GM improves, Toyota slips as industry sales decline eases

Ford, Honda and General Motors posted their smallest sales declines of the year in April, while Nissan and Toyota had their largest, as the industry improved from depressed levels of February and March. Drops of 33 percent at Ford Motor Co. and GM were in line with analysts' forecasts, as was American Honda's 25.3 percent slide.

Lotus Evora by Mansory (2011) at 2011 Geneva motor show

In the avalanche of hype surrounding Lotus's future ambitions, the current range of Lotus vehicles has been largely overlooked. With this in mind, Lotus has turned to an unexpected source to inject some media buzz and visual freshness into the Evora for the 2011 Geneva motor show: Mansory. Under the slogan 'Is it always wise to customise? If you must then do it with some style' Lotus has commissioned Mansory to customise the Evora – continuing the run of controversial new moves that the firm has made under CEO Dany Bahar’s leadership. Mansory has applied its well-known carbonfibre fetish to the Lotus coupe, bringing the Evora closer to the edgy styling cues of design chief Donato Coco’s next-generation Lotus concept cars.

New Mercedes GLA does off-road – a bit (video)

Mercedes want you to know the new GLA (pictured) can do off-road too. Mercedes are wasting little time in promoting the new GLA, with yesterday’s reveal of the A-Class Compact SUV coming with the first video trailer to whet potential buyers’ appetites. But it seems Mercedes are quite keen to show that the GLA might  just offer a bit more than soft-roader credentials if you opt for a 4MATIC 4WD version (initially available on the 2.0 litre petrol GLA 250 or turbodiesel GLA 220 CDI) in their latest promo video for the GLA.