Lube Locker Chrysler 8.25in. Differential Cover Gasket - Llrc825 on 2040-parts.com

The fall and rise of the budget car

Twenty years ago, the classic bargain brands like Lada seemed to be going the same way as the Soviet empire that spawned them. Woefully dated and badly made, only a weirdo would have bought a new Lada rather than a second-hand model from Ford, Vauxhall or VW. However, one of the big trends in the car industry today is the re-emergence of bargain cars.

Chrysler's new 300C John Varvatos Edition ad

Anybody remember Polocore? That weird little moment in the mid-'90s when a sect of hardcore kids were all decked out in Ralph Lauren finery? What seemed incongruous in '95 was simple, unvarnished fact a dozen years later, when it was announced that former Ralph Lauren designer John Varvatos would open a flagship boutique in the space formerly occupied by CBGB's.

Jaguar ads 'too focussed on speed'

ADVERTS for Jaguar have been banned for focusing on the cars' speed and encouraging dangerous driving. The four video ads on Jaguar's website showed a car driving at speed through a tunnel and crossing over the single white lines in the middle of a road, before driving across a mountain road at night. Another scene showed a car driving on open land at high speed, while voice-overs said: "The adaptive dynamics technology reacts 20 times faster than the human eye.