using gold bars, we would not accept it. So you'd go out, exchange it, and you'd come back to us. That was how it worked [with the Tesla and the Bitcoins]."

Frigerio says that the dealership doesn't accept Bitcoin as a currency and only accepts US dollars as payment for its vehicles. That said, we wouldn't be surprised if using BitPay to turn Bitcoins into US dollars for the used Model S purchase was actually easier than going through a more traditional financial establishment. Head over to CNBC to check out the "Squawk on the Street" interview with more details.

Naturally, you'd expect a massive automaker like Fiat to have an in-depth plan to exit the current European-market doldrums, and you'd expect that plan to include plenty of new vehicles to attract those precious buyers that still remain despite the financial downturn. And you'd be right, though Fiat does seem to have a few unexpected twists up its corporate sleeve.

Perhaps the biggest shocker is a report that Fiat will completely drop the Punto, a car with mass-market appeal aimed at small-car buyers cross-shopping the popular Volkswagen Polo. Its replacement will be a five-door Fiat 500 aimed at upmarket buyers (sounds awfully similar to the 500L) that will be built in Poland. Lower-end customers will reportedly be served by variants of the Fiat Panda.

Borrowing a page from the BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen playbook, reports Automotive News, Fiat is said to have plans to reignite production at its Italian factories by retooling them to build high-end vehicles from Maserati and Alfa Romeo. These will be marketed as premium products, built by skilled Italian workers (who are paid wages that are 75-percent higher than those building Fiats in Poland), and will be sold around the world.

As always, it takes money to make money, and Fiat will be investing an estimated $12.3 billion (9 billion euros) over the next three years in its European recovery plan. The payoff if it works, though, which will include bringing back tens of thousands of Italian workers, could be huge for both Fiat and the European economy.

In addition to the Fast & Furious tribute video, which has been seen more than 25 million times, fans around the country have been organizing car cruises as a memorial to Paul Walker and Roger Rodas. A video report on CNN says that more than 1,000 people showed up to the fatal crash site yesterday for a memorial, which included a car rally and show.

While the report indicates all sorts of cars and motorcycles showed up, a Toyota Supra similar to the one from final scenes of the original The Fast and The Furious cab be seen in the background of the video. One fan even constructed a huge posterboard for fans of Walker and Rodas to sign. Scroll down to watch the video, and check out some of the AP and Getty images from the memorial as well.

Fast & Furious 6 goes on sale tomorrow, and a Universal is giving a portion of the proceeds to Walker's charity, Reach Out WorldWide.

According to a report from CNBC, the US government has sold off the last of its remaining shares in General Motors. Secretary Jack Lew reports that $39 billion of the $49.5 billion investment in GM has been recovered, meaning that the investment, on paper, cost taxpayers a total of $10 billion.

GM CEO Dan Akerson said in a statement, which you can read in full down below, "We will always be grateful for the second chance extended to us and we are doing our best to make the most of it. ... Continued investments, innovation, and job creation are just some of the "returns" of a healthy GM and domestic auto industry." GM stock closed today at $40.90, which is a new record.

Does this mean we've heard the last Government Motors joke? Probably not...

Forget advertising, incentives and, yes, even our excellently crafted vehicle reviews, sometimes the best way for automakers to sell cars is still good ol' fashioned word of mouth. In an attempt to measure this "word of mouth" power, The Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm, has created a new study called the Brand Advocacy Index (BAI). The index takes a look at how various industries perform from person to person. Those industries include automotive, smartphones, grocery, mobile telecommunications and banking.

The study polled more than 32,000 individuals across Europe and in the US to come up with the top 55 brands in these various industries. On the automotive side of things, the top brands in the US were Honda, Hyundai and Kia, all tied at 63 percent. On a global scale, Volkswagen and Toyota scored the highest with a 65-percent BAI rating (both in France). The average BAI for auto industry players tallied 50 percent.

As for companies in other industries, Apple's iPhone was the index's top-rated smartphone, Trader Joe's was the highest recommended grocery store, Virgin was sat atop the mobile telecom industry and USAA was the top retail bank. Scroll down for the full press release on the new study.

Some racing series are easier to understand than others, but to put it mildly, Formula One is not NASCAR. With 500 members of each team spending millions upon millions each year to gain an advantage, F1 is about as technically complex as rocket science. But if you thought you had managed to wrap your head around the way things work, think again, because the series is undergoing a major overhaul of its technical regulations for the 2014 season.

Of course, the biggest change is a switch from naturally aspirated 2.4-liter V8 engines to turbocharged 1.6-liter V6 powerplants, but that's not the sum total of the shift. The cars' hybrid component are set to play a bigger role, the aerodynamic regulations are changing, as are the exhaust system limitations and a whole mess of other details.

It's enough to make your head spin at 20,000 rpm. Fortunately the BBC has put together this handy little video interviewing the experts and breaking down the changes into layman's terms that even we can understand. Watch the handy three-and-a-half-minute video primer below to get yourself up to speed on next year's F1 regulations.

Ferrari tends to sell its models out extremely quickly – its wait lists are the stuff of legend. That's especially true when the cars in question are of the fastest or most exclusive variety. If new reports are to be believed, Maranello has already sold the entire 499-unit production run of its new LaFerrari hypercar, and now Australia's Motoring is claiming that Ferrari has also filled its order book for the entire first year's production run of its new 458 Speciale.

For those unfamiliar, the 458 Speciale follows in a proud line of hardcore mid-engined V8 Ferraris in the footsteps of the 360 Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia. It's lighter, more powerful and more aerodynamically advanced than the 458 Italia upon which it's based, and just trails half a second behind the more powerful F12 Berlinetta (and the aforementioned LaFerrari) as the third-quickest road car ever to lap the Italian automaker's Fiorano test track. That means it's quicker even than the 599 GTO and Enzo.

Although we've yet to receive official word, we're expecting a sticker price approaching $300,000 – about a quarter more than the 458 Italia. But that doesn't appear to have stopped Ferrari from raking in the orders. Check it out in our substantially updated image gallery above.