Mini Coupe Concept

Mini Coupe Concept

Celebrating Mini’s 50th birthday, two people at a time.
Fifty years ago, the original Mini was shown to the public for the first time, thus beginning the long history of a little car that continues to strike joy in the hearts of many to this day. To celebrate, Mini has built a chopped, two-seat super-Cooper called the Mini Coupe Concept for the Frankfurt auto show.


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NZ: Cash for clunkers Kiwi style

Cash for clunkers Kiwi style as auction firm tackles wrecks

Backyard mechanics rejoice - an auction company is offering to sell your rusting car wreck for free.
From tomorrow, Turners Auctions will offer free auctions to people wanting to offload old, polluting, unfixable cars, with profits going to the owner. As part of the deal, the car has to be deregistered.
A spokesman said the company wanted to help deal with some of the roughly 100,000 vehicles that became too unsafe, broken down or expensive to drive each year - so they did not end up rusting in a paddock.
The cars will be sold at no reserve and for no auction fee through a specialist auction division, Turners Damaged Vehicle Auctions.
Turners said it would pick up cars within a 30km radius of a branch for nothing, or take the proceeds of the sale it if arranged towing from further away.
Spokesman Todd Hunter said people would be surprised what an old car could fetch. "Even the saddest old wreck can fetch $200-plus as scrap."
He said the company was concerned about the environmental issues associated with used vehicles. "Vehicles that have been retired to a paddock or the backyard are exposed to the elements, leading to corrosion and engine and brake fluids leaking into the soil and waterways."

The offer runs until December 1 and follows a similar trial in 2007, when 238 drivable vehicles and 73 non-drivable vehicles were sold in three months.

For more information, see www.turners.co.nz.

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Crash test geniuses: 7 out of 8 top tests

Seven of the latest batch of eight cars to be submitted to the Euro NCAP safety tests have achieved the top five-star rating, while the eighth, the Citroen C3, would have achieved five rather than four stars if ESC (electronic stability control) systems had been fitted more widely across the range.
NCAP testing - first introduced in 1996 - when four and five star ratings were very rare, even for the less comprehensive suite of tests then in use. But has there perhaps been an element of safety-test "grade inflation"?


Euro NCAP five star winners:
*Honda Insight
*Kia Sorento
*Renault Grand
*Scenic Skoda Yeti
*Subaru Legacy
*Toyota Prius
*VW Polo

2010 Chevrolet Camaro Transformers Special Edition

Evidently not content with all the positive spin that the Camaro’s starring role in the Transformers movies has garnered, Chevrolet has taken the inevitable (and rather predictable) step too far by introducing the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro Transformers Special Edition.
Yep, you too can turn that Rally Yellow Camaro you were about to order into a fake Bumblebee with the Transformers Special Edition option package. It includes nothing more than Autobot shields on the fenders, wheel center caps, and center armrest, as well as Transformers logos on the door sill plates and embedded within the black center rally stripes.
Does that seem worth $995? It does to some people, according to Chevrolet. "When the first Transformers movie was setting box office records, we had countless customers asking to purchase the ‘Bumblebee’ Camaro," said Karen Rafferty, product marketing director for Chevrolet. "Now, they can buy one with the new Camaro Transformers Special Edition. Streets all over North America will be buzzing in no time." Ah, so punny.
The cheesy package is available on any Camaro LT or SS, with or without the RS appearance package, so long as it is Rally Yellow. We suggest starting with the 400-plus-hp, V-8–powered SS model if you want your “Bumble” to “rumble.” And if you’re going to get one, we suggest doing it soon, while Transformers is still getting a lot of “buzz.”