12 Issues 2010 Of Hot Rod Magazine Show Rods Drag Cars More Power Speed Model A on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes C Class Executive SE launched

The Mercedes C Class Executive SE - available in the UK from November Having already played this card with the E Class – the E-Class Executive SE – Mercedes has decided to treat buyers to a limited edition model of the C Class and has announced that the Mercedes C Class Executive SE will be available in the UK from November, powered by the manual C180 KOMPRESSOR BlueEFFICIENCY engine and available as a saloon or estate. As with all limited editions there’s nothing to get too excited about unless you were already up for the extras the limited edition is throwing in to the pot. In the case of the Executive SE these include COMAND, the grill off the Sport model, 16” ‘Pristix’ alloys and a bit of extra chrome on the boot lid and exhaust.

VW & Audi sell 100,000 diesel cars in the USA for the first time

VW & Audi sell 100,000 diesel cars in the USA for the first time Until very recently, a diesel engined car in the USA was as rare as hen’s teeth; Americans felt much the same as we used to about diesel-engined cars – fit only for commercial vehicles. But from a slow start, VW Group of America is gradually changing the mindset of American car buyers and now, 36 years after the first VW diesel was sold in the US, the VW Group have sold more than 100,000 diesel-engined cars in the USA in a year for the first time. With 12 Audi and VW diesel models on offer in the States – including new arrivals Audi arrivals like the Audi Q5 TDI, A6 TDI, A7 TDI and A8 TDI models – its seems the USA may now be heading down the route the UK went a few years ago, where a majority of car buyers in the UK feel the default buy is a diesel.

Interior Motives China Conference to explore new design directions

Chinese consumers are driving new design directions, and CDN's Interior Motives China Conference in Beijing next week is set to explore how. Titled ‘New brands and the search for a design identity', the conference features an impressive speaker line-up that blends the international (Chris Bangle and VW's Wolfgang Muller Pietralla) with the regional (GM PATAC's Friedhelm Engler, Ford China's Chelsia Lau and PSA-Peugeot/Citroën China's Robert Walker), with the domestic (Shan Wei of the Beijing Automotive Technical Center (BATC), and Ken Ma of SAIC). The annual conference is the third in China to be hosted by CDN's magazine Interior Motives, and will be held on Wednesday 21 April, and Thursday 22 April, just in advance of the opening of Auto China 2010 in Beijing on Friday (23 April).