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Mercedes CLA snapped undisguised

The Mercedes CLA – a baby CLS based on the new A Class – has been snapped undisguised in Iceland ahead of a 2013 reveal. The fact that Mercedes are building a four-door, swoopy coupe based on the new A Class is no secret. In fact, Mercedes rolled out the Concept Style Coupe at the Beijing Motor Show earlier this year as a very clear pointer of what to expect.

Nissan X-Trail N-TEC+ launched

Nissan has launched a new X-Trail model – the X-Trail N-Tec+ – with ‘Sporty’ looks and extra gadgets. Last year we got the Nissan X-Trail Platinum Edition with all the options ticked and a price of almost £30k, and now we get the sporty version – the Nissan X-Trail N-Tec+ – with more gadgets and extra kit at £27,790. Nissan are trumpeting the X-Trail N-Tec+ as the ‘Sporty’ X-Trail (if that’s not an oxymoron) and pitching it between the Acenta and Tekna versions.

Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations division launches

Cars like the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 (pictured) will come from JLR’s Special Operations If the creation of the Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations division to create bespoke, heritage, ultra luxury and high performance Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover cars doesn’t shout how positive JLR are about the future, nothing will. Jaguar call it “meeting the increasing expectations of today’s most discerning and enthusiastic car customers“, but what they really mean is that JLR have now got so much back on their game with cars like the new Jaguar F-Type, new Range Rover and new Range Rover Sport that they now have buyers with deep enough pockets to pay for just about anything, so that’s what JLR are going to do with the Special Operations division; give them anything they want – at a price That will mean car like the Jaguar Project 7 F-Type we saw at Goodwood last year being possible, ultra-luxury versions of the Range Rover and even the creation of heritage cars like the new Lightweight E-Types could become a regular occurrence. With a team of engineers and and designers led by Paul Newsome, recently recruited from Williams Advance Engineering, the plan is to create halo vehicles for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, and a team of 150 at a new Technical Centre near Gaydon will have a customer commissioning suite for bespoke and premium personalisation.