Vintage Original 1953 Buick Skylark Convertible Advertisement- 6 1/2" X 10" on 2040-parts.com

New Volvo V40: Strong residual values predicted

New Volvo V40 – Strong residuals Volvo has had good news from the fleet industry with strong residuals forecast for the new 2012 Volvo V40 ahead of first customer cars. We’ve been very impressed with what we’ve seen of the new Volvo V40; it’s a car that is right on the money in its style, its pricing and its range (although we’d like to see something more exciting at the top end). And now, with production of the V40 under way and the first customer cars expected to arrive in the UK in September, Volvo has had very good news from the fleet industry and the people who set residual values for car finance.

Mercedes CLA Shooting Brake on the way

Mercedes’ design boss Gordon Wagener has revealed to WhatCar that they are planning to go exactly the same route with the CLA as they did with the CLS, and create a coupe estate. The CLS Shooting Brake (pictured below) has been very well received, and with much of the world downsizing its cars a CLA Estate is a very sensible way to go, offering all the good design elements of the CLA – which already looks like a CLS on a boil wash – in a car that has more practicality. Wagener gave no idea of time scale for the CLA Shooting Brake, but with the first CLAs expected to hit customers in June it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a concept CLA Shooting Brake arrive by the time of the Frankfurt Motor Show in September before going on sale in 2014.

2012 Mercedes E63 AMG gets Twin-Turbo 5.5-Litre V8: New York 2011 Catch-up

2012 Mercedes E63 AMG with twin-turbo V8 It’s always the same; however hard we try there’s always something of proper interest that slips through the net when there’s a motor show on, and this time there’s likely to be more as New York and Shanghai are in full swing at the same time. Excuses out of the way, we thought we ought to take a look at the 2012 Mercedes E63 AMG, which has had a heart transplant to get Mercedes’ latest 5.5 litre twin-turbo V8. Out goes the naturally aspirated 6.2 litre V8 and in comes the forced-induction jobbie, promising more torque and much better economy.