Vintage Alpine 3004 Graphic Equalizer on 2040-parts.com

Ford to sell two concepts at auction

Amongst the numerous one-off concept cars and rare historic vehicles set to be auctioned off at the forthcoming RM Auctions sale in Monterey, California, Ford has contributed two of its own unique concept cars to be sold. All proceeds of the sale will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) charity. The race-inspired 2005 Ford Shelby GR-1 concept and the 2001 Thunderbird Sports Roadster concept will be presented by the world's largest collector car auction house on August 19th in California as part of its Monterey sale. It is believed that the 2001 Shelby will sell for between $150,000 and $200,000 while the 2001 Thunderbird concept will fetch between $125,000–$175,000. There will be no reserve on the cars.

Subaru XV gets another price cut – down by £2300 across the XV range

The Subaru XV (pictured) gets a price cut of £2,300 across the range Over a year ago, Subaru launched the new XV in the UK with a starting point of £21,995, Which was decent value for an able Crossover/SUV. But by May of 2013, Subaru had decided there was room to play with the XV’s price – or at least on the 1.6 litre petrol version – and they announced a £1300 price drop for the entry-level petrol XV. But now, just six weeks later, Subaru has decided that the weakening Yen has given them more room to manoeuvre on price and have announced they’re cutting prices across the whole XV range by £2300 (which actually means £1,000 off the new price for the 1.6 litre petrol).

General Motors taps Europe design chief to run Cadillac, Buick

General Motors is bringing Opel's design chief to the United States to lead Cadillac and Buick styling and is moving the head of Buick and GMC styling to the top design post in Europe. The automaker is also shuffling duties for two other top design executives. The changes were announced Monday.