Lexus Rx Cargo Cover 2009-2012 Black on 2040-parts.com

Ford Focus is the best selling car…in the world

It’s a big feather in Ford’s cap and vindication of their ‘One Ford’ global product strategy, which has finally seen Ford realise that the world wants the cars it makes and designs in Europe. Focus sales rose in the US by 40 per cent in 2012 (a market Ford would have declared completely unsuitable for a relatively compact European hatch a decade ago) and China accounted for a massive one in four of all Focus sold, a rise of 51 per cent, making the Focus the best-selling passenger car in China. Not only did the Focus take the best selling car (actually, best selling nameplate), the Ford Fiesta did well to, coming in sixth on Polk’s list with a not insignificant 723,130 registrations around the world.

VW & Audi sell 100,000 diesel cars in the USA for the first time

VW & Audi sell 100,000 diesel cars in the USA for the first time Until very recently, a diesel engined car in the USA was as rare as hen’s teeth; Americans felt much the same as we used to about diesel-engined cars – fit only for commercial vehicles. But from a slow start, VW Group of America is gradually changing the mindset of American car buyers and now, 36 years after the first VW diesel was sold in the US, the VW Group have sold more than 100,000 diesel-engined cars in the USA in a year for the first time. With 12 Audi and VW diesel models on offer in the States – including new arrivals Audi arrivals like the Audi Q5 TDI, A6 TDI, A7 TDI and A8 TDI models – its seems the USA may now be heading down the route the UK went a few years ago, where a majority of car buyers in the UK feel the default buy is a diesel.

McLaren P1 Concept is 97% production design (video)

At a private reveal of the new McLaren P1 Supercar in New York, McLaren has confirmed that 97 per cent of the P1′s styling will remain. McLaren has said that 97 per cent of the styling of the P1 Concept is exactly as the production version will look, with the only changes being some vents in the bumper to let hot air out and a tighter mesh on the grill at the back. The fac t that the P1 will stay faithful to the concept’s design already seemed evident after we had spy photos of the P1 visiting a McLaren supplier in Norfolk recently (and spy video of the P1 too), where we struggled to find anything different from the concept cars.