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2015 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS revealed – but not in Paris. Costs from £91,098

The new 2015 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS (pictured) now on sale We had assumed that the lack of an appearance at the Paris Motor Show for the new Porsche 911 Carrera GTS meant Porsche had decided to leave the official reveal until later in the year. But here it is, and it’s going straight on sale. Having waited almost until the end of the 997’s life before launching a 911 GTS, this latest GTS is arriving much earlier in the 991’s lifecycle than you’d expect.

First Sight: Mercedes-Benz SL

The new high-tech, low weight Mercedes SL roadster receives its official global unveil next week in Detroit but Car Design News got an early peek of the final production car and had a chat with its designers at Mercedes' US advanced design studio in Carlsbad, California back in November. "We want to get back to clean, long-lasting design," director of Mercedes global advanced design and SL project leader, Steffen Kohl told CDN at the exclusive preview of the sixth-generation model. "So the new SL is long, sleek and still full of tension in the feature lines but less wedgy." In a short presentation Kohl felt all SLs became successfully iconic in their times because they followed two key rules – ‘sensuality' and ‘cleanness' – but alluded that the first rule may have been lost in more recent eras.

Honda Civic's frugal 2013 DTEC diesel: more info

Honda will equip its current Civic hatch with a 1.6-litre diesel engine from early in 2013. The engine is, Honda claims, the cleanest, most frugal engine in its class, and will offer diesel Civic buyers up to 78.5mpg, according to the company's figures. The downsized 1.6 derv will also see duty in the new CR-V soft-roader later on in 2013.