Toyota Passo Sette 2008 Condenser [0960600] on 2040-parts.com

2015 Vauxhall Astra means new UK jobs

Vauxhall has announced that it will take on 300 new staff at its Ellesmere Port plant, ready for production of the new Astra in 2015. It follows the plant’s successful bid to build the 2015 Astra, which secured investment of £125 million for the UK factory in 2012. 20 reasons why Britain’s car industry is booming Read a Vauxhall new car review Meanwhile, in 2011, Vauxhall’s Luton plant received a £185 million investment to build the new Vivaro van – and now the Bedfordshire base is planning to create a further 250 jobs.

Merdad vision of the Range Rover Evoque – the Evoque Mer-Nazz

The Merdad Evoque Mer-Nazz We’re already starting to see the first efforts of the pimpers, tuners, modders and customisers on the new Range Rover Evoque surfacing, and the latest is the Merdad Evoque Mer-Nazz Regular readers with good memories will remember Merdad as the man unfortunate enough to be the UK arm of the Gemballa operation when everything went wrong for Uwe Gemballa. That meant the end of Gemballa in the UK, but Merdad has bounced back with his now eponymous company to create extreme cars for those with tastes for more unsubtle forms of car customisation. Merdad’s first effort was a very Gembala-esque two-door Cayenne, but he went British with a subsequent effort when he created the McLaren MP4-12C MehRon, which we took to be an homage to Ron Dennis.

Lotus NOT for sale as Proton sold to DRB-Hicom

Lotus NOT for sale - at least not for two years Despite rumours that Lotus was for sale, the sale of Lotus parent Proton to DRB-Hicom appears to preclude any sale of Lotus for two years. We reported recently that Lotus owners Proton had been advised to sell its loss-making Hethel car-maker Lotus as it geared up to be divested of State ownership in Malaysia. But it seems the sale of Proton in to private hands is to have the opposite effect.