Daihatsu Mira 2010 Left Side Mirror Assembly [2913600] on 2040-parts.com

New car prices rise under cover of VAT rise

Price rise ? That's just down to Dave's extra Vodka. Well, I’ll go to the foot of our stairs, as my Dad might once have said.

Mystery Porsche prototype destroyed in fire near Stuttgart

According to the Porsche-lovers at flatsixes.com, an unknown Porsche prototype caught fire after being taken home by an employee earlier this week. It reportedly took 19 firefighters to extinguish the blaze, which occurred in a home garage in Ludwigsburg, Germany (a city located near Porsche's home in Stuttgart). Fortunately, the employee and his wife suffered only minor injuries, but we assume the prototype is a complete loss.

Mercedes SLA Roadster looks likely

As car manufacturers start to look with fresh eyes at smaller, cheaper cars, reports from Germany confirm that Mercedes is close to committing to the SLA, a small Roadster to be based on the next generation A-Class platform. The original SLA concept was shown at Detroit in 2000, and aimed to slot in beneath the SLK. But at that time Mercedes didn’t have a suitable platform on which to base the car, and the project was shelved.