2011 Nissan Rogue Floor Center Console Black 2564593 on 2040-parts.com

Watch the sad, final moments of a crusher-bound heap

Automotive wrecking yards are good places to reflect on the real-world values of heavily depreciated vehicles versus global current scrap-metal prices, and to see which cars have suddenly had the fix-it-versus-total-it line moved by insurance companies (the early-21st-century Subaru Legacy Outback, for example, appeared in large numbers in high-turnover wrecking yards just during the last year, as fairly minor collision damage on these cars is no longer worth fixing). You'll see the things that a car's last owner does in a desperate attempt to sell (or at least live with) an increasingly decrepit heap (as we learned in "Repo Man," you really will find a Little Tree in every car). During a recent trip to a San Jose, Calif., yard, I encountered this sad yet strangely compelling scene.

Mercedes M-class facelift (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 13 March 2008 11:43 Believe it or not, but this is the facelifted Mercedes M-class. And despite the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it styling, Merc claims to have meticulously revamped its SUV. The nose gets a new front bumper, new headlights, and in case the M-class wasn’t in-your-face enough, there’s also now a ‘more dominant radiator’.

Audi lights up for the shortest day

AUDI UK has created a stunning series of low-light photos to celebrate its success this year, just in time for the shortest day of the year. The seven photos use a technique called ‘light painting’, where a stationary object in the dark is lit up by a small hand-held light to selectively brighten areas over a long exposure period to eventually create an unusual-looking end result. To the trained eye it looks like Audi has supplemented the photographer’s torch with static lighting to increase the beauty of the end result, but there’s no doubting their success.