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Michelin Pilot Super Sport launches

Ferrari 458 Italia - just one of the Michelin Pilot Super Sport shod Supercars at the launch At the beginning of October – when it was already starting to feel as if we were in mid-winter on some days – the nice man from Michelin (that’s Paul, not the Michelin Man) called and asked us if we’d like to go and play with their new tyre – the Michelin Pilot Super Sport -  on some appealing cars. Sadly, too few staff and too much to do meant we had to decline his kind offer. Although it was very hard to do when we realised it would have meant a few days in the sun in Dubai and the chance to drive some of the world’s finest cars, shod with Michelin’s replacement for the Pilot Sport PS2.

Mazda CX-5 gets new trim levels

Mazda CX-5 gets new trim levels When car makers come up with trim specifications for their models, they do so in a way that gives easy stepping stones in equipment levels, from hair shirt to over the top. They also expect that many buyers will pay a visit to the options list to add in a few extra goodies to the standard spec, but it looks like Mazda has been getting the same request repeatedly from buyers of the CX-5 compact SUV – give us a sunroof and leather. Until now, the only way to get sunroof and leather was to opt for the range-topping Sport trim – which costs from £27.5k – but now Mazda has added two trim levels beneath the Sport - SE-L Lux and SE-L Lux Nav – which come already equipped with the two most requested extras.

Kia styling chief Schreyer is fluent in Koreapean

The way Peter Schreyer sees it, there is one key difference between European and Korean automakers: Europeans design from the heart, Koreans from the head. "In a European company, everybody is a car driver, a car enthusiast," says the Germany-born design chief of Kia Motors Corp. "Everybody from the CEO to the little designer to people on the production line, they want to build cars they want to drive themselves." Koreans can be more market-oriented: "They look at the big picture, which markets to explore or conquer.