98-01 Firebird Spare Tire Holder on 2040-parts.com

Fiat 500 1957 Edition revealed ahead of LA Auto Show

While American teenagers were cruising around in finned interstate crushers, Europeans of all ages were discovering the wonder of automobile ownership thanks to the tiny, affordable Fiat Nuova 500, introduced to a car-hungry public in 1957. The little two-cylinder city car was a smash hit, with 3,893,294 built before production ended in 1975. Fiat 500 production resumed in 2007, but the new car was vastly different from the original: Its engine gained two cylinders and moved to the front of the car, while its footprint, though diminutive by American standards, positively dwarfs that of its predecessor.

2013 Astra Convertible spied on video – The new Vauxhall Calibra / Opel Manta?

2013 Astra Convertible Spy Vauxhall and Opel have now managed to reveal much of the new Astra Model range – with the Astra GTC debuting at Frankfurt last month being the latest – but there’s still the drop-top Astra Convertible to come. The 2013 Astra Convertible – which may arrive as the new Vauxhall Calibra – has been caught on video testing ahead of an expected debut at Paris in 2012, before going on sale across Europe in 2013. Looking very much like the GTC with a cloth top, the new Astra Convertible loses the tin-top of the old model and gets a folding canvas top in the name of economy, lightness and dynamics.

New MINI 5-door Hatch starts rolling off the production line in Oxford

New MINI 5-door Hatch starts rolling off the production line in Oxford MINi are wasting no time in getting the new 5-door MINI Hatch in to production following its reveal at the start of June, with the firs 5-door MINIs already rolling off the production line at MINI’s Oxford Plant. The five-door MINI is the second MINI model to be built off BMW’s new UKL 1 platform – the new MIN I being the first – with the platform stretched to give the five-door an extra 72mm in it wheelbase, 15mm extra headroom and enough length to add a pair of (small) back doors). And unlike the three-door Hatch, the new five-door Hatch will be available with a full suite of models from the off, with the SD Cooper included in the range from launch as well as the  Cooper, Cooper D and Cooper S.