Nissan Friend-ME – looks better than it sounds: Shanghia Motor Show

Nissan has built the Friend-ME (which must rank as one of the most useless car monikers ever) to appeal to the potentially huge market of ‘B?línghòu’ buyers, a group of buyers, born in the 1980s, who grew up as single children thanks to China’s ‘One Child’ policy. Nissan sees this group as totally reliant on their network of friends for support, and has built a car that owners can enjoy with their friends on an equal basis. So every one of the four seats gets full instrumentation - SatNav, Fuel, Speed – and an ‘Oracle Stone’ runs down the centre of the cabin which can display whatever content the occupants want from their connected Smartphones and tablets.

Mazda MX-5 Yusho gets 238bhp

The Mazda MX-5 Yusho Concept has been revealed at the the Leipzig Auto Show with 238bhp from a supercharged engine. It’s not just the German car makers that have turned up to the Leipzig Auto Show with some interesting new cars, the Japanese have managed it to in the shape of the Mazda MX-4 Yusho Concept. The MX-5 Yusho (Yusho means Victory in Japanese) is a supercharged and titivated version of the regular MX-5 with 17″ grey alloys, lowered suspension, a boot lid spoiler and carbon fibre rear diffuser.

Audi Space Frame comes full circle at Frankfurt motor show

Audi is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ASF, or the Audi Space Frame. After all, it was at the 1993 Frankfurt motor show that Audi wowed the world with the innovative all-aluminum Audi A8 prototype. And now, 20 years later, more than 750,000 cars have been built using this technology.