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Mercedes-Benz, BMW both post record September sales

Not only are the German horsepower wars still going strong, but if this next bit of news isn't evidence of German sales wars, then we don't know what is. BMW sold 189,675 vehicles worldwide during the month of September, an increase of 6.7 percent over the previous year, which also made it the best September sales month for the automaker. This comes with a small asterisk -- namely, that figure includes Mini and Rolls-Royce sales, though if we're talking just BMW-badged vehicles, the September sales totaled 158,029 (still a 7.6 percent increase over September of 2012).

Design Services: Car Menu launched

Within almost every automotive design department throughout the world, their comes a time when a junior designer is dispatched to find a picture of some new model's tail lamp, the side view of a particular class leading competitor or examples of several new cars' colour and trim packages. Whilst looking at the competition is not necessarily a healthy way of finding ideas, it is often essential to demonstrate what is feasible, check in-house proposals are not too derivative, or show how advanced a design theme is relative to the same type of cars on the market. But even if the particular aspect of a car can be found, press packs and magazines typically show cars in the flattering light of an exotic location or being drifted around a corner on opposite lock; rarely are these images particularly useful.

Aston Martin One-77 – in the flesh

The completed Aston Martin One-77 revealed at the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este But as we told you the other day, Aston Martin decided that the perfect place to show an ostensibly finished One-77 was the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este. Which, if it hadn’t rained (which thankfully it didn’t the whole time) would have been idyllic (actually, we had heard on the grapevine that Aston Martin had agreed that the first showing would be at this year’s Salon Prive at the Hurlingham Club in Fulham – glad we didn’t run that as a story!). I have to say the Aston Martin One-77 does look as glorious in the flesh as we hoped.