Honda Mini Trail 50 Kill Switch (z50) on 2040-parts.com

New Mazda3 Hatchback & Fastback priced from £16,695

The New Mazda3 (pictured at Frankfurt) costs from £16,695 Mazda revealed the new Mazda3 back in June, but didn’t manage to come up with prices for the UK. But now, with the Mazda 3 going on sale and due to arrive in the UK in January, Mazda has decided what it’s going to charge. The starting point for the new Mazda3 will be £16,695 for the 1.5 litre SKYACTIV-G petrol 100ps SE hatchback rising to £23,345 for the diesel 2.2-litre 150ps Sport Nav Auto hatchback.

New Ford Kuga production increased to meet strong demand

Ford has revealed that it having to increase production of the new Kuga by 10 per cent at its Valencia Plant to meet strong demand. We reported in February that Ford were chuffed with sales of the new Kuga - especially as almost all buyers were opting for ‘premium’ versions – with orders for almost 2,000 in the UK just weeks after the Kuga went in to production in Spain, and sales across Europe for the Kuga up 27 per cent year on year. So Ford is now doing the only thing they can to deal with the burgeoning sales of the Kuga and are upping production in Valencia by 10 per cent, and now expect to build 100,000 new Kugas this year for Europe alone.

Kia Quoris is production name for equally daft Kia K9

Kia has decided that its range-topping take on the BMW 7 Series should enter the market as the Kia Quoris. We can understand why Kia made the decision to seek a name for its new range-topping saloon for markets outside South Korea. After all, Kia K9 has a distinctly ‘pooch’ feel in the West (not to mention Dr Who’s sidekick), and chuck in the Korean predilection for eating man’s best friend and you have a PR problem along the lines of the Mitsubishi Pajero in Spain.