1957 Mercury Sales Brochure -vintage on 2040-parts.com

Five reasons to celebrate the end of the paper UK driving licence

From January 2015 Britain’s much-derided paper counterpart driving licence is being phased out. This is A Good Thing, ending an annoying bi-partite arrangement that’s blighted drivers’ pockets for 16 years. Driving licences have been with us since 1903, when they were first mandated – but the current, annoyingly two-part licences have been in use since 1998, with a bank card-sized photocard accompanied by a printed sheet of A4.

BMW 3-series (2012): our comprehensive guide to F30

BMW has sold 12 million 3-series models since 1975; it’s an important car, one that accounts for a third of global BMW sales. The sixth-generation, codenamed F30, has a lot to live up to, then. Here are the key changes: Chassis The F30 is still, of course, rear-wheel drive, has 50:50 weight distribution, and sticks with the MacPherson strut front/multi-link rear suspension layout of its predecessors rather than following the double-wishbone front suspension employed by the new F10 5-series.

Aston Martin Heritage Showroom will flog you a nice classic Aston

Now you can buy your Classic Aston Martin at Aston’s new Heritage Showroom (pictured) The world is full of Classic Car Dealers, but now, for the first time, you’ll be able to buy a classic Aston Martin from the people who made it in the first place. Aston Martin has gone back to its spiritual home to create a classic car showroom at Newport Pagnell, and has spent the last two years developing the old Olympia building to house their Classic Car offerings. The Olympia building, itself 100 years old and once an integral part of AML’s Newport Pagnell operations, has been fully refurbished and decorated in period style with not just lots of glorious classic Astons (and Lagondas) but displays of memorabilia from the factory heritage collection.