Coming on the heels of Chrysler’s Chapter 11 announcement is word that after the company emerges from bankruptcy Chief Executive Bob Nardelli will be leaving, according to Automotive News.

The answer is Fiat. And so with that, the Italian auto giant is buying into not the Chrysler of today, but the one that will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, possibly in a matter of weeks.

Most automakers announced December sales figures today, and once again the news is dismal. However, the annual declines are what deserve our attention. GM and Ford haven’t seen sales figures this low since the late 1950s and early 1960s, respectively. The General realized a 22.7 percent decline in sales for 2008 vs. 2007; Ford notched 22.8 percent, however that factors in Land Rover and Jaguar, which were sold to Tata Motors in mid-2007. [Full data from Automotive News]

As cab rides go, the one I took the other day wasn’t all that interesting despite the pastoral scenery of rural eastern Pennsylvania. What really caught my attention was the blast of cold air coming through the door handle of the previous generation Chevrolet Malibu. The last time I felt a draft like that was in a 1946 MG TC, a car that didn’t have roll-up windows. The MG had side curtains, which only approximate a seal against the weather. While I could take the easy-cheesy way out and turn that drafty Malibu into another trite weather analogy for what ails Detroit, I won’t. There’s a far more direct point to made.

Autoweek reports this morning that Honda is canceling the NSX supercar project, the announcement coming from company President Takeo Fukui. The new version of the NSX was slated as a 2010 model with a front-mounted V-10 engine putting out 500 horsepower. A prototype was seen testing at the Nurburgring in Germany during the summer. But the economic crystal ball that was only cloudy six months ago has turned into a lump obsidian.