Moog K9563 Strut Cushion/mount-suspension Strut Mount on 2040-parts.com

2011 Mazda2 Facelift revealed

The Mazda2 gets tweaked for 2011 Well, it’s sort of the 2011 facelift for the Mazda2, but that rather depends on what direction you come at this from. If you look at the UK and Euro offerings for the last year this is definitely a new nose and interior tweaks for the Mazda 2, but if you read our report in October 2009 about Mazda 2s coming off the production line in Thailand you’ll see that our ‘New, Facelift Mazda 2′ looks exactly the same as the Mazda 2 Facelift the Thai car got almost two years ago. But we have to be sensible and look at this from a domestic point of view – even if we do find it off that Mazda has taken two years to give the UK and Europe the updates coming out of Thailand two years ago.

Mercedes CLA Shooting Brake on the way

Mercedes’ design boss Gordon Wagener has revealed to WhatCar that they are planning to go exactly the same route with the CLA as they did with the CLS, and create a coupe estate. The CLS Shooting Brake (pictured below) has been very well received, and with much of the world downsizing its cars a CLA Estate is a very sensible way to go, offering all the good design elements of the CLA – which already looks like a CLS on a boil wash – in a car that has more practicality. Wagener gave no idea of time scale for the CLA Shooting Brake, but with the first CLAs expected to hit customers in June it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a concept CLA Shooting Brake arrive by the time of the Frankfurt Motor Show in September before going on sale in 2014.

Winners announced in 2010 Car Design of the Year competition

The 2010 Car Design of the Year awards, which took place at the annual Car Design Night at La Sip nightclub in Geneva last night, recognized the winners of the best production and concept cars of 2010 as voted by Car Design News readers in an online poll. With over 1000 votes taken in over a three month period, the winners finally emerged as the Range Rover Evoque and the Pininfarina Duettottanta in the Best Production and Best Concept Car design categories, respectively. Officially unveiled at the 2010 Paris motor show, the Range Rover Evoque represents the best translation from concept car to production vehicle we've seen in recent times.