The whisperers have it that Bugatti may be borrowing from Bentley for a new sedan. What they can't seem to pinpoint is exactly what kind of sharing the two marques will be doing, and whether or not the resulting super Bug will be a supremely high-powered four-door to compete with the Rolls-Royce Phantom. If the two brands do indeed share something, like the next Arnage's platform, for instance, that might make sense. But just a few months ago, Bugatti said that its next product would be even more expensive than the Veyron, and lead man Josef Paefgen has also said that there will be no inexpensive Bugatti.

In the land of mergers and acquisitions, there are takeovers, there are hostile takeovers, and then there are I'm Gonna Git You Sucka No Matter What takeovers. Porsche's increasingly acrimonious battle to swallow VW is becoming that third option, and the brawl might threaten the short term plans of Porsche, VW and Audi. Porsche wants access to Audi engines and electronics, but VW, which owns more than 99-percent of Audi, won't allow it.

Motor Trend is reporting that Chrysler is considering a few different options now for its 2012 midsize offerings. The first option is to stick with Project D, which is gobbling up engineering and design resources. Option two is to use either Fiat's premium midsize platform or the Nissan Altima platform, and design and engineer the rest of the vehicle from scratch. Chrysler can also decide to badge-engineer one of the vehicles, which would be a far cry from the original plan to have many vehicles spawned off one platform.

Fiat wants to become the platform-sharing kings of Europe, and with deals with Tata, Suzuki, Ford, and PSA, the Italian automaker is well on its way. Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne told Automotive News Europe that another cooperation would be announced tomorrow, but details were scarce. Suppliers in the know are saying that a new deal is imminent to share the next generation Punto platform with BMW. The platform would be used to underpin the third generation MINI, which would help keep BMW engineers out of the FWD business and cut costs for Fiat at the same time. Fiat has been trying to produce a competitor to the popular MINI Cooper, and now it appears the Italian automaker will be working with an even playing field when it comes to platforms.