Automakers rack up solid gains to finish 2010

Fueled by holiday and year-end discounts, as well as the introduction of new models, automakers finished 2010 on a high note by posting the year's best monthly sales in December. U.S. light vehicle demand climbed 11 percent last month to 1.1 million units--the best month of the year on a unit basis.

Tata says hello with the Tata Nano Europa

The Tata Nano Europa - expected to come to Europe as a sub £5k car [ad#ad-1] Tata has had a pretty torrid time of late, what with problems in India and the decimation of the world car markets, which has badly affected sales of its recently acquired Land Rover and Jaguar marques. But as we reported last week, they have just landed a huge contract to supply Jaguars and Land Rovers to the Chinese, which will ease problems at JLR, and now they’re on a world-domination cheapest-car quest with the Nano Europa. The Nano Europa is the version of the little Tata that is going to be launched in Europe, and has just previewed at Geneva 2009.

Didn’t The Bentley Boys Do Well?

AS Bentley gears up for a fulltime return to the racetrack, the weekend saw the Crewe-based luxury car maker score a solid fourth place overall at the Gulf 12 Hours of Abu Dhabi. Approached as a dress rehearsal ahead of the team’s attack on the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series, the three driver-strong outfit achieved a creditable third and fourth place finishes in the two six-hour races at the Yas Marina circuit. The race programme – the first factory-backed activity since its 2003 Le Mans win – sees the firm use a Continental GT producing 600 horsepower in competition trim.