Daihatsu Move 2002 Hood [1810500] on 2040-parts.com

Ford Kuga launched in Australia – but it’s the old Kuga

The old Ford Kuga is the new Ford Kuga in Australia In what seems an odd move, the current Ford Kuga has been launched in Australia, just weeks from the debut of the 2012 Kuga in Geneva. You can’t have failed to notice that the 2012 Ford Kuga is just round the corner – and due to debut at Geneva in March – and we’ve already seen most of what the new Kuga has to offer with the debut of the new Ford Escape at Los Angeles last November. But despite the world readying itself to put in an order for a new Kuga, our Antipodean cousins are only now getting the chance to buy a Kuga, but its not the all new Ford Kuga, rather the Kuga we’ve had for the last four years.

Volkswagen Passat Alltrack: The VW Allroad arrives

The VW Passat Alltrack - debuts in Tokyo Volkswagen has jumped on to the Allroad bandwagon with its own take on Audi’s faux off-roader, with the reveal of the 2012 VW Passat Alltrack. As you would expect, the Passat Alltrack is a butched-up Passat Estate with a raised ride height, extra bits of plastic round the bumpers, skid plates, flared side sills and 4WD – VW’s 4MOTION – for more traction in boot sale car parks. But when you don’t need the 4WD, around 90 poer cent of the drive is through the front wheels – saving fuel – with the rear wheel drive only coming in to play when you start to slip and slide.

Nissan LEAF £2500 UK price drop

Nissan has revealed that the LEAF EV will be reduced in price by £2500 with immediate effect and ahead of the launch of the uprated 2013 LEAF. The world hasn’t exactly fallen in love with electric cars, which has as much to do with the fact that an electric car, with its limited range, is never going to be a replacement for a normal ICE car. But compounding the impracticality of the EV as a replacement for the ICE car is the very high prices car makers are charging for electric cars, the sort of prices that mean buyers will probably find the ‘Cheap to Fuel’ EV a more costly option than fuelling a much cheaper comparable iICE car with petrol or diesel.