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Porsche Boxster: First official photographs

Fresh from revealing the latest 911 cabriolet at the Detroit auto show, Porsche has issued these first official photographs of its third-generation Boxster. Photos and information about the Boxster appeared on the Internet ahead of the Porsche's planned release time set for early Thursday morning. Set to get its first public airing at the Geneva motor show in March, the thoroughly re-engineered roadster gets a lightweight aluminum body, a roomier 911-style interior and the choice of two heavily upgraded versions of the German carmaker's classic horizontally opposed six-cylinder--both now boasting direct injection, slight gains in power and, thanks to a host of new fuel-saving features, impressive reductions in combined-cycle fuel consumption.

2014 Audi R8 to drop manual gearbox

2014 Audi R8 to lose manual gearbox It’s reported that the new Audi R8 – due in 2104 after a facelift in 2012 – will lose the manual gearbox option. It’s at least two years before the next generation Audi R8 arrives in 2014, but if reports from CAR are right then Audi’s next sporting flagship will do without a manual gearbox altogether. With all that’s on offer in the current R8 apart from the manual ‘box being the rather poor R-Tronic ‘box, that may seem like a recipe for sales disaster for the R8.

Mitsubishi to kill current U.S.-made lineup, bring in new platform

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to kill its current lineup of U.S.-made vehicles, including the Eclipse sporty car and Endeavor crossover, over the next three years and switch to producing global vehicles at its Illinois plant, partly to target export markets. The current nameplates will be phased out by 2014 as part of the carmaker's “Jump 2013” mid-term business plan unveiled Thursday by president Osamu Masuko.