Martyr (30)lot Cmr02 on 2040-parts.com

Now it’s the SEAT Mii’s turn to get an auto ‘box

The SEAT Mii City car has followed in the footsteps of the VW Up! by adding an auto gearbox option, but only on the Mii 1.0 75PS SE. The SEAT Mii is the Spanish version of the VW Up!

Mercedes planning more Coupe SUVs to add to the BMW X6 challenging MLC

The Mercedes Concept Coupe SUV (pictured) looks to be just the first in a range of Coupe SUVs No one can be in any doubt that the Mercedes Concept Coupe SUV we saw revealed at the Beijing Motor Show earlier this month will turn in to a ‘coupe’ version of the ML, probably as the Mercedes MLC. What’s also clear is that the MLC is designed to steal a chunk of the market BMW has created for big, lifestyle, coupe SUVs with the X6; take away the Mercedes badge and the Concept Coupe SUV could preview the next generation X6. But with BMW taking their X6 formula and applying it to the X3 – creating the X6 on a boil-wash X4 – Mercedes aren’t going to sit back and let BMW create another lifestyle coupe SUV without responding.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.