New Aston Martin V12 Vantage S quicker than Jaguar F-Type V8 S

The new Aston Martin V12 Vantage S (pictured) is Aston’s quickest car At the end of last month, as expected, and following the ending of production of the V12 Vantage, the new Aston Martin V12 Vantage S arrived. Aston proclaimed the new V12 Vantage S as the quickest production car they’d ever built (with the exception of the £1 million One-77) but declined to tell us exactly how quick it was. But now AML have finished playing with their stopwatch and declared the V12 Vantage S will get to 62mph in 3.9 seconds (0-60mph in 3.7s), an improvement of 0.3 seconds on the V12 Vantage and giving the V12 Vantage S the edge over the car we think it should be compared to – the new Jaguar F-Type V8 S.

Lexus IS 2011: the Estate returns – but Hybrid only

The Lexus IS SportCross - the 1st generation Lexus IS Estate The Lexus IS Range is Toyota’s answer to BMW’s 3 Series and Audi’s A4. And it does a very creditable job, particularly for those drivers for whom quality of finish and lots of toys are much further up the list than driving dynamics. But despite there originally being a Lexus IS Estate – the Lexus IS SportCross – when the IS first launched in 2000, Lexus saw fit to drop that when the current IS turned up in 2005.

Audi Q5 refreshed for 2013, new engines added

For a mid-cycle refresh, Ingolstadt hasn't lavished a whole passel of aesthetic rearrangement upon the Audi Q5. There's some fiddling in the interior, some minor meddling with the face and, really, that's about that. The company did, however, go a bit zany in the engine bay.