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Win a signed sketch of the Renault Dezir concept

The new October 2010 issue of CAR Magazine features a beautiful shoot of Renault’s new Dezir, a rear-wheel drive electric supercar concept that will be unveiled at the 2010 Paris motor show. And CAR’s editor Phil McNamara has been to Paris early, for an audience with Renault’s design director Laurens van den Acker, and to see the stunning Dezir in the metal. It’s the first of six concept cars from Renault, before we see the new van den Acker-led design language appear on the Clio 4 in 18 months time.

Jaguar confirms small saloon – and gets the thumbs up from Number 10

Jaguar will launch a small saloon beneath the XF in 2015, the company confirmed on the eve of the Frankfurt motor show. The baby Jag (seen testing as a disguised evaluation mule in our spy shots gallery) will be constructed from aluminium and built in the West  Midlands, creating around 1700 jobs. The news prompted a call to Jaguar from the office of Prime Minister David Cameron, offering Number 10's congratulations and support with the company's product expansion.

Lexus IS 300h promises unrivalled ownership costs

The new Lexus IS - launched at Detroit in January and costing from £26,495 for the IS 250 in the UK – actually offers ownership costs that eclipse diesel offerings from the likes of Jaguar, BMW, Audi and Mercedes, say Lexus. Despite the logical assumption that the complex hybrid powerplant in the IS 300h would cost more to maintain, Lexus say the opposite is true. Because it has no clutch and the starter motor and alternator are integrated they require no servicing or replacement and Lexus has fitted a timing chain instead of a timing belt, so it won’t need regular replacement either.