New Cars

The new Aston Martin Rapide is a lovely car, to be sure, and driving one around town creates precisely the same effect on the populace as would a young Paul McCartney striding through Waterloo Station in 1964. Never mind the panties. Investment bankers throw their tighty-whiteys at this car. But what does it prove? It proves that if you care absolutely nothing about outward visibility—the Rapide has the sightlines of a Normandy pillbox—and that you don’t care that the front roof pillars (the A pillars) are thicker than a Clydesdale’s fetlock; and that in order to get in the car rear passengers will be obliged to remove their heads and feet; and that once there they will have their noses grinding against the entertainment system’s headrest-mounted screens; and that the car’s sun visors are three fingers wide and virtually useless; […]

British car output rose an annual 44 per cent in April with a total of 98,290 new cars produced in Britain last month on higher demand for new vehicles, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. In the year to date, car production was 64.9 percent higher than the same period a year ago. “Output in April is up across the car, commercial vehicle and engine sectors compared to the same time last year, reflecting a good start to the second quarter of 2010,” said SMMT chief executive, Paul Everitt. “The home market saw a significant increase in the month, a positive indication of a strengthening economy and an improvement in consumer confidence,” he added. – Reuters

The MG6 hatchback will be the first all-new MG model to go on sale in the UK since the 2001 MG ZS and ZT, according to sources at Chinese car maker SAIC, which owns the MG Roewe and Ssangyong brands. Both the hatchback MG6 and its saloon sister car (which is currently being sold in China under the Roewe 550 badge) will be launched in the UK and Ireland. Both versions will use the MG badge say sources, and the most popular engine is expected to be the N-series 1.8-litre turbocharged engine, an updated version of Rover’s K-series engine. The cars are expected in the showrooms by early 2011. Stringent EU crash test standards have proved to be the downfall of previous Chinese-made cars, but the MG6 is actually based on a re-engineered version of the robust Rover 75 platform. […]

Road and Track Magazine has published a first look at the new MINI Countryman. Yes, this is the first 4-door vehicle to leave the Mini manufacturing plant in Oxford, England. Not sure what to make of it, so would love to hear what you think. You can read R&T’s full article on their site, here .

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), China’s number-one automaker, has just launched its MG6 in China. The new model faces off against the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Volkswagen Sagitar in the highly competitive mid-class auto segment in China. The MG6 hatchback, equipped with a 1.8-liter turbo engine, will be produced by SAIC Co at its Lingang plant. SAIC will also start production of the MG6 in a plant in the United Kingdom next year as it tries to revive the 85-year history of the British icon globally. The company said the MG6, which was unveiled at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show last April, is specifically designed for Asian and European markets. In China, “There will be market potential for the MG6 if SAIC prices the car competitively,” said Ye Sheng, an auto analyst at automotive consulting firm B. Thinking Management […]

When reading ‘Type 72′, the die hard Formula 1 fans will inevitably think about Lotus most successful F1 car of all time that made furore with twenty Grand Prix wins between 1970 and 1975. To honor these achievements Lotus has released the Exige S Type 72 Special Edition. The British car maker will be producing twenty units for the UK, a further twenty units for the European mainland and a limited run of cars in Japan and selected markets around the world. To draw even more attention, the colour scheme of the Exige S Type 72 equals the famous and easily recognizable black and gold livery and is finished by the same person who painted racing cars for Team Lotus. With a total weight of just 935kg (2061lbs) and a Type 72’s supercharged engine producing 240bhp a sprint from standstill […]

Imagine you’re the successful your mom always wanted. You have cash to burn, successful career on autopilot and the mansion is finally mortgage-free, you’re in the market for a new car, one that speaks to your success and station in the community. But, you’re also in full mid-life crisis, sentimental for the tearaway youthfulness you now regret suppressing every time you open that second bottle of Chateau Lafite. Indeed, in your last act of impetuousness before children and creeping maturity reared their ugly heads, you owned an Aston Martin. Not one of these new namby-pamby ones, what with their button-down engineering and sophisticated electronics, but a real he-man-of-yesteryear Vantage with eight thundering pistons, a rock-crunching transmission and coil springs stiff enough to suspend the Golden Gate Bridge. So, you head down to your friendly neighborhood British luxury car dealership only […]

Aston Martin stunned the world last June by revealing the Cygnet super-mini concept that is based on the Toyota iQ. Then the British sports car maker that is fondly associated with mouth watering sports cars announced that the Cygnet will go into production and that the development of the super-mini will continue into 2010. Slated for a market launch late this year or by early 2011, the Cygnet is expected to be sold to owners of Aston Martin’s full-sized sports cars and only 2,000 units are planned.

The maverick but multi-award winning British car designer and engineer who left his eponymously named company in Leicestershire after a new owner took over is to build a new supercar prototype in South Africa. Lee Noble, whose work in recent years is said to have defined the British low volume sports car market has set up a new company, Fenix Automotive, and today (19 November) announced the launch of “one of the most dramatic supercars of the century” next year. With production cars like the Noble M12 and M400 to his credit, Noble says he is now delivering a lightweight, ultra-powerful mid-engined V8 supercar to market by the end of 2010. The as yet unnamed car, which will cost from under £75,000, “will trounce all previous Lee Noble-built Nobles for performance with a 0-100mph time of under seven seconds”, and […]

MINI, iconic small car maker, will produce a luxury version with help from its corporate cousin Rolls Royce.

