We just got back from driving the 2011 Kia Optima at Road Atlanta, and unfortunately, we don’t have much to report. Why? Because we only got a handful of very reduced-pace laps around the track with the car. But we did spend enough time with Kia’s latest sedan to give you the 10,000-foot overview. The executive summary: it looks darn good from this height.

Now that Ford’s shorn of Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo–and now that it’s closing Mercury–Lincoln will get seven new vehicles in the next four years in a major new investment in product and in a more distinct identity for the Ford luxury brand.

At the press launch for the 2011 MKZ Hybrid and the 2011 MKX this week in Washington, D.C., Lincoln executives repeated the mantra that Lincoln is moving in the direction of smaller, less ostentation premium luxury vehicles. While the latest generation of Lincolns has been visually distinct from Ford-brand cousins, those differences are expected to multiply as its cars and crossovers are replaced or revamped over the next four years.

In the green-car world, the leaf is the king of all icons.

The 2010 Honda Insight fertilized the idea when it bowed in 2008; it still promotes greener driving with electronically rendered displays of plants that add leaves as the car’s computers sense a light, planet-conscious foot on the gas pedal.

Range anxiety—that’s the worry that people feel as they approach an electric car’s driving range—has long been a bit unbecoming to discuss among fierce electric-vehicle advocates; but looking out at the general market, it’s one of the most significant barriers against widespread electric-vehicle adoption.

The last couple of months have seen three different police vehicle concepts unveiled by each of the domestic automakers: the Chevrolet Caprice Police Detective PPV from GM, the new Dodge Charger Pursuit from Chrysler and the Taurus Interceptor from Ford. Now, the Blue Oval has unveiled a second Police Interceptor vehicle based on the latest 2011 Ford Explorer SUV.

Joining the Taurus Interceptor late next year as an additional replacement vehicle for the outgoing Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, the new Explorer Interceptor promises greater fuel economy–as much as a 20 percent improvement–and new off-road capability.

Want to know the fuel economy ratings of a new car you’re considering? You probably already know to look at the gas-mileage window sticker.

Now, for the first time in 30 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are planning a comprehensive redesign of that window sticker. And they want you to help.

The eagerly awaited 2011 Ford Fiesta subcompact has had more than its share of challenges, but Ford wants you to know it has resumed shipping the little sedan and hatchback models. New ones should be showing up at your dealer within days.

The latest issue was a problem in an unidentified part that caused Ford to issue a stop-shipment order until it could determine whether potentially faulty parts had been fitted to vehicles. The problem was fixed and shipments have now resumed.

Sources from inside Ford told Automotive News that the part was a seat lever, although that could not be confirmed.

As regular readers know, we’ve never been big fans of the Smart ForTwo minicar. It’s not that we dislike small two-seaters; in fact, we think they’re cool (unlike most U.S. car buyers, we should add).

No, our problems with the Smart stem from its unpleasant driving quality–the slamming shifts from its automatic manual gearbox that pitch the ForTwo back and forth on its short wheelbase–and fuel economy not on a par with its extremely small size. It’s bad enough, in fact, that we named it one of our Least Favorite Green Cars.

Now a survey from CNW Research says that fewer than one in 10 current Smart owners–a mere 8.1 percent–would buy another. And those are owners from New York City, perhaps the most appropriate place in the U.S. to own a Smart ForTwo.

We’re just over a month away from the 2010 Paris Motor Show and already the cars that will be on display are starting to trickle into the light. Today’s unveiling: the 2011 Lotus Evora S.

Designed to be a more focused, better communicating take on the Evora GT-light experience, the Evora S offers a boost to 345 horsepower from the same 3.5-liter V-6 engine–which may or may not be fitted with a compact supercharger as expected, as Lotus completely left it out of the press release. It’s almost certainly there, as gaining 69 horsepower over the stock Evora’s 276-horsepower rating isn’t indicative of tuning and exhaust work alone.

It’s coming to the U.S. No wait, it isn’t. Wait, maybe it is. Oh, sorry, no, it’s not. So far, that’s the story of the 2011 Audi A1, though by the time it reaches the U.S., if it ever does, it’ll likely be 2015 or later. When it comes to European hatches, we Americans have to look for the silver lining.

In this case, the silver lining is that we’re being considered for the car at all. Sure, we have the new Fiesta and Mazda2, and the Fiat 500 is due by the end of the year. But Audi’s A1 is generally perceived as something special in its class by the Europeans that have driven it, and that’s saying something considering the hatch-dense market they live in.