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No sign of global auto meltdown at Tokyo Auto Salon

With more than 600 cars on display and a record number of exhibitors, nothing at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon tuner show hinted at the global economic downturn. As always, there was a great mix of styles, from hard-core, 1,000-hp, supertuned machinery to weird customized scooter tricycles. Auto manufacturers tried hard to capture the minds--if not the wallets--of the younger-than-30 crowd with customized versions of production cars, while tuners were busy persuading power junkies to choose them for their next engine modification.

Top Gear Russia outs the 2014 Mazda3 Saloon – probably not coming to the UK

The 2014 Mazda3 saloon (pictured) has been outed by Top Gear The UK and Europe have eschewed small saloon cars for hatchbacks in recent years. But in other parts of the world its the small saloon that’s big news, so many will be interested in the new Mazda3 saloon, revealed by Top Gear in Russia ahead of an official debut. Looking exactly like the new 2014 Mazda3 hatch revealed last week (there’s a shock), Mazda has managed to make the translation from hatch to saloon seamless, with proper flowing lines and no sense of a ‘notch’ grafted on the back.

Festival of the Unexceptional: the bad cars we love

Ever been to a classic car show and noticed how many old MGBs and sports cars of yesteryear have turned up, driven by their proud owners, but wondered what happened to all the more mainstream stuff? There are twice as many Ferrari 308 GTBs on the roads in the UK than Austin Allegros, because the everyday cars of the past fail MOTs, get chucked away and replaced with shiny new hatchbacks. Fortunately, there is a select group of people in the UK who care for the mundane stuff of yesterday and, because of this, a new event for “unexceptional” cars will be taking place this summer.