Falcon Badge 1961 Name Plate. on 2040-parts.com

De Tomaso bites the dust – again

De Tomaso has filed for bankruptcy again after failing to complete any of the deals Gian Mario Rossignolo had claimed would save the brand. De Tomaso has never had a an easy time of things despite building a few cars – well, the De Tomaso Pantera, at least – which had real appeal. After its last bankruptcy, former Fiat executive Gian Mario Rossignolo rode in as a white knight to put De Tomaso back on top – or so we thought.

Grab a ‘VAT Free’ Skoda Octavia

In yet another ‘Sign of the times’ Skoda has announced that they are now offering ‘VAT Free Octavias’ until the end of the year. No, this is not a tie-up between Alistair Darling and VW, it’s just Skoda’s way of offering a headline price decrease of a bit over 13% (less expensive to Skoda than last week for the same headline, to be fair, and there is a new model due in January!). Grab a VAT free Skoda Octavia I’m pretty sure that there will be a raft of these ‘VAT Free’ offers floating around on everything from cars to washing machines, capitalising on the fact the VAT is in the headlines.

Nissan LEAF World Car of the Year 2011

Nissan LEAF World Car of the Year Award - presented by a man in brown suede trainers Why do judges on COTY Award panels persist in considering a car like the Nissan LEAF for such awards? How can it be, when it does everything less well than an ICE car, that it even gets a look in? We can only assume that the judges on these panels are trying to polish their own green halos.