Vintage Mazda Wankel Rotary Rx3/4 Wagon Emblem Decal {ce541) on 2040-parts.com

Crucified cassette, Hindi BMW remix CD and other junkyard musical finds

In addition to holiday-themed displays assembled by junkyard employees and the occasional sad, flood-victim Volvo Amazon, I frequently find homemade mix CDs and cassette tapes while prowling through wrecking yards. In fact, it would be possible to go into just about any high-inventory-turnover self-service wrecking yard in North America and come away with several dozen such discs and tapes, if anybody ever felt motivated to do such a thing. I haven't, yet.

Jaguar XJ Diesel – The Swansong plaudit

The Jaguar XJ 2.7 Diesel has won the 'Greenest Luxury Car' Award And although one of the strengths of Jaguar has been its heritage it has, to a degree, also become its Achilles Heel. The first Jaguar XJs were a triumph when they were launched in 1968, and put Jaguar leaps and bounds ahead of the German competition, in the same way Jaguar had taken the world by storm with the E-Type a few years before. But things started to fall apart for Jaguar in the ’70s with the fiasco that was British Leyland, and by trying to emulate Porsche by making each iteration of the XJ an evolution of the original all they managed to do was cement in the public mindset the failings of the XJ.

Driven: Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback

The C-segment is one of the most important sectors of the automotive market, with every mainstream manufacturer having at least one car competing within. From Alfa Romeo's Giulietta through to the Lexus CT200h and Volvo's C30, there really is a car for everyone. So, in a potentially saturated marketplace, what can a Chevrolet hatchback offer above and beyond a nostalgic name and a tenuous link to an American heritage?