Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Mini Vision concept: what does it say about the brand's future?

The sight of Mini design head Anders Warming presenting a holographic, 3D projection of the Mini Vision concept as if appearing in his own cartoon was certainly a new one on us, but it captured the quirky, slightly left-field image the subsidiary of BMW Group has cultivated since its relaunch 13 years ago. As the 'Vision' tag suggests, this is billed as a marker of intent for the brand's future design direction rather than a pre-production teaser of the new Mini hatchback (Cooper in most markets) we'll see later this year. However if the third-generation 'new' Mini doesn't look remarkably similar we'd be amazed, such is the level of productionized detailing on this purely digital model.

VW Golf GTI (2013) first pictures of Mk7 GTI

VW's evergreen Golf GTI hot hatch is back for the seventh time, sporting its highest-ever power output, performance and economy. You can choose a regular 217bhp GTI or upgrade to 227bhp with a 'performance pack', and fuel economy is said to be 18% better than the Mk6 GTI's. It's on sale this spring, priced around £26k.

Kia Ray Concept at Chicago Motor Show

Kia wil preview the Kia Ray Concept plug-in hybrid at the Chicago Motor Show next month Yes, the Detroit Motor Show is only just about done, but waiting in the wings is the rather less fancy Chicago Motor Show (although they probably won’t thank us for describing it as such). But despite Chicago being a lower key affair than Detroit they will still get their share of new stuff. Well, not necessarily new (we reported that North America gets the BMW Alpina B7 which will debut at Chicago) but certainly new to the US.