Ford has pretty much confirmed that they’ve sold their Land Rover and Jaguar divisions as a package deal to Indian carmaker Tata. It is expected that US$ 2 billion will change hands, and the official announcement will be made at the beginning of March during the 2008 Geneva Auto Show.
While dumb shows such as Pimp My Ride become repititive after five episodes, it inspired drink-maker Barbican’s Supe-up Your Ride promotion, which offered regional owners of crappy cars the chance to win a free refurbishment and customisation of their ride. During their 3-month promotion, visitors were asked to upload videos of their old beaters on clipatbarbican.com, and other site visitors voted on which ones should be customised. The winners included this R32-spec Nissan Skyline GTS.
To be shown at the 2008 Geneva Auto Show, and probably reserved only for the hatchback-loving European market, Mitsubishi is going to show a “concept” hatchack version of the new Lancer. Seen here are leaked early images.
While I was playing with the Nissan Altima, I had to send my support-monkey younger brother to pick up this Lincoln MKZ. This is our third Ford-owned vehicle this month, after the Jaguar XKR and the Ford Five Hundred. I haven’t stepped downstairs to look at the car yet, but for some reason, he is impressed by this vehicle, citing good acceleration, great exclusivity, and even better handling.
Among car-related topics, there are two things popular with misguided “hip” young today – front-wheel-drive “sport” compacts, and the “sport” of drifting. But as enthusiastic as they are, cheap front-wheel-drive cars cannot drift, and cheap rear-wheel-drive drift cars are not commonly available. Or are they? This video shows that somewhat-driftable vehicles are as common than Coca Cola.
I’ve hardly driven our Nissan Altima 3.5 SE tester at this point, but right now it isn’t what I’d call “class-leading,” considering how noisy the tractor-like V6 engine sounds. Combine that with a CVT tranny, and the whole setup just feels a bit “off” in a car with sporting pretensions.
The 2008 Geneva Auto Show is nearing, but Volvo jumped the gun and revealed their all-new XC60 compact 4WD softroader. Quite possibly based on some Ford platform, the 2009 XC60 is admittedly aiming for a small niche market among Volvo fanboys, if there is such a thing.
Ford has redesigned their Australian-only Falcon, calling it the FG series. While it looks great, it really looks like more of a minor update on an outdated car. But with rear-wheel-drive and insanely powerful engine, who cares.
When we last asked for a VW for a test drive, the PR guy mumbled something about the magazines getting priority. It pissed me off enough to ignore them for the next few months. We figured we’d ask them again anyway, and this time they replied with their misguided policies in writing:
While we appreciate your continued interest in test driving Volkswagen vehicles, our test driving policy stipulates that priority is granted to publications in the first degree due to the demand and availability of
the vehicles for such activities. We hope that you can understand our reservations and look forward to continuing on updating you with information from Volkswagen.
The Abu Dhabi numberplate auction held on February 16 has set a new world record for selling the most expensive numberplate ever auctioned. Organised by Emirates Auction in association with Abu Dhabi police, the Code 5 plate numbered “1” fetched Dhs 52.2 million. That’s about US$14.4 million for a numberplate. The plate is expected to adorn a luxury car that only costs a fraction of that amount.