MINI John Cooper Works Countryman ALL4 Dakar Limited Edition

It’s another MINI limited edition model – the MINI John Cooper Works Countryman ALL4 Dakar – this time to celebrate MINI’s Dakar successes. We all know MINI loves a special edition, and it’s got to the point where there seem to be more ‘special edition’ and ‘limited edition’ MINI’s rolling out of showrooms than the bog standard car. But this limited edition – the MINI John Cooper Works Countryman ALL4 Dakar – really is a limited edition, produced to celebrate MINI’s Dakar triumphs in the last couple of years, as there will be just 11 made.

New cars 'cheaper to insure' for young drivers

NEW CARS are actually cheaper for young drivers to insure than old bangers, insurance broker Be Wiser has claimed. Figures from the company reveal that the cheapest car for youngsters to insure at the moment is a Volkswagen Up, which costs around £3,000 per year based on a 17-year-old driver in a large city. The same customer looking to insure a 20-year-old Ford Fiesta would be facing a bill of almost £4,000, with insurance premiums even higher in some parts of the country.

Listen: Upcoming Ford Focus ST to employ sound symposer

While BMW employs a digitally sanitized/perfected sound file to give M5 owners the proper sense of aggro urgency when motoring at pace, Porsche went a little more organic with its employment of a sound symposer to feed the 911's flat-six growl into the cabin of the extra-refined 991. Essentially, the sound symposer is an electrically controlled diaphragm in a tuned sound tube that brings the proper engine noises into the passenger compartment. It can be opened and closed by the car's onboard electronics to offer snarl when you want it and serenity when you don't.