Schoenfeld So63043 Slip-on Collector 1-5/8 on 2040-parts.com

Driven: Kia Picanto

The first-generation Kia Picanto was one of the cars that helped promote Kia from the lower half of the second-division to somewhere near the playoff places. Its combination of great value, five-door practicality and vaguely cutesy - if thoroughly unremarkable - design found it many a home on the driveway of those looking for an A-segment hatchback. The second-generation model is playing a rather tougher ballgame.

VW & Audi sell 100,000 diesel cars in the USA for the first time

VW & Audi sell 100,000 diesel cars in the USA for the first time Until very recently, a diesel engined car in the USA was as rare as hen’s teeth; Americans felt much the same as we used to about diesel-engined cars – fit only for commercial vehicles. But from a slow start, VW Group of America is gradually changing the mindset of American car buyers and now, 36 years after the first VW diesel was sold in the US, the VW Group have sold more than 100,000 diesel-engined cars in the USA in a year for the first time. With 12 Audi and VW diesel models on offer in the States – including new arrivals Audi arrivals like the Audi Q5 TDI, A6 TDI, A7 TDI and A8 TDI models – its seems the USA may now be heading down the route the UK went a few years ago, where a majority of car buyers in the UK feel the default buy is a diesel.

Smart Fortwo Lightshine launches

Yet another Smart Limited Edition - the Smart Fortwo Lightshine You have to hand it to Mercedes – they don’t give up on Smart (or Maybach – another expensive departure). They keep churning out new cars (well, endless new limited editions, anyway) despite sales that seem to keep falling. Last year (2010) saw Smart sales in the UK fall by 8.5% and their sales last month (December 2010) were a woeful 57% down on December 2009.