Audi A1 – the tease begins + video

Audi have started the tease for the A1 We’ve known the Audi A1 has been coming for years. For goodness sakes, we’ve seen two concepts for it and had the head of Audi’s production plant in Belgium saying (wrongly, as it turned out) that production of the Audi A1 would start in October 2009. But that’s not going to stop Audi playing at ‘Tease’, so with production of the A1 now scheduled to start in early 2010 they’ve started to tease the new MINI-competing Audi.

MINI Countryman Coupe to be the MINI Paceman after all

MINI has revealed that the MINI Paceman Concept which we thought was going to hit production as the MINI Countryman Coupe will be the Paceman after all. There was always little chance that the MINI Paceman – a two door Countryman Coupe first seen at Detroit last year – was doing anything other than heading for production. After all, making a coupe version of the Countryman is an obvious niche for MINI – that great seeker of niches – to extend the MINI franchise in to.

Abarth Fiat 500 Convertible confirmed. Punto Abarth coming?

It looks like plans for an Abarth version of the 500C for 2010 are confrmed But a successful model is always going to spawn whatever variants a car maker can viably muster, so our report in July that we will see an Abarth version of the 500C in Spring 2010 – probably at the Geneva Motor Show – now seem to have been confirmed as ‘jokeforblog’ has published pictures of what seems to be a road-ready Abarth Convertible at Abarth’s facility. Now that will be a bunch of fun – and just in time for next Summer. Spy shot of the Abarth 500 Cabriolet It also now seems likely that Fiat are pushing ahead with a new Abarth version of the Punto.