Greg Weld Wheels 15x12 on 2040-parts.com

Saturday night's all right at Barrett-Jackson auction

Auction company Barrett-Jackson has a long-standing tradition of selling cars with no reserve--meaning the car is sold to the highest bidder regardless of price--but a change in that policy saw several million-dollar sales Saturday night at the annual extravaganza in Scottsdale, Ariz. While most of the cars crossing the Barrett-Jackson auction block continue to be sold at no reserve, the auction giant offered up several classics with a reserve and the results were impressive. The top five sellers all eclipsed the magical million-dollar figure with the auction broadcast live on Speed TV.

Autoweek's 2014 Best of the Best Finalists -- sneak peek

Every year, as hundreds of new cars and trucks pass through our fleet for evaluation, we are always on the lookout for those dazzling few deserving more careful scrutiny for our top honors, the Autoweek Best of the Best. It's down to three cars and three trucks that our regular readers quickly will recognize in the video above, designed to whet your appetite as we get further along in the judging. We'll be bringing you full details on our Best of the Best/Car and Best of the Best/Truck finalists in the coming days, along with updates as we get closer to announcing our winners in the December 23 issue of Autoweek.

New Volkswagen Golf is European Car of the Year

The new Volkswagen Golf Mk 7 is the European Car of the year for 2013, polling twice as many votes as the second place Toyota GT86 (and Subaru BRZ). Last year we had the Vauxhall Ampera voted as European Car of the Year, a verdict we called ‘Completely Stupid’. And in 2011 it was the Nissan LEAF that took the Car of the Year Gong.