Honda Cbr 600rr 600 Elka Shock 05 06 on 2040-parts.com

Automakers need love, not just quality, Strategic Vision study shows

Strategic Vision, a company that studies how and why consumers make decisions, released its yearly Total Quality Index on July 12, and the results might be surprising. The study found that love--how much or what part of a car that people like--is more important than the number of problems a car has when choosing a vehicle. For example Ford, which was a quality leader in the study, received a number of complaints about its Sync system.

BARONS ENDS YEAR ON HIGH

AUCTION HOUSE Barons has celebrated a successful classic car auction with 44 successful sales and a 1959 Aston Martin DB MKIII DHC making £175,000. The classic Aston had belonged to the same family since it was three-months-old and was joined by another DB MKIII example, a rolling restoration project that fetched £70,000. Another notable sale was a "time-warp" 1970 Ford Escort Delux MkI, which had covered just 2,600 miles in 40 years.

Lexus LF-NX Concept Compact SUV with 2.0 litre turbo petrol at Tokyo

Lexus LF-NX Concept Compact SUV (pictured) with 2.0 litre turbo petrol at Tokyo The Lexus LF-NX Concept debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, and certainly made a statement. Lexus’ efforts to create an SUV/Crossover to sit below the RX and mop up some of the ever-growing demand for more compact SUVs tried hard to do the whole ‘Ugly but appealing’ school of design the Nissan Juke pulled off, but pretty much failed. There were some good ideas running around, but there were just too many jarring angles on the bodywork and not enough cuteness to love and the interior was very ‘concepty’ with a sea of blue and yellow everything and touchscreen surfaces abounding.