London Taxi maker Manganese Bronze bought by China’s Geely

China automotive giant Geely has bought Manganese Bronze – makers of the iconic London Black Cab – in an £11.04 million deal. The iconic London Black Cab has been an accident waiting to happen for years, as under investment in making the Black Cab fit for the 21st century saw competition – like the Mercedes Vito Taxi and the Nissan NV200 Cab – start to offer serious competition to the taxi that identifies London. Despite an investment by China’s Geely – when Geely bought 20 per cent of Manganese Bronze, makers of the Black Cab – and the bulk of the Black Cab being produced in China and bolted together in the Midlands, the final nail in the coffin for Manganese Bronze was the recall of 400 TX4 cabs over a steering fault.

GMC Granite Concept at Detroit Motor Show

The GMC Granite Concept has previewed at the Detroit Motor Show We have to get used to US car makers coming up with cars that really don’t fit with the universal impression of a Yank-Tank. Times they are a changing’ and the US car industry is being dragged in to the 21st century. Latest Euro-Asian style offering comes in the form of a GMC.

2014 Skoda Yeti Facelift – now comes as Town or Country

The Skoda Yeti gets a facelift for 2014 – and a split personality The Skoda Yeti has been a big success for Skoda – and rightly so, it’s very able and decently priced – but it’s been around for a while and is ready for a facelift. So Skoda has done the usual facelift tweaks for the Yeti – which will be revealed in public at next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show – with new grill and lights at the front, titivated tailgate and lights at the back, some new colour options - Moon-White, Jungle-Green, Metal-Grey and Magnetic-Brown – and new alloys. Inside the tweaks are even less obvious with titivations for the steering wheel, dashboard trim and upholstery and the arrival of a rear view camera and automatic parking the main highlights.