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Lotus to invest £500 million to build Esprit, Eterne, Elite & Elan. 1900 new jobs

The new Lotus Esprit Dany Bahar – Lotus boss – revealed plans at last year’s Paris Motor Show to turn Lotus in to an East Anglian Aston Martin. Those plans included one car we knew about – the new Lotus Esprit – and a number we didn’t – the Lotus Eterne, Lotus Elite, Lotus Elan and a new Lotus Elite. But the plans seemed to be nothing more than a wish list, and although it was intimated that Lotus owners Proton were going to provide a war chest of £770 million to fund the development, that later appeared to be an intent to provide Lotus with funds to develop a new range of cars, rather than an actual commitment.

Mazda Hazumi Concept previews new Mazda2 – teased for Geneva Motor Show

The Mazda Hazumi Concept (pictured) teased ahead of Geneva Mazda are gearing up for the Geneva Motor Show next week with the first teaser image of the Mazda Hazumi Concept. The Hazumi Concept – which apparently means ‘Spring up’ or ‘bound’ (as in ‘bound around’ not ‘bound up’) – is the firts clear view of the next generation Mazda 2 featuring the latest iteration of Mazda’s Kodo design language and clearly takes design cues from the new Mazda3. We’ll get more details on the Hazumi/new Mazda2 as Geneva approaches, but we’re expecting it to spawn a production version of the next generation Mazda 2 that will go on sale before the end of 2014.

Classic vs. Modern, Part One: Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 or 2012 Kia Rio SX

A recent 220-volt shock administered by the $23K-plus window sticker of a loaded Ford Fiesta rental car made me think about what the same dollars would buy in a classic car, and what the relative cost of ownership would be. My favorite matchup doesn't even require as much coin as said fully accessorized rental Fiesta. The 2012 Kia Rio SX carries an as-tested-by-Autoweek price of $20,745.