Aston Martin Vanquish Volante (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

New models are coming thick and fast in Aston Martin's centenary year: here’s the drop-top Aston Martin Vanquish Volante. The soft-top flagship is the first convertible Aston with a carbon body, making the stiffest and most powerful drop-top it has ever built. Its 565bhp drivetrain has been taken straight from the Aston Martin Vanquish coupe – the most powerful Aston to date – but the Volante adds 105kg and an extra £6000 for a starting price of £199,995.

Vauxhall-Opel Junior: a Mini rival for 2013

Vauxhall-Opel has frozen the design of an upmarket small car, to rival BMW’s Mini and the Fiat 500. Codenamed Junior, the 3.7m-long three-door is two years from production. Based on a shortened Corsa platform, Junior will supplement the utilitarian Agila and conventional Corsa supermini in Vauxhall-Opel’s small car range. Nick Reilly, GM Europe president, said one of his first decisions upon taking charge last November was to ‘prioritise and accelerate’ development of the car. ‘It’s a chic and stylish minicar...

Workers misspell 'bus' on road markings

WORKMEN have given road users something to chuckle about by misspelling the word 'bus' during roadworks. "Bup stop" was painted on to the road surface in Bristol in large yellow lettering at the end of last week, with the stencilled letter P used instead of S. The mistake was made as part of road repairs which are likely to last up to four weeks in the Old Market area of the city centre.