Geely’s Rolls Royce clone gets de-cloned

The Geely GE Facelift - no longer a RR Clone It’s amazing how much things have moved on in the last twelve months. A year ago we reported that China’s Geely had become the latest Chinese car maker to produce a complete rip-off clone of a Western car, in this case a clone of the Rolls Royce Phantom. The Geely ‘Phantom’ even sported a  single seat  ’Throne’ in the back so the owner could feel really important in his Chinese version of  a Western plutocrat’s carriage.

Mercedes-Benz has big plans for small cars

Breaking outside its American position of rear-wheel-drive luxury vehicles, Mercedes-Benz will launch its new front-wheel-drive architecture in the United States in the next three years in the form of a coupe, SUV and possibly a small wagon or compact hatchback. Joachim Schmidt, Mercedes' global sales and marketing boss, said Mercedes is developing at least four models based on its MFA, or Mercedes Front-wheel-drive Architecture. "We will introduce the next generation of our MFA family to the U.S.," Schmidt said in an interview.

Kia GT concept (2011) at Frankfurt motor show

When CAR visited Kia’s Korean test facility in Namyang back in April 2011, there were several clues to suggest the company was looking into some kind of high-performance saloon: we saw an M3 and a Nissan GT-R in the car park, plus a senior engineer told us that he and the team often pondered what it would be like to build a – very specific this – V6 turbo, rear-wheel drive sports coupe. Board members, meanwhile, suggested we wait until the 2011 Frankfurt motor show to see what performance treats they had planned. Well, here’s the first glimpse of what all those clues could mean: the Kia GT.