Vintage 1950s Pontiac Star Emblems on 2040-parts.com

Kia preparing a range of sporting models

Kia is quietly readying a string of sportier models to pep up its humdrum image, CAR has learned. The burgeoning sports car plan is likely to sire everything from hot hatches to standalone sports cars. On our trip to Korea this week, sources at Kia HQ confirmed a range of performance models, designed to mix some excitement into a brand that now commands respect from mainstream buyers after its crawl upmarket to the volume market alongside Europe's mass-market brands.

Daimler and Renault-Nissan strike a global partnership

Daimler today struck a wide-ranging partnership with the Renault-Nissan alliance, in a deal that will usher in new jointly developed cars, shared technologies and a multitude of cost savings.  Cars such as the new 2014 Smart Fortwo will now be twinned with the next Renault Twingo, while the Forfour is set for a comeback and we can expect plenty of shared combustion engines and electric motors, borrowed platforms and jointly developed SUV tech across all three parties. And that's only scratching the surface of the possibilities opened up by this wide-ranging deal.

Ford Mondeo goes green

By Ben Barry First Official Pictures 03 June 2007 01:57 New Mondeo spearheads Ford's ramp-up of bio-fuel models Ford announced an expansion in its flexifuel range. Flexifuel allows a vehicle to run on either regular petrol or E85 – an 85/15 percent bio-ethanol/petrol blend – and automatically offsets any carbon emissions produced because more crops are always produced to meet the demand for fuel. Ford president and CEO John Fleming confirmed that the existing Focus and C-Max flexifuel cars would be joined by Mondeo, Galaxy and S-Max derivatives, which will all come on stream from early 2008.