Mazda CX-5 crossover to get a diesel-engine option for 2014

Mazda's CX-5 compact crossover will get a diesel option for the 2014 model year, according to a source familiar with the company's plans. The CX-5 goes on sale in the United States in February with a 2.0-liter gasoline engine. The vehicle will have Mazda's new Skyactiv fuel-saving technologies, which include direct-injection engines, a more efficient transmission and a lightweight frame and chassis.

2013 Lexus LS: Price & Spec announced

Lexus has revealed that the 2013 Lexus LS will start at £71,995 for the LS 460 Luxury rising to £99,495 for the LS 600h L Premier. Lexus has brought back the LS 460 for those who don’t want the hybrid LS 600h, so you can now have your new LS with a 4.6 litre V8 with 382bhp and no electric gubbins. Not only that, but you can opt for the LS 460 in Luxury or F Sport spec for a little dynamic edge.

Early cars, fashion on display at the Petersen

Automotivated, a new exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, traces the evolution of clothes worn in cars--from the bulky circus-tent stuff people had to wear to keep from freezing to death in the jangly, open-topped conveyances of 100 years ago, up to the height of the European Concours in the 1920s and '30s, when what you and your date wore was just as important to winning best of show as the styling of your Delahaye/Delage/Talbot Lago. “In the earliest days of the automobile, you were sitting on the car, you weren't sitting in it,” said Leslie Kendall, curator at the Petersen. So the first section of the exhibit shows people (mannequins dressed as people) in heavy, practical overcoats, scarves and goggles.