May 15, 2011
Renault Twizy to Cost Just £6,690!
By now I am sure that you have all heard of the Twizy, an inquisitive mix of city car and scooter that seats no more than two people. Renault has now announced that the Twizy will be available for purchase as of next year, and will cost you just £6,690!
Revealed at the Paris Motor Show last October, the Twizy is powered by a 17hp electric motor with a range of 62 miles and fully recharges in three and a half hours.
It measures at just 2.32-metres long, 1.19-metres wide and 1.46-metres tall. Even though it is not quite big enough for a boot, it comes with a 31-litre lockable cubby-hole perfect for keeping your briefcase: the urban commuters dream.
On top of the initial £6,690 Renault is charging £40 a month to lease the battery on a 3 year agreement. In the future there may be an option to buy the whole unit. As of now the £40 a month may seem a little steep, however it is a sort of insurance policy as Renault will replace the battery if anything goes wrong or if you feel it is starting to lose power.
If you live anywhere near a city, expect to see a lot of these wacky quadricycles hitting the streets next year!
May 1, 2011
The New Generation Volkswagen Beetle.
The Volkswagen Beetle has been wonderfully re-designed for its big launch later this year.
The body of the car is much like that of the original Porsche creation of the VW Beetle, but with a few adjustments. The roof extends back further and the windscreen is shifted back a little, with a respectable boot capacity of 310-litre’s, a third larger than the 1998 model.
The VW Beetle will be on sale in North America later this year, with European sales starting at the beginning of 2012.
When on sale, the Beetle will be available with a choice of four engines: one diesel – a 1.6-litre 105 PS with BlueMotion Technology, and three petrol – a 1.2-litre TSI 105 PS, a 1.4-litre TSI 160 PS and a 2.0-litre TSI 200 PS.
The Beetle has been made to appeal more to the masculine market, but we are sure it will be a big hit around the world!
April 28, 2011
Vauxhall Astra GTC revealed
It is finally official! Vauxhall have released approved photographs of the new three-door Astra. Sleek, stylish and ready for production. The Astra GTC will make its world debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September later this year, with UK sales beginning on June 7th.
Set to be one of the best-looking hatches on the market, the Astra maintains the dramatic styling seen at last year’s Paris Motor Show. Including the blistered wheelarches, deep new front grille and LED ‘eyebrow’ headlights; Vauxhall has promised the GTC will be the finest-handling car in its class.
April 17, 2011
Peugeot SxC Concept.
Another car to hit next week’s Shanghai Motor show is the rather dramatic looking Peugeot SxC concept.
The crossover car has been solely developed and designed by Peugeot’s Chinese technical centre in Shanghai and is a little bit longer, wider and lower than the Porsche Cayenne, featuring 22inch wheels and reverse-hinged rear doors.
The show car is powered by a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine, including Peugeot’s Hybrid4 technology allowing the SxC to run entirely in electric-only mode when travelling at low speeds.
Lexus LF-Gh Revealed
Way ahead of the New York motor show debut, Lexus have revealed their new LF-Gh hybrid concept car, although it appears to be simply a design exercise at the moment.
When it comes to production models, it is expected that the detail of the front will be toned down as at the moment the LF-Gh gives an exaggerated aggressive impression.
The car suggests what the next generation GS may look like, with sharp edges on the front grille and boomerangs in the rear lights, indicating a new styling direction for Lexus.
Rolls-Royce Make a Limited Edition MINI.
For all you MINI fanatics out there, the “MINI inspired by Goodwood” is to be the latest edition to the MINI family, and is set to be showcased at next week’s Shanghai Motor Show.
Rolls-Royce interior designer, Alan Sheppard, has overseen all of the layouts and designs including the burr walnut wood trim for the door pulls and dashboard, Corn Silk beige leather trim that extends to the door sides, centre console, fascia and pillar trim, with deep lambs-wool carpets as well as the typical Rolls-Royce typeface for the instruments and piano black trim for the steering wheel.
