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Mercedes rethinks its names: new Merc badges explained

At Mercedes, the naming of new models is often trickier than the technology these vehicles convey. Under the current badging hierarchy, most mainstream models use familiar one-letter names like S-class or G-Wagen. So far, so logical.

Driven: Volkswagen Passat CC GT

Elegant and refined. Forty years ago these two words would not have been used to describe the Beetles bought in droves by the counterculture in the US; a symbol of the hippy movement and the definitive people's car, designed at a time when Germany sought to put people in motion. With the Passat CC, however, Volkswagen is indeed making a sharp move away from the ‘volks wagen', and these two words rolled off the tongues of those who saw the car in all three countries we drove through on our winter holiday.

Toyota FT-86 II: Now Toyota mean it. Really

Toyota FT-86 II at Geneva Toyota has been threatening to produce an affordable sports car for quite a while. And when we first saw the Toyota FT-86 Concept at the end of 2009 (and in the flesh at Goodwood last summer) we’d expected to see it launch this year. Despite that expectation, we discovered in January that Toyota were actually taking a different concept to Geneva – the Toyota FT-86 II – dashing any hopes of the FT-86 in any shape or form hitting the road this year.