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New Skoda Octavia vRS hatch & estate revealed

The 2013 Skoda Octavia vRS has been revealed (vRS hatch pictured) The Skoda Octavia vRS – the latest version of Skoda’s quick and appealing take on the VW Golf GTI – has been unveiled ahead of its debut at the Goodwood FoS in July, and it looks a cracker. Available as either a hatchback or estate – and as a diesel or a petrol – the Octavia vRS manages to repackage the Golf GTI and Golf GTD in to one Skoda, offering good performance (the vRS is a bit slower than the GTI to 62mph at 6.8 seconds but has a 2mph higher top speed), good looks and the promise of prices starting not much above £20k. The petrol vRS gets the Golf GTI’s 217bhp 2.0 litre TSI and the diesel vRS the 181bhp 2.0 litre TFI from the Golf GTD, both with a 6-speed manual gearbox as standard and a six-speed DSG as option, sports suspension, XDS differential, quicker steering and multi-link rear suspension.

NYC carriages about to go extinct?

If you love taking horse-drawn carriage rides in New York City, you best hurry -- they might be replaced with new horseless carriages by next year. At the New York auto show Florida-based car restoration firm The Creative Workshop introduced an eight-passenger electric horseless carriage designed to replace today's horse-drawn carriages. The company says its car blends “early 20th-century style, nostalgia and romance with 21st century eco-technology, comfort and safety,” calling the Horseless eCarriage the first brass-era-type car in more than 100 years.

BMW to offer rear-wheel drive X3 SUV

Most BMW X3s spend a negligible amount of time off road - apart from crunching across Middle England's gravel driveways - so BMW has seen fit to release a version that ditches the all-paw capacity and reverts to classic rear-wheel drive. While it's still going to be some way from a classic rear-drive Ultimate Driving Machine, the X3 sDrive18d is the cheapest and most economical way into X3 ownership. You'll be able to get your hands on one from £28,580 when it arrives in the UK in the autumn of 2012.