The MINI’s exterior predominately looks like a Cooper S, but if you know your MINI’s you will notice that there is no Cooper S bonnet, a metallic Diamond Black exterior (again designed by Rolls-Royce) and a brand new set of alloys. Although the “MINI inspired by Goodwood” will also be available in MINI’s own Reef Blue if you so choose.
Limited to only 1,000 cars, the MINI is expected to reach 60mph in just 7 seconds, as it is powered by the Cooper S’s original 181bhp 1.6 Turbo engine. There will be an extra cost option with a six-speed automatic transmission.
The last special edition MINI for John Cooper Works World Championship 50 cost around £35,000, so even though no list price has been agreed yet for the “MINI inspired by Goodwood,” it is set to be the most expensive MINI ever made, with an estimated price of £50,000. You better start saving those pennies!
April 14, 2011
The New Ford Focus 2012 – The Car That Parks It-self!
It would have been something from a dream 10 years ago to even imagine driving around in a car that was actually clever enough to park it-self, and today that dream has become a reality.
Finally the new Ford Focus has arrived ready for 2012; with an additional Driver Assistance Package costing £750; adding a multitude of extra features. The Driver Assistance Package doesn’t mean that the car will drive it-self, but it does give you a much easier and safer driving experience for not only you, but others around you.
The most fascinating aspects of the Driver Assistance Package, and possibly the most helpful, is the Active Park Assist. As the name illustrates, the Active Park Assist is a system that aids the driver to park the car and is perfect if you find it tricky to fit into small spaces. It works by using ultra-sonic sensors in your bumpers that measure the distance to the objects around you and is activated when you put the car into reverse gear. Trusting the car to do the work for you may seem difficult at first, but given time this new and amazing device will help even the most frustrated driver to parallel-park.
One of the other major aspects of the Driver Assistance package is the Active City Stop, which works using a system called LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and is mounted next to the rear view mirror. At a rate of 100 times per second, the system monitors the distance to the vehicle in front of you and the closing speed, to determine the risk of collision. This is excellent if you lose focus for a few moments or the car in-front stops suddenly.
As well as the Active Park Assist and the Active City Stop, the Driver Assistance Package also comes equipped with a Lane Keeping Aid, Traffic Sign Recognition, Speed Limiter, Adaptive Cruise Control and Auto High Beam Control which when all combined make for a seriously impressive vehicle. It makes you wonder what new technologies car manufacturers will invent next.
April 12, 2011
The new 2011 Range Rover Evoque
The stunning new Range Rover Evoque goes on sale in the last quarter of 2011 and is going to be a great seller for Range Rover. Autoe Bid has already started taking orders however Range Rover has not yet released the discounts available to dealers (or allocations). This has resulted in dealers not being able to offer any discounts, however we would estimate July/August will be the best time to place your orders on this model, that’s if you want a discount.
Read our news article on the new 2011 Range Rover Evoque here
June 15, 2010
2011 Volkswagen Jetta Leaked Photos
The new 2011 Volkswagen Jetta is looking great. It seems to share the same streamlined looks as the Eos and is a well improved version of the older model. This time around the technicians at Volkswagen did not simply add a boot to the Golf, instead they stretched the platform to create a larger vehicle based on the excellent Golf chassis.
This next generation 2011 Volkswagen Jetta will come in a choice of 1.2 TSI, 1.4 TSI or a 2.0 TSI petrol, or 1.6 and 2.0 TDI engines delivering 138 horsepower.
Volkswagen will shortly be releasing further details of the new Jetta so watch this space…
June 14, 2010
Porsche Cayenne gets face a face lift
Many car manufacturers will from time to time face-lift their vehicles as it’s a cheap and easy way to create more demand for an existing model.
The Porsche Cayenne has never been a great looker, although when you are in the car it drives extremely well. Handling like a Porsche with the added advantage of not giving you continuous backache and not having to worry about speed bumps.
The Cayenne now looks much better from the front with bling aluminum surrounds and overall the car looking crisper.
The Cayenne diesel also comes with a VW engine giving you their stop/start system to improve efficiency although the engine is no the smoothest in its class.
Overall at just over £44K it’s not to expensive and not a bad buy for its class with good residual values.
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