2012 VW Scirocco gets cheaper, adds R Line trim

2012 VW Scirocco Volkswagen has had a play with the Scirocco range for 2012, adding equipment, cutting prices and adding an R Line trim. The Volkswagen Scirocco is a good little coupe. We wish the Scirocco R had the 4WD the Golf R gets, but other than that it’s stylish, quite individual and,despite its FWD setup, fun.

Volvo C30: now starts under £15k

Volvo C30 ES 2.0 - now starts at £14,995 It’s been all change at Volvo in the last year, with the Swedish car maker going from being the last vestige of Ford’s ill-fated Premier Auto Group to the first high-profile car maker to fall to the Chinese resurgence as an economic force. Volvo also has a new boss in former VW man Stefan Jacoby, who has made it clear he doesn’t see Volvo as a ‘Premier’ marque. Not that he’s downplaying what Volvo has to offer, he’d just prefer us to think of Volvo as unique and Swedish rather than in competition with the likes of Mercedes and BMW.

Tesla ‘drops’ entry-level Model S. But was it ever going to be available?

The 40kWh version of the Tesla Model S is being dropped by Tesla in the US, but we do wonder if Tesla ever had any intention of delivering it in the first place. Tesla’s big claim ahead of the arrival of the, very impressive, Model S – and a seemingly vital part of the US taxpayer funding Tesla to develop the Model S – was that they would deliver a car that cost under $50k, something the car industry thought impossible. But when the Model S was launched, Tesla did indeed have an entry-level model available with a 4okWh battery that was listed at $58,750 (taking it almost down to the $50k mark after the US taxpayer chipped in the EV bribe) so Elon Musk could, quite reasonably, claim Tesla had delivered.