Some say that there is no rest for the wicked and they are right.

Environmentalist and even governments consider the auto industry as the most evil of enterprises (more than tobacco and milk powder, it seems). The protests and the legislation, they're all directed at the car guys.

And these diabolic, sons of the devil are not taking any rest for 2009.

Yes, we have been told that big players, be it BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen or Honda, are all cutting back on production. But according to a recent forecast session conducted by a local automotive think tank (okay, it was actually just the guys here at Torque, cramped into my office yesterday sipping coffee), there are still plenty of new cars to look forward to in 2009.

Everything from outlandish super cars, luxurious limousines, compact hatches or MPVs, 2009 will see them all. Really, and we are counting on it.

One easily overlooked fact is the long lead time between a car being conceived on a drawing board and hitting the market place. With some models, this can go upwards of five years from signing off the project brief.

While the car companies will look to cut costs or revised projections in lieu of the challenging market situation, to hold back launching a replacement model can mean tremendous losses. Damn if they do, damn if they don't.

Often, it's better to roll out a new model in a weak market than to flog an ageing product to stretch another six or 10 months.

In the coming months, we are going to see car companies being creative in luring out of hiding all who still have the ability to buy. You may be one of them, or you may not be, but the thing is, it's going to be a rocking 2009.

As some also have said, good guys (or was it girls) go to heaven, the bad ones go every where.

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