Cavalier 2003 Door Window Crank, Front 64674 on 2040-parts.com

BMW takes the Active Tourer Outdoor outdoors this weekend

This weekend BMW will be taking its BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor to the annual OutDoor fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany. We first saw the concept last September, noting that it was a departure for BMW in more ways than one -- with the German automaker stretching itself into segments in which it previously had no foothold. The BMW Active Tourer is meant to preview a whole new generation of small cars from BMW, but one of the biggest changes underneath is a transverse layout of the engine -- a setup that BMW has traditionally shunned in favor of a longitudinal layout.

Volvo V60 Polestar production now underway

The Volvo V60 Polestar is now rolling off Volvo’s production line Last month Volvo revealed that the V60 Polestar would be a limited edition run of just 750 cars for the world, but that 125 of those will be heading for the UK – the largest market allocation of any country – and will cost £49,775. And now, seven months after Volvo confirmed the V60 Polestar for production, the first cars are heading off the production line at Volvo’s plant in Torslanda and heading off to their new owners. Although not as powerful as we’d expected, the V60 Polestar still offers an appealing performance package, with 345 bhp and 369lb/ft of torque delivering 0-62mph in an impressive 6.0 seconds.

Vauxhall-Opel Junior: a Mini rival for 2013

Vauxhall-Opel has frozen the design of an upmarket small car, to rival BMW’s Mini and the Fiat 500. Codenamed Junior, the 3.7m-long three-door is two years from production. Based on a shortened Corsa platform, Junior will supplement the utilitarian Agila and conventional Corsa supermini in Vauxhall-Opel’s small car range. Nick Reilly, GM Europe president, said one of his first decisions upon taking charge last November was to ‘prioritise and accelerate’ development of the car. ‘It’s a chic and stylish minicar...