Shurhold Swivel Pad on 2040-parts.com

How celebrities stay safe in their cars with 007-style gadgets

You’re rich, famous and important enough to think you need a little more protection from your car than the standard anti-intruder alarm. What do you do? Buy a heavily armoured mobile fortress from US car modifiers ‘Texas Armoring Corporation’, of course.

Audi A3 Sportback e-tron price and specs – costs £34,950

Audi A3 Sportback e-tron (pictured) costs £34,950 If governments are going to base car taxation on Co2 emissions, then car makers are going to build cars that ‘game’ the official tests. A perfect example of which is the new Audi A3 Sportback e-tron plug-in hybrid. It’s expensive at £34,950 (although the government bribe for plug-ins does drop the price you pay to £29,950), but thanks to its ‘up to 31 miles’ range on battery power only it comes complete with official economy of 176.6 mpg and emissions of 37g/km.

Fiat 500 Colour Therapy added to UK 500 range

Fiat has added the 500 Colour Therapy – a retro-look Fiat 500 – to the model range in the UK. The Fiat 500 belongs to the same school of marketing as the MINI, so a new trim range to cash in on its ‘Homage to an Icon’ status seems an obvious route to garner a few more sales for the very likeable 500. Which is why the UK is getting the Fiat 500 Colour Therapy, a new model range that sits in the 500 line-up between the Pop and Lounge trim levels and comes in five retro-inspired colours - New Age Cream, Countrypolitan Yellow, Pasodoble Red, Volare Blue, and Tech House Grey.