Ritchie Ss5000 Compass on 2040-parts.com

MINI First introduced

MINI has a new budget model - The MINI First With all things Eco the flavour of the month, and with budgets stretched in households everywhere, a cheap, entry-level budget MINI is a tempting prospect. You still get the iconic shape, and you still get a very good chassis – which translates in to good handling and a decent ride – but you’re not paying a fortune for the fripperies. After all, there are MINIs that will set you back £25k (the MINI JCW Cabriolet), but the new MINI First is a very tempting £10,950.

One lap of the Web: Syphilis, a scary monster and one huge remote-controlled car

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Karl Henkel, a numbers guru, brings perspective to the government's distracted driving fear mongering by sharing Mazda 626 monstrosity from 1:3 scale RC car that can travel up to 45 mph?

VW's future: Jetta refresh, renamed SportWagen

Michael Horn is new enough to his U.S. assignment that he's still looking for a permanent home in suburban Washington for his family. But Volkswagen Group of America's new CEO hasn't had a moment to waste getting his corporate house in order.