Volvo C30: now starts under £15k

Volvo C30 ES 2.0 - now starts at £14,995 It’s been all change at Volvo in the last year, with the Swedish car maker going from being the last vestige of Ford’s ill-fated Premier Auto Group to the first high-profile car maker to fall to the Chinese resurgence as an economic force. Volvo also has a new boss in former VW man Stefan Jacoby, who has made it clear he doesn’t see Volvo as a ‘Premier’ marque. Not that he’s downplaying what Volvo has to offer, he’d just prefer us to think of Volvo as unique and Swedish rather than in competition with the likes of Mercedes and BMW.

Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake Goodwood FoS debut

The estate version of the Mercedes-Benz CLS – the Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake – will debut at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake – well, a concept CLS SB – bowed in at the Beijing Motor Show in 2010 and although we’ve seen it running around the roads, it’s seemed no closer to production. But it looks like Mercedes has now had long enough to play with the oxymoron that is a coupe estate and the CLS Shooting Brake will get its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed at the end of June.

BMW Concept Coupe

BMW unveiled their latest concept in the run up to the contemporary Mille Miglia, a road race for cars that competed during the original event held between 1933 and 1957. The BMW 328 that set the fastest time in 1940, averaging over 100mph, has also provided inspiration for the Coupe Concept, which mixes the older car's silhouette with surfaces closer to the Z4 on which it is based. Powered by BMW's seminal 343PS engine, the car is wrapped with carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), whose form is defined by designers using plaster rather than clay "for a closer emotional experience".