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Range Rover Evoque heads for the Dakar Rally

Range Rover Evoque Dakar Rally Land Rover are pretty chuffed with the way the new Range Rover Evoque has been received; feedback from the trade is hugely positive and buyers are queueing up to grab the Evoque – even with its premium prices. So the news that the British Excite Rally Raid Team will be running the Evoque in the Dakar rally will be a nice bit of off-road gloss to add to the street cred the Evoque already has in spades. The Dakar Rally is the world’s toughest car competition, run over gruelling terrain between Paris and Dakar.

Call for reform over road repair funding

FUNDING patterns mean most road maintenance is being carried out in "less-efficient, cold and wet" times, a report from a Government spending watchdog has said. The current pattern of funding, combined with the need to spend money within the financial year, means that most maintenance work goes on between September and March, said the report from the National Audit Office (NAO). It went on: "Although this is less disruptive for road users, it is less efficient than carrying out the work at other times of year because materials can be more difficult to handle in cold and wet conditions, and daylight hours are shorter." The report went on: "As a result of the additional funding for emergency repairs, which is made available at the end of the financial year, almost all highways authorities need extra capacity from the market at the same time, which makes it less likely that they will get value for money." The NAO report said there was a "lack of predictability" over road spending adding that historically, local highway authorities spent more revenue on maintenance, but were now carrying out fewer routine activities such as clearing gullies which are essential to preventing water seeping into roads' sub-structure.

MINI First introduced

MINI has a new budget model - The MINI First With all things Eco the flavour of the month, and with budgets stretched in households everywhere, a cheap, entry-level budget MINI is a tempting prospect. You still get the iconic shape, and you still get a very good chassis – which translates in to good handling and a decent ride – but you’re not paying a fortune for the fripperies. After all, there are MINIs that will set you back £25k (the MINI JCW Cabriolet), but the new MINI First is a very tempting £10,950.