Fiat 124 Spider 131 Lancia Beta Scorpion Auxiliary Shaft Seal Housing on 2040-parts.com

New VW Golf R Mk 7 costs from £29,900 in the UK

The new VW Golf R (pictured) costs from £29,900 The best of the MK 7 Golfs – the new Golf R – arrived back in August ahead of its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, with Volkswagen telling us it would go on sale in early 2014. But it’s actually on sale now, a few weeks early. At £29,900 (for the 3-door with 6-speed manual), the Golf R is a sensible price ( at least in comparison to VW’s truly silly price for the MK 6 Golf R Cabrio – which they subsequently dropped by more than £5k) and undercuts the similar Audi S3.

Redesigned Nissan Sunny for China a likely preview of the new Versa

Nissan revealed the redesigned Sunny small sedan at an auto show in China on Monday, and the car is a likely preview of the next-generation Versa for the United States. Nissan said the Sunny will be sold in 170 countries under various names. The Sunny goes on sale in China in January.

Fiat 500 gets Stop-Start

Flavour of the month, stop-start, and here’s another to add to the list. The Fiat 500 gets Start&Stop (I’ve lost count of the different monikers) as an option on the 1.2 Lounge, using Bosch technology to beef up the system to make it reliable. The Stop/Start also gets another Fiat moniker – Blue&Me – which gives the driver EcoDrive to aid emissions and adds hands-free phone and an entertainment system.