Mercedes E-class W210 2000-2002 Left Door Mirror Glass Base Heated Aspherical on 2040-parts.com

Lotus Exige S Roadster arriving Summer 2013 (video)

So the revelation that the Lotus Exige S Roadster – which had an outing as a concept at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show – is finally making it in to production and will arrive in the Summer of 2013 is exactly the sort of Lotus news we want to hear. Lotus has revealed the Exige S Roadster as a reality in a short tease video (below) telling us the new Lotus will be ‘Ready for the Summer’, although by the time it gets in to the hands of customers summer will probably be already over (if it’s not already – we have had a few nice days in a row). The Exige S Roadster will get the same 345bhp 3.5 litre V6 complete with supercharger as the coupe which will be enough to get you to 62mph in just 4 seconds, and you’ll be able to row it along with either a six-speed manual or automated manual ’box plus, thanks to a very lightweight folding roof and the loss of the back spoiler, the Roadster will weigh no more than the coupe so should handle exactly how a Lotus is meant to.

Driven: Kia Picanto

The first-generation Kia Picanto was one of the cars that helped promote Kia from the lower half of the second-division to somewhere near the playoff places. Its combination of great value, five-door practicality and vaguely cutesy - if thoroughly unremarkable - design found it many a home on the driveway of those looking for an A-segment hatchback. The second-generation model is playing a rather tougher ballgame.

Hyundai ix35 makes it to Harrods

The Hyundai ix35 makes it to a Harrods window display We’re not too sure whether we should take the news that the Hyundai ix35 will take pride of place in one of Harrods’ Brompton Road window displays is indicative of the progress Hyundai has made in the last couple of years, or it’s the new owners’ policy to show its visitors what the proletariat are driving these days. Whichever it is, there will be a top of the range Hyundai ix35 Premium in dazzling white strutting its stuff – well, sitting in the window anyway – in one of Harrods’ window displays for the whole of this week (w/b 7/6). This whole ‘Hyundai in Harrods’ is a bit of PR flim-flam to get some headlines and copy (see, it works) but it does show just how far Hyundai has come.