Fiat 500L launches

The Fiat 500L – a larger Fiat 500 based on the Punto – has launched in Italy ahead of going on sale in the UK in early 2013. We had the official arrival of the Fiat 500L at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and now we get the 500L’s official launch in Turin – together with lots of new photos and a video – before the 500L goes on sale around the world. The 500L is actually based on the underpinnings of the Punto to create a 500 MPV and, sensibly, Fiat has done with the 500L  what MINI did with the Countryman and slapped an iconic badge on even though the 500L bears scant resemblance to its cute little sibling.

Vauxhall Adam Rocks – it’s a butch Adam Cabrio Crossover

The new Vauxhall Adam is about to spawn a cabrio crossover version based on the first official sketches of the Vauxhall Adam Rocks Concept. But it seems Vauxhall are not content with just having a funky little urban runaround to flog, they want to get in on the butch mini urban crossover market too. Or that certainly appears to be the aim looking at Vauxhall’s latest Adam project – the Vauxhall Adam Rocks.

700 medics call for car smoking ban

AROUND 700 medics and health experts are calling on the Government to ban smoking in cars carrying children ahead of a Commons vote on Monday. In a letter to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), respiratory experts said secondhand smoke was a "major cause of ill health in children", damaging the developing lungs, causing sudden infant death and leading to thousands of hospital trips every year. Signatories to the letter are being co-ordinated by Dr Nicholas Hopkinson from Imperial College London and chairman of the British Thoracic Society's chronic obstructive pulmonary disease specialist advisory group.