2013 Subshine Tow Dolly on 2040-parts.com

Maserati GranCabrio at Frankfurt

Maserati will be launching the Maserati GranCabrio at Frankfurt It’s taken Maserati a year or three to cobble together the Convertible GranTurismo, but they’ve finally got there and the new car is Christened – The Maserati GranCabrio – and will launch at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month. Unlike its cousin the Ferrari California, the GranCabrio gets a folding rag-top instead of a tin-top, which should help keep the inevitable weight gains for a cabrio in check. But it’s still not going to be light at pushing on two tonnes.

Volkswagen Passat TDI Clean Diesel sets fuel economy record

Volkswagen set a new Guinness World Record last week for lowest fuel consumption during an 8,122-mile tour of the lower 48 states in a Volkswagen Passat TDI Clean Diesel, achieving 77.99 mpg during the trip. This new record bested the previous one by about 10 mpg. During this record-setting trip the Passat TDI Clean Diesel also beat the hybrid record by more than 13 miles per gallon.

VW Polo R confirmed for 2013

VW Polo WRC makes the case for the 4WD VW Polo R We speculated a year ago that the Polo GTI wouldn’t be the top of the Polo tree, and that Volkswagon would roll out the VW Polo R in 2012, but perhaps with FWD instead of the 4WD its big brother, the Golf R, enjoys. But just a few months later it seemed clear that we would end up getting a 4WD Polo R at some point after Audi lost its bottle at the last minute and pulled the Audi S1 badge off a FWD A1, instead calling it the Audi A1 1.4 TFSI. That change of heart by Audi – saving the S1 badge for a quattro S1 – meant that a quattro platform would be developed for the S1, and as the A1 uses the Polo platform it meant a 4WD platform would be available for the Polo too.