Subaru's new supermini

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 05 January 2007 02:52 Subaru is preparing a rebadged Daihatsu Sirion to slot beneath the Impreza in its range - and the new 'mini could be on sale as early as the end of this year. Toyota, Daihatsu's parent company, bought a 9% shareholding in Subaru's parent company in 2005. So the Daihatsu Sirion 1.0 is an obvious donor car; its £7500 starting price and 57mpg stretch the Subaru range down to a whole new budget marketplace.

Land Rover backed Race2Recovery team finishes Dakar Rally

The Race2Recovery Rally team – a group of disabled servicemen backed by Land Rover – has become the first disabled team to finish the Dakar Rally. Land Rover may have backed the Race2Recovery team in the Dakar Rally, but the real triumph is that of the team’s members as they become the first disabled team to complete the gruelling rally. In the space of just eighteen months, the Race2Recovery team has gone from a handful of disabled servicemen to a fully fledged Dakar Rally Team with 28 people, four Wildcats and a bunch of support vehicles including a pile of Discoveries for transporting the support team and equipment.

Volkswagen Beetle Dune IS going in to production – expect it in 2016

The VW Beetle Dune (above) will hit showrooms in 2016 Volkswagen went back to its Beetle history with the VW Beetle Dune Concept at Detroit in January, a car that looked close to production-ready even if VW were adamant it was just a concept. There was no more new on the Beetle Dune until late last month when, for no apparent reason, a raft of new photos of the Beetle Dune were released by Volkswagen with the only rationale being they had made the decision to make the Dune a production car. And they have.