Depo Left Outside Front Primed Door Handle W/ Keyhole Toyota 69211ae020c0 on 2040-parts.com

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Cadillac ATS (2012) compact exec unveiled at Detroit show

Cadillac took the wraps off the new compact Caddy, the ATS, at an event on the eve of the 2012 Detroit auto show. The new Cadillac ATS is essentially a BMW 3-series rival meeting all the design and engineering criteria of the larger Cadillacs. Cadillac ATS: what's new The ATS is like a baby CTS - the Art and Science design credo has been upheld, with sharp creases and pressed body surfacing to give it the Cady look.

2014 Volkswagen Scirocco & Scirocco R facelift tweaks the old Scirocco

The 2014 Volkswagen Scirocco (pictured) gets a facelift Before you get too excited, the 2014 Volkswan Scirocco isn’t a nice new version of the Scirocco based on the new Golf Mark 7, but a minor titivate designed to make the ageing Scirocco look a little fresher. Volkswagen has employed the usual facelift tweaks to make the 2014 Scirocco look subtly different to the current model with new bumpers, modified grill, new bi-xenons, new LED tail lights and black diffuser at the back. There’s also a new range of colours on offer and, although the standard Scirocco gets 17″ alloys, you can option 18 and 19″ too.