Dorman 722-028 Leaf Spring Shackle/part-leaf Spring Shackle on 2040-parts.com

Are used car prices about to spiral down?

CAP – the used car price specialists – are warning that used car prices, particularly ’almost’ new car prices, are set to tumble as nearly new cars hit the market. The car market in the UK has proved amazingly resilient to the general malaise in the economy, with new car sales continuing to rise strongly and used cars seemingly immune to big depreciation drops. But CAP – who gauge used car prices for the motor trade – are warning that this could be about to change as the impact of recent trading in new cars is about to start impacting on used car prices, particularly prices for cars less than a year old.

Some 2005 and 2006 Chevrolet Corvettes are set to be recalled

Add the mighty Chevrolet Corvette to the list of recalled cars. General Motors is recalling some 2005 and 2006 models for a steering-column problem. About 40,000 cars produced between March 2004 and January 2006 could be affected.

McLaren 12C Spider Neiman Marcus Edition. Christmas is coming.

This year’s special Christmas car from Neiman Marcus is a special edition of the McLaren 12C Spider with lunch with Ron Dennis thrown in. Last year Neiman Marcus offered the Ferrari FF but this year it’s the turn of the Brits again (the Neiman Marcus Christmas car was the Jaguar XJ in 2009) with the new McLaren 12C Spider, the convertible version of the MP4-12C (which, it appears, McLaren now want us to call just the 12C). The Neiman Marcus 12C Spider is a bog standard car (not that there’s much ‘bog standard’ about 616bhp and a 0-62mph of just 3.1 seconds) in Volcano Red, but it does come with the prerequisite of a Neiman Marcus car by offering something money can’t easily buy (although it self evidently can) – dinner with Ron.