2013 Subaru Forester: Price from £24,995

The new 2013 Subaru Forester, which debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, will cost from £24,995 in the UK for the Forester 2.0D X. Those improvements for 2013 include new bumpers and a bigger crease down the side, some new alloys and more toys, like a new Infotainment centre and a SatNav with reversing camera. But the big news is that the new Forester gets a new engine option too, a new 2.0 litre turbo petrol good for 240PS which should make the Foresters ‘last forever’ appeal more enticing when you can have fun forever too.

Honda cutting production in Swindon again – 500 jobs at risk

Honda is cutting another 500 jobs in Swindon It’s only a year since Honda announced 800 job cuts at Swindon (which eventually was 550) and now they’re about to cut a further 500 as weak demand – particularly in Europe – sees the Swindon plant producing just half the cars it could. The plan is to cut shifts from 3 to 2 a day, which will result in the loss of 340 permanent jobs and 160 temporary ones, and production will be centred on just one production line to increase efficiency and flexibility. The Swindon Plant – which builds the Civic, Civic Tourer, CR-V and Jazz (and the Civic Type-R from next year) – has been hard hit by the slump in European sales in the last five years and, despite still strong UK sales, production levels of 120,000 cars a year – just half of the Swindon capacity – are not enough to sustain the current staffing levels.

Jaguar SUV/Crossover (C-X17) gets Liquid Metal paint job for Dubai Motor Show

The Jaguar SUV/Crossover (C-X17) gets Liquid Metal paint job for Dubai Motor Show The Jaguar C-X17 Concept arrived at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September as Jaguar’s first nod towards a sports SUV – although Jaguar consider the C-X17 a Sport Crossover, not an SUV – and, although dubbed a concept, it’s a firm marker for a Jaguar Crossover arriving in the next couple of years. That perception is given more credence by the arrival of the C-X17 at the Dubai Motor Show all spruced up with a new paint job - a lustrous Liquid Aluminium liquid metal finish. It’s a similar route to garner column inches Jaguar took with the C-X16 Concept (which turned in to the Jaguar F-Type) with extra coverage garnered after the reveal at Frankfurt in 2011 with a new white paint job - Neutron White – for the Los Angeles Auto Show a couple of months later.