Dacia Sandero: Price from £5,995

The new 2013 Dacia Sandero – revealed at Paris 2012 – is to cost from just £5,995 when it arrives in the UK in January 2013. The Sandero joins the Dacia Duster SUV in an attack on the burgeoning ‘Budget’ market in the UK and stands out as a Fiesta rival at almost half the price you’d pay for entry in to Ford’s evergreen supermini (£9,795). The Sandero’s styling isn’t cutting edge, but nor does it shriek ‘Cheap’ at first glance.

Mini debuts four new design lines for 2014 Cooper

Mini Coopers really come to life when finished in the marque's signature appearance packages, such as Union Jack roofs and checkered flag mirror caps, and for the third-generation three-door hardtops debuting this spring the automaker is debuting some new designs. Minis have always been about personalization, and since the brand's relaunch under BMW's roof owners seemed to appreciate the cheeky designs that included roof graphics, grille-mounted headlights, racing stripes for the hood, and mirror caps. All those features are coming back for the new 2014 three-door Hardtops, and along with them the company is introducing a lineup of four Mini Characters, called Vivid Green, Speedwell Blue, John Cooper Works Pro, and Essential Black.

Let Q modify your Aston Martin

We imagine there were really two options for naming Aston Martin's new personalization program: Q, or something boring like Amalgamated Personalisation & Colour Programme, complete with British spellings that will vex most spell-checking software and render it unsearchable in Google. Fortunately, Aston Martin has wisely decided to adopt the same name as the Quartermaster in Ian Fleming's "James Bond" novels -- a pure coincidence, we're told. Lucky owners of these customized machines will be able to tell their friends that it was Q who added a few special touches to their cars.