Alfa Romeo 164 1987-1995 Right Rear Outer Door Handle on 2040-parts.com

Automotive Brand Awards 2012 winners revealed

The Audi A3, Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupé and Volkswagen Up were amongst the winners of the 'Best of Best' awards at this year's Automotive Brand Awards. The difficult job of picking this year's winners went to a panel of representatives from the media, design and brand communications world along with universities and academies. The chosen few were: freelance journalist Masatsugu Arimoto; freelance author and journalist Jürgen Lewandowski and Head of Transportation Interior Design at Hochschule Reutlingen, Professor Andrea Lipp.

Top-Selling Fiesta Earns Best Used Car Award From CAP

THE FORD Fiesta, Britain’s best-selling car, has been declared Used Car of the Year 2012 by car valuation experts CAP. Top of CAP’s criteria when choosing its Used Car of the Year were affordability, practicality, reputation and popularity in the used car market. Commenting on its decision, Mark Norman, of CAP, said: “It is always tempting for the motoring media and other industry observers to take ‘the petrol head’ approach when giving awards to cars which excite them, but the CAP Used Car of the Year Award recognises the contribution a car makes to both consumers and dealers.” Ford’s Fiesta continues to top the UK sales charts and the range is being further strengthened by the arrival of new models featuring class-leading fuel economy from six powertrains with CO2 emissions under 100g/km, as well as innovative new driver assistance and safety features.

Alfa Romeo 4C Spider revealed: Geneva Motor Show

The Alfa Romeo 4C Spider (pictured) revealed in Geneva The Alfa Romeo 4C is the epitome of a modern ‘supercar’, with ultra light weight (for a production car) allowing the 4C to produce very good performance from its modest 17500cc engine. So producing an Spider convertible immediately raises the weight issue in a more dramatic way when the car’s abilities are so dependent on it low weight, but it seems the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider – previewed as a production car with a concept at Geneva today – has managed to keep the wight penalties of the convertible 4C down to a minimum. Thanks to a canvas roof and carbon fibre rollover bars, the weight penalty for the Spider is only about 60kg (around a 7 per cent gain) which shouldn’t hurt performance too much.