Spectra Premium Industries Inc 7-3399 Condenser on 2040-parts.com

Arizona auctions: Early days filled with optimism

The sun kept shining--both as a metaphor and in reality--while the cars were selling at the Arizona auctions. As of late Thursday, Barrett-Jackson had completed three of its six days of sales. Preliminary numbers assembled by on-site reporters indicate total sales of $20.2 million at the halfway mark, with 100 percent of the 656 cars on offer sold.

New SEAT Leon goes in to production

The new SEAT Leon (2013) – revealed at the Paris Motor Show – has started production in Spain ahead of first deliveries in March 2013. SEAT has invested heavily in the Martorell plant in recent years – a shining light of success in a sea of Spanish manufacturing despair – with a £650 million investment in new facilities and R&D making Martorell a modern and efficient facility for the new Leon as well as the Ibiza, Altea and Exeo (and the Audi Q3). Not only has the investment in Martorell secured the jobs of 1600 Spanish workers (and four times as many in the supply chain), it promise more jobs too if the Leon turns out to be as appealing as it looks.

Double Oh My! James Bond Aston Martin sells for $4.6 million

Perhaps the single most breathtaking car of the fall auction season, a 1964 Aston Martin DB5--better known as the James Bond car--sold for $4.61 million to Ohio collector Harry Yeaggy on Wednesday at the RM Auctions Automobiles of London sale. The Aston was expected to sell for more than $5 million, and the sale fell a bit short of that, registering a final bid of 2.6 million British pounds, or $4,114,760. Buyer's premiums raise the total sale price to $4.61 million.