2015 Volkswagen Touran Mk1 1t Facelift 1.6l Diesel 7 Spd Automatic Starter Motor on 2040-parts.com

Aston Martins voted 'best status symbol'

AN ASTON Martin is the car to be seen driving if you want people to believe you've 'made it', according to an offbeat new study. Research carried out by Auto Trader among 1,024 drivers showed that the British brand's cars are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the ones that most Brits think highest of, beating the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bentley down the order. In fact, the top three positions in the survey were filled by British car makers, with Bentley and Rolls Royce second and third respectively.

Bonhams' Greenwich auction will show Italian rarities

The biggest star of Bonhams' seventh annual Greenwich auction will be the 1975 Lamborghini Countach LP400 Periscopica shown above, a pristine early example of the legendary wedge with a single owner and less than 10,500 miles -- its roof carried a groove cut into the sheetmetal that allowed light to hit the rearview mirror, providing a still-laughable semblance of rearward visibility. Of course, the door is always preferable. Just 158 LP400 Countachs were ever produced, before the firm moved on in 1978 to the outrageously styled LP400S.

Infiniti getting more mileage out of their F1 sponsorship with the Q50 Eau Rouge Concept

The Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Concept (pictured) will debut at the Detroit Auto Show If, like Infiniti, you’re spending and arm and a leg sponsoring Red Bull in F1, you want to milk it for all it’s worth. So we’ve already seen Sebastian Vettel installed as Infiniti’s Director of Performance (we don’t expect he sits in on many board meetings) and the Infiniti FX Vettel Edition as a (not particularly) high performance version of Infiniti’s FX SUV. Now we’re getting a new model that Infiniti can hang the F1 connection on with a performance version of the Infiniti Q50 – the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Concept – teased above ahead of a debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January.