Geely to buy bankrupt London Taxis

The Chinese press are reporting that Geely are to buy London Taxi maker Manganese Bronze, which went in to liquidation in October. Back in October we reported that Manganese Bronze – makers of the iconic London Taxi – had gone in to administration, finally tipped over the edge by  steering box failures in the TX4. After years of under-investment – and a product that has been usurped by both the Mercedes Vito Taxi and the new Nissan NV200 Taxi – it looked like Manganese Bronze had no way back.

Maserati Ghibli teased ahead of Shanghai Motor Show debut

Maserati appear to be teasing the arrival of the smaller Quattroporte – the Maserati Ghibli – at the Shanghai Motor Show later this month. Maserati is on a bit of a new model rush at the moment, and it looks like the tease photo they’ve released today is for the new Maserati Ghibli. The Maserati Ghibli isn’t going to be a sporty coupe – as you might reasonably expect – but a cut-down version of the new Quattroporte, designed to take on the performance versions of Europe’s executive express cars – think BMW 5 Series, Mercedes E Class and Jaguar XF.

Kia VG first photos: the Koreans go upmarket

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 30 July 2009 09:39 Kia hopes to climb upmarket with this new premium saloon, codenamed VG. It’s for the Korean market only and goes on sale in Korea, North America and some European markets at the end of 2009. However, the VG isn’t currently scheduled for UK showrooms.