Alfa Romeo Spider Bosch Intake Manifold 82-89 on 2040-parts.com

Holden to stop making cars in Australia

Fresh from the news that General Motors (GM) will be pulling its Chevrolet brand out of mainstream markets in Europe, the automotive giant has now confirmed that its Australian subsidiary, Holden, will stop making cars Down Under by the end of 2017. It’s further bad news for GM, but even more so for the 2,900 Australian people who are set to lose their jobs as a result of the closure. And it’s a sad and disappointing end for the famous Holden marque, which can trace its history back as far as 1856.

Fiat Panda (2012) first official pictures

This is Fiat’s new 2012 Panda – incredibly, only the third generation of Panda in the range’s 31-year history. Not that buyers seem to mind the glacial rate of progress: Fiat has sold 6.5m Pandas over the past three decades. The new 2012 Panda squeezes more space into the compact footprint; it’s 3650mm long, 1640mm wide and 1550mm high – enough, says Fiat, for five passengers and the biggest boot in segment.

Lamborghini LM00X SUV on the way?

The Lamborghini Conquisto SUV Concept (by Belgian designer David Cardoso) This is an old chestnut that crops up every month or four – Lamborghini to make new SUV – probably because Lamborghini already has an SUV in its history with the frankly other-world LMoo2. Still, with Lamborghini now very much a part of the VW Group (what happened to the revival of Auto Union as a group name?) there’s starting to be more credence to the guesswork. This time it’s Auto Express doing some guesswork (industry insider said…) and they reckon that Lamborghini are going to take the underpinnings of the Porsche Cajun (which is basically the same as the Q5), shove in the new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 currently being developed jointly by Audi and Bentley and call it the Lamborghini LM00X (or LM003 or LM004 or LM005…).