Toyota Oem 07-16 Tundra Passenger Seat-cup Holder 717530c030c0 on 2040-parts.com

Mandelson to announce help for car makers

Lord Mandelson is the man charged with finding ways to fund UK Car purchases (yes, he of the dodgy mortgage debacle – at least he should know a few tricks!) as the credit crunch has dried up funding, leading to an unprecedented drop in new car sales in the UK. Mandelson is due to make a statement in the Lords just after 3pm today, outlining the help the government is going to offer to ailing car makers. Central to this package is expected to be a funding channel directly from the Bank of England to inject liquidity in to the car financing sector.

2012 BMW M5 to get 4WD? +M5 Concept Video

Will the 2012 M5 get four wheel drive? Now there’s something to cogitate on for BMW M5 fruitcakes. Autocar are reading a comment by BMW’s head of R&D, Albert Biermann, that “…there will be some all-wheel-drive surprises on M cars in the future.” as evidence that BMW are going to do the almost unthinkable and offer 4WD as an option on the 2012 BMW M5.

Koenigsegg can take the P1, LaFerrari & Huayra with the Agera R

Koenigsegg believe that the Agera R has more than the measure of the new toys at Geneva – LaFerrari and McLaren P1 – and Pagani’s Huayra lap at Top Gear was a farce. But a car that was also at Geneva was the Koenigsegg Hundra, Koenigsegg’s one-off special to celebrate 100 Koenigseggs built since Christian von Koenigsegg started bolted his immense supercars together in a shed in Sweden a decade ago. So we thought it would be interesting to chat to Koenigsegg people – including Koenigsegg’s UK dealer Supervettura –  and get their thoughts on the new batch of supercars that could perhaps take some gloss off the offerings from Koenigsegg.