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Aston Martin Vantage gets V12, but we won't get one

The Aston Martin V12 Vantage, the hottest version of the two-seat coupe, is the latest step in the automaker's new-model offensive for 2009. Revealed just days after the Rapide four-door, the V12 Vantage is the second of four major reveals from Aston this year. Also coming is the DBS convertible, which will share stand space at Geneva with the V12 Vantage and a concept for a new Lagonda, the dormant brand that Aston plans to bring back to life as a super-luxury Rolls-Royce/Maybach challenger.

Infiniti opens on London’s Piccadilly

Infiniti open for business in London's Piccadilly Nissan’s luxury arm, Infiniti, is on a quest to conquer Europe with its wares. But so far it’s been a little hamstrung with a lack of outlets – just the Infiniti dealers in Reading – and a lack of product to shove under buyers’ noses. Or at least it would seem so.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.