The first all-new MG for 14 years has gone on show in China and by the end of next year the new car will be built on a production line at Longbridge, it was revealed today. Based on the Chinese-made Roewe 550 – which itself is based on a shortened version of the old Rover 75 – it will be called the MG6 when production starts in Birmingham. The new model will be produced in saloon and hatchback form and will complement the two-seater MGTF being built at Longbridge. Early production models have been revealed at the Guangzhou Auto Show which opened yesterday. The launch in China, the world’s largest automotive market, begins the international roll out of sales of the MG6 which includes the UK. Sales in China will begin in January and plans for the UK and other […]

Ever since the halcyon days of Jaguar’s formative years the British car maker has had a happy knack of delivering some eye catching icons. As those early days of the 1940s and 1950s bore witness to the company’s founding father Sir William Lyons’ aim to produce cars boasting ‘grace, space and pace’ so the legendary big cats have continued to attract attention. The latest is the Jaguar XKR which has unreservedly set its sights on supercar status, proving in many people’s eyes, to be perhaps the best looking mainstream Jaguar model to date. There is very much a luxurious character to the XK and XKR body style, whether in hard-top coupe guise or the cloth cocooned convertible which is driven here. This is truly a sophisticated grand tourer with the power to move the sports car experience on to a […]

British super-luxury car manufacturer, Rolls Royce, unveiled an all-new, four-door, premium saloon model called the Ghost. It will be available in the second quarter of 2010. The company hopes to sell 50 to 60 Ghosts in the domestic market each year. Since Rolls Royce cars are made to order, and exclusively manufactured in the company’s UK facility, the time taken for delivery is between two to three months after a booking. The Ghost, earlier code-named RR4 and popularly tagged as ‘Baby Rolls Royce’, is smaller in dimensions than the company’s current Phantom model and is aimed at widening the appeal of the brand. “Ghost is a more informal design that broadens the appeal of Rolls Royce cars,” said Colin Kelly, Asia Pacific Regional Director. Rolls Royce sold 1,212 units of the super-luxury cars last year, in which India accounted for […]

Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation (SAIC) is set to revive the famed Morris Garages (MG) name when it reveals a production version of the MG 6 at this month’s Guangzhou motor show. The five door fastback, previewed in concept car guise at the Shanghai motor show last April, is the first new MG model to appear since the sale of the former British car maker to Nanjing Automobile in 2005 prior to a subsequent takeover by SAIC two years ago. Up until now, Nanjing Automobile and SAIC have been content to sell re-badged versions of former Rover models as well as a lightly re-fettled version of the TF roadster in a bid to keep MG afloat. However, the planned appearance of the MG 6 at Guangzhou signals a new beginning for the company founded in Oxford in 1924.

The year was 1984. Roger Dougal, a newly minted Ph.D. in electrical engineering, was beginning his career in the University of South Carolina’s College of Engineering. He was the new owner of a 1972 MGB – a red convertible, perfect for life in the Palmetto State, where he could zip along the highways and city streets with the car’s top down practically year-round. Lightweight with easy handling, the MGB was a snazzy roadster for a young professor on the go. But that was, shall we say, soooo last century. Fast forward about two dozen years. Now internationally recognized for his research on power sources and systems, Dougal still loves cars and has added a passion for sailboats. The MGB was collecting dust – and a few leaves – in his garage. But the professor’s ongoing curiosity about all things auto […]

XPart is celebrating five years of keeping two million owners of Rover and MG cars on the road in the wake of the collapse of the Longbridge manufacturers. The company, based at Desford in Leicestershire, is keeping motor traders around the world supplied with replacement parts that enable them to service and repair the cars. XPart, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Logistics Services, one of the automotive industry’s leading supply chain management companies, acquired the MG Rover parts business in August 2004, less than a year before the manufacturer collapsed in April 2005. Since then, it says it has “worked tirelessly” to maintain high levels of parts availability and provide continuity for more than 700 MG Rover dealers throughout the world. It operates a network of importers, wholesalers and MG Rover specialist AutoService centres, 250 of them in the UK.

MG-Roewe’s parent company, SAIC, are very eager to build their own SUV based on Sssangyong IPR but a launch date of the Ssangyong-Roewe has never been announced despite it being spotted dozens of times out testing. It could be that the rights to Ssangyong IPR is in a murky place right now straight after Ssangyongs bankruptcy which saw them kick SAIC out of the boardroom and straight out of Ssangyong affairs, the Roewe SUV was expected to be launched in the first three months of 2009. The same could be said for the Roewe 95, it was largely understood that SAIC would have been excited to show off their luxury Roewe 95 limo model at the last Shanghai Auto Show, but as that is based off the Ssangyong Chairman it seems that that might have been temporarily delayed as well. […]

In Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, the ugly duckling grows into a swan. Upper-crust British auto manufacturer Aston Martin may reverse the process, morphing its handsome sports cars into the Cygnet microcar. Cygnet is a collaboration with Toyota, which will sell Aston Martin 2,000 of its iQ mini-commuters to be adapted, with a target sale date of 2010 in Europe. Aston Martin, best known for its dashing James Bond DB series of 150 m.p.h. sports cars, has grafted its signature grille onto the iQ microbox. This makes the mini-Martin concept look like a fugitive from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” The bold Aston Martin “face” is disproportionately narrow and tall; think a Rolls-Royce golf cart. The iQ is only 117 inches long (that’s less than 10 feet) and 59 inches high, but it seats four. It’s powered by a 998-cc 3-cylinder […]