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New Skoda Octavia vRS hatch & estate revealed

The 2013 Skoda Octavia vRS has been revealed (vRS hatch pictured) The Skoda Octavia vRS – the latest version of Skoda’s quick and appealing take on the VW Golf GTI – has been unveiled ahead of its debut at the Goodwood FoS in July, and it looks a cracker. Available as either a hatchback or estate – and as a diesel or a petrol – the Octavia vRS manages to repackage the Golf GTI and Golf GTD in to one Skoda, offering good performance (the vRS is a bit slower than the GTI to 62mph at 6.8 seconds but has a 2mph higher top speed), good looks and the promise of prices starting not much above £20k. The petrol vRS gets the Golf GTI’s 217bhp 2.0 litre TSI and the diesel vRS the 181bhp 2.0 litre TFI from the Golf GTD, both with a 6-speed manual gearbox as standard and a six-speed DSG as option, sports suspension, XDS differential, quicker steering and multi-link rear suspension.

Driven: Cadillac XTS

In the light of the new, global-focused ATS and hot-off-the-press CTS sedans, the full-sized, US-centric Cadillac XTS is somewhat of an anomaly in the new Caddy clan. It's been earmarked as a stopgap flagship before a proper rear-wheel drive challenger to the Mercedes S-class and Lexus LS comes on stream. Car Design News took to the streets of Detroit to find out if it captures that big Cadillac vibe on home turf.

Horace takes the lead on road safety

MORE BITE has been added to the Think! road safety campaign in the form of animated figure Horace the dog. Created by Wallace and Gromit company Aardman, Horace has been introduced to highlight a road safety competition in which schoolchildren will be asked to create their own short animated films to communicate key road safety messages to fellow pupils.