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Cuba removes new car purchase restrictions

Granma, the Communist Party’s newspaper of record in Cuba, said Wednesday that the Council of Ministers approved regulations that “eliminate existing mechanisms of approval for the purchase of motor vehicles from the state.” That means the sale of new and used cars will be allowed to the public. Up until now, Cubans could buy and sell vehicles to each other, but they had to request permission from the government to purchase a new vehicle -- the main reason for the island's unique automotive landscape. The new laws will be enacted gradually, according to Granma, with a set minimum price.

Mercedes-Benz Citan

Mercedes-Benz has revealed its new Citan urban delivery van ahead of its public debut at September's IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Hanover and is the first product of Daimler's partnership with Renault/Nissan. The company's latest model, the first to be designed specifically for the urban environment, will complete the Mercedes-Benz family of vans and is available in a choice of three lengths – Compact (3,940mm), Long (4,320mm) and Extra-long (4,710mm) – and three model variants. The basic version is the panel van, available in all three lengths, with another model being the Citan Mixto with five seats, based on the extra-long version and has a foldable rear bench seat and two sliding doors.

New Jaguar XJR will see the end of the XJ SuperSport

The launch of the new 2013 Jaguar XJR at the New York Auto Show this week heralds the end of the line for Jaguar’s other Supercharged V8 XJ – the SuperSport. With a much more fulsome 542bhp, some very ‘Jaguar’ go-faster bits, some proper fettling to make the steering, gearbox and suspension focus more on the drive without making a mess of the ride and altogether more dynamism in prospect than the SuperSport, we’d assumed Jaguar were making the XJR the performance pinnacle of the XJ range and leaving the SuperSport in place as the ‘luxury’ alternative. With that thought in mind we’d expected to see Jaguar push the price of the new XJR up towards the XJ Ultimate (which costs £121,000), so count us gobsmacked when Jaguar revealed the new XJR will cost from £92,335 – just £500 more than the SuperSport.