Aston Martin dealer toasts record March

ASTON MARTIN Works is raising a glass this month after a record March that saw its best monthly sales results yet. The special showroom for the iconic British firm saw the extreme V12 Vantage S and the extremely beautiful Vanquish Volante lead the way in sales, with well-to-do buyers racing to place orders for the earliest deliveries of the two newest Astons. Based at the historic home of Aston Martin in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, Aston Martin Works has for almost 60 years been home to either the factory or, more recently, the brand’s specialist heritage, restoration and servicing operations.

New concepts to be revealed at Pebble Beach

The international auto show in Frankfurt is but a few weeks away, yet for important new cars in the American market there's further proof that traditional auto shows such as Detroit are being shunned as launch venues in favor of more exclusive and pretigious events. That's because Cadillac, Infiniti, Lexus, Lotus and possibly a few others are set to reveal new production and concept cars at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance later this week. Lexus is set to unveil its production GS350 (previewed by the Lf-Gh concept in New York earlier this year), the fourth generation of its luxury sports sedan, on August 18, while Cadillac's 2013 ATS will also be revealed.

Will the new Ford Mondeo (2014) end up a re-badged U.S. Ford Fusion?

With the 2013 Ford Mondeo now becoming the 2014 Mondeo with the closure of Ford’s Genk factory, will Europe now get a re-badged US Ford Fusion? The Genk Plant makes the Ford Mondeo and the Galaxy and S-Max (which are built on the Mondeo platform) and, at its peak, was building over 300,000 Mondeos and over 100,000 MPVs. But by last year the Mondeo production had dropped below 100,000 mark and MPV production had dropped to 80,000.