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First Sight: Mercedes-Benz SL

The new high-tech, low weight Mercedes SL roadster receives its official global unveil next week in Detroit but Car Design News got an early peek of the final production car and had a chat with its designers at Mercedes' US advanced design studio in Carlsbad, California back in November. "We want to get back to clean, long-lasting design," director of Mercedes global advanced design and SL project leader, Steffen Kohl told CDN at the exclusive preview of the sixth-generation model. "So the new SL is long, sleek and still full of tension in the feature lines but less wedgy." In a short presentation Kohl felt all SLs became successfully iconic in their times because they followed two key rules – ‘sensuality' and ‘cleanness' – but alluded that the first rule may have been lost in more recent eras.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage (2009): first official pictures

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 04 February 2009 09:00 Aston Martin today unveils the new V12 Vantage – the production version of the 2007 concept car. No prizes for guessing this car’s remit: it’s the beautiful Vantage bodyshell (now four years old!) stuffed with six litres and 12 cylinders of Aston muscle. The V12 Vantage will be shown at the 2009 Geneva motor show on 3 March.

Skoda Citigo

The Citigo is kicking-off Skoda's ‘New Small Family' model offensive. Based on the Volkswagen Up, the Citigo retains its counterpart's dimensions, flexible interior and focus on providing affordable urban transport for the masses. It will go on sale in the Czech market by the end of this year and the rest of Europe in 2012.