Grt Birdcages on 2040-parts.com

Mini Vision concept: what does it say about the brand's future?

The sight of Mini design head Anders Warming presenting a holographic, 3D projection of the Mini Vision concept as if appearing in his own cartoon was certainly a new one on us, but it captured the quirky, slightly left-field image the subsidiary of BMW Group has cultivated since its relaunch 13 years ago. As the 'Vision' tag suggests, this is billed as a marker of intent for the brand's future design direction rather than a pre-production teaser of the new Mini hatchback (Cooper in most markets) we'll see later this year. However if the third-generation 'new' Mini doesn't look remarkably similar we'd be amazed, such is the level of productionized detailing on this purely digital model.

Chrysler, Nissan and GM lead industry to 8 percent gain

UPDATED--Chrysler Group, Nissan North America and General Motors led the industry to an 8 percent U.S. sales gain in August. The seasonally adjusted sales rate slipped to 12.13 million from July's 12.24 million as a stagnant economy, last week's U.S.

Honda N-ONE [w/Gallery]

Honda's N-ONE mini-vehicle, the third model of the its new N Series, has gone on sale across Japan. The retro, boxy N-ONE was developed in the style of the 1967 N360 and uses Honda's M/M (man maximum, machine minimum) design language. It also takes a number of recognizable design cues from the widely praised EV-N concept that was unveiled at the 2009 Tokyo motor show.