Toyota Sprinter Trueno 1995 Rear Left Combination Lamp [4615600] on 2040-parts.com

New Vauxhall Astra – the Race

The new Vauxhall Astra will be launched in September at Frankfurt This sixth generation of the Astra is a good looking car, and has taken a lot of its design cues from the very good Vauxhall Insignia. And it has in its sites the Ford Focus, the VW Golf and the new Mazda 3. So what better way to show its prowess than to produce a ‘viral’ video – without giving away too much detail – showing the new Astra mullering the Focus and the Golf on the track at Millbrook?

Insurance group lists its Top Safety Picks

After increasing its standards for 2011 models, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that 66 vehicles--more than double the 2010 total--rate as best in the industry at protecting passengers from front, side, rollover and rear crashes. Only 27 vehicles qualified last year after the group, funded by the insurance industry, required that vehicles pass a roof-strength test to earn a good rating, claiming that stronger roofs would reduce the risk of serious or fatal injury by 50 percent in a rollover accident. The most mentioned carmakers on the 2011 list are Hyundai/Kia and Volkswagen/Audi, both with nine vehicles to get the Top Safety Pick designation.

Maserati GranTurismo S Auto gets a Sports Pack

Maserati GranTurismo S Auto - now with Sport Pack for an extra £4k The Maserati GranTurismo S Auto is Maserati’s best-selling car in the UK, and you can see why. It’s good looking in that slightly odd combination of butch and dainty that certain Italian cars manage so well, it’s performance is decent without being earth-shattering and – certainly compared to any other Italian you could consider remotely ’Exotic’ – it’s more sensibly priced, at the right side of £100k. But if there are criticisms to be levelled against the GrandTurismo S they perhaps revolve around its slightly ‘soft’ nature.