Passenger Side Kool-vue Mirror Lincoln Town Car 2003-04 Heated on 2040-parts.com

European car sales down 9.6% Jan 2013. VW Golf sales down 17.8%

Car sales in Europe continue to decline with sales down 9.6% in January 2013 and the top-selling VW Golf down by 17.8%. In fact, the UK was the only top five market to increase sales, with Germany down 8.6 per cent, France down 15.1 per cent, Italy down 17.6 per cent and Spain 9.2 per cent. Other notable drops included the Netherlands which saw a huge drop of 30.4 per cent, partly driven by tighter emission boundaries on company car taxation.

LENNON'S FIRST CAR UNDER THE HAMMER

THE FIRST car bought by John Lennon after he passed his driving test is being offered for sale at auction next month. The Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 Coupe was bought by the Beatle in 1965 and is expected to sell for between 120,000 euros (£99,987) and 170,000 euros (£141,000). Lennon's biographer, Philip Norman, described how car dealers descended on the singer's home when the news emerged that he had passed his test and offered him a "gleaming smorgasbord" of luxury cars.

Skoda confirms two new models

Skoda Vision D at Geneva - Skoda's new design direction It’s now got to the point with Skoda where the skip-on-wheels reputation of the ’70s and ’80s – and even the ‘Cheap’ VW tag of the ’90s and ’00s – has been completely eclipsed by the perception of Skoda as quite simply the maker of some crackingly good cars. Cars like the brilliant little Skoda Fabia vRS – which we’d take over the Polo GTI (much more character) – and the equally brilliant Skoda Yeti which, although it might not quite live up to Clarkson’s recent tongue-in-cheek assertion as the best car in the world is, nonetheless, exceptionally good. That change in perception is clear in the confident model range on offer from Skoda and the clever way in which it’s marketed.