Vauxhall: Three new engine ranges arriving in next year

Vauxhall Mokka - a likely recipient of the new Vauxhall engine range Vauxhall – and we assume Opel – are planning three new engine ranges to launch in the next twelve months. Vauxhall has revealed that they are planning a wholesale revamp of their engine range with the launch of three new engine ranges in the next year, starting with a new 1.6 litre turbo petrol. The new turbo petrol engine will get direct injection and start-stop technology that Vauxhall say will cut fuel consumption by 13 per cent.

Skoda Rapid SpaceBack arrives ahead of a Frankfurt debut

The Skoda Rapid Spaceback (pictured) is a new Rapid Hatch You’d expect something called SpaceBack to be a more commodious version of a standard car. But in the case of the new Skoda Rapid Spaceback, it’s not. In fact, the SpaceBack is a more conventional hatchback version of the Rapid Saloon Skoda revealed last year which wasn’t actually a saloon at all but a ‘liftback’.

BMW takes the Active Tourer Outdoor outdoors this weekend

This weekend BMW will be taking its BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor to the annual OutDoor fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany. We first saw the concept last September, noting that it was a departure for BMW in more ways than one -- with the German automaker stretching itself into segments in which it previously had no foothold. The BMW Active Tourer is meant to preview a whole new generation of small cars from BMW, but one of the biggest changes underneath is a transverse layout of the engine -- a setup that BMW has traditionally shunned in favor of a longitudinal layout.