Price Announced For Super-Frugal Hybrid S-Class

MERCEDES-BENZ has revealed prices for its high-tech S-Class plug-in hybrid model. The car, which boasts 100.9mpg and a 65g/km CO2 rating, will cost from £87,965 when it hits the showrooms later this month. The car is aimed at buyers seeking to combine limousine space with city car running costs.

Crunch watch Dec 08: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard and Simon Stiel Motor Industry 31 December 2008 14:05 Wednesday 31 December 2008• GMAC, GM's finance arm, said it would immediately revise its criteria for providing loans, after the US government bail-out of the General's credit arm. It will now supply credit for anyone with a score of 621 or more on the Fico scale, the scale used to assess Amercian customers' creditworthiness (Financial Times)• The news means that 80% of US consumers would now qualify for a loan from GMAC – which should improve sales in the depressed US market (Detroit News)• Chrysler is being lambasted for taking out full-page adverts in the American national press thanking the nation for supporting its auto industry. But critics point out this is a fresh waste of bail-out resources, as pages in the Wall Street Journal – one of the titles in which the ad ran – reportedly cost up to $264,000.

Citroen C1 declared most reliable new car

THE CITROEN C1 supermini was the most reliable new car of 2014, with an impressive reliability rating of 99.3% for the first three years, according to a Which? survey. BMW and Toyota were the best manufacturers, while the Hyundai iX20 diesel was the least reliable car up to three years old, with a score of 75.2%.