Swivl-eze Extension Post 10" #238610-3 on 2040-parts.com

Mini Beachcomber Concept at Detroit motor show 2010

This funky beach-biased concept car has just appeared at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show in January. Called the Mini Beachcomber Concept, this flight-of-fancy Moke-inspired show car gives us our first glimpse of how Mini's production-spec 4x4 crossover will look at launch - we'll see the real car at the Geneva motor show in March 2010 ahead of an autumn UK launch. This four-seater, four-wheel-drive machine has been designed without doors or a conventional roof, so that its occupants are not cut off from the outside world.

BMW 0 Series revealed? +video

Is this the BMW 0 Series? If BMW are going to go further downmarket in their quest for more sales – which we know they are with their plans for front wheel drive BMWs – then short of a sub-brand marque (entirely possible some will wear the Isetta or i-setta badge) then the only number we have to play with is a big, fat 0. It seems daft to give a BMW a leading 0 and its own series, but it certainly looks to be under consideration.

German new car sales drop 11 per cent – pre-reg accounts for 33.5 per cent

New car sales in Germany dropped by 11 per cent in September with pre-reg cars accounting for over a third of all sales. That drop of 11 per cent in Germany is despite deep discount offers – an average of 12.2 per cent in September – with even the previously invincible Mercedes and VW having to offer discounts of up to €3k, despite which VW’s sales fell by 20 per cent in Germany and Mercedes by 12 per cent. What’s perhaps most interesting about the decline in car sales in Germany is the number of pre-reg cars sold (pre reg cars are cars registered by dealers to hit sales targets and then sold at a discount of up to 25 per cent).