Mopar salutes Don Garlits and muscle-car past as it eyes global future

Mopar made its name in performance and parts, but Chrysler's aftermarket division is staking its future on practicality. The brand celebrated its 75th anniversary on Tuesday at the Mopar engineering lab in Center Line, Mich., just north of Detroit. While it rolled out four custom cars with various stages of show-and-go upgrades and drag-racing legend Don Garlits, Mopar officials were decidedly forward-looking.

Volkswagen Beetle

The 2012 Beetle has been unveiled ahead of its Shanghai Motor Show reveal. The new 'New Beetle' is said to draw on design cues from the original Beetle launched 73 years ago. Retaining a similar silhouette to the 2003 New Beetle, the 2012 model gains a stronger influence from the 2005 Detroit show 'Ragster' concept.

Call to cut school run car journeys

A 10% CUT in school run car journeys would boost Britain's economy by around £46 million a year, a sustainable transport charity has claimed. Sustrans, which is calling on the Government to formally recognise the right of every child to be able to walk or cycle to school safely, estimates that ferrying children to school by car accounts for 24% of peak time traffic. Using Department for Transport modelling to calculate the financial drain on business caused by rush-hour congestion, Sustrans estimated that a 14% reduction in car use for school runs would take 167,000 vehicles off the road with an annual "saving" of £66.2 million.