Audiovox Id-500 Am/fm/mpx 8 Track Stereo on 2040-parts.com

Lexus previews production NX compact crossover

Lexus has published a preview of the 2015 Lexus NX luxury compact crossover, scheduled to debut April 20 at the 2014 China auto show in Beijing. The upcoming Lexus NX is meant to battle the likes of the BMW X1, the Audi Q3, and the Mercedes-Benz GLA, and it was previewed earlier in concept form as the LF-NX. Lexus has once again gone from concept to production vehicle in record time, and if this teaser image is any indication, it has significantly toned town the design of the LF-NX concept -- no surprise there, though in this case it appears Lexus has ditched the angular design language almost entirely.

German new car sales drop 11 per cent – pre-reg accounts for 33.5 per cent

New car sales in Germany dropped by 11 per cent in September with pre-reg cars accounting for over a third of all sales. That drop of 11 per cent in Germany is despite deep discount offers – an average of 12.2 per cent in September – with even the previously invincible Mercedes and VW having to offer discounts of up to €3k, despite which VW’s sales fell by 20 per cent in Germany and Mercedes by 12 per cent. What’s perhaps most interesting about the decline in car sales in Germany is the number of pre-reg cars sold (pre reg cars are cars registered by dealers to hit sales targets and then sold at a discount of up to 25 per cent).

Hennessey Venom GT (2010) first official pictures

Less is more with the Lotus Elise. Hethel’s smallest sports car is sweetest when its lightweight aluminium chassis has a little naturally aspirated engine providing the power; a 257bhp Exige variant is about as powerful as it ever needs to be. So here’s a 1200bhp version… That’s right.