UK


Volkswagen prices UK Scirocco R and Golf R, debuts new ad [w/VIDEO]

For those of you in the U.K., the R-line versions of the Golf and Scirocco have been priced and can now be ordered. The Scirocco is the bargain of the two, going for £26,945 ($44,257 U.S.), while the Golf takes you slightly higher up the currency chart, priced at £28,930 ($47,518 U.S. -- nota bene: U.S. prices don't directly translate). They both come standard with a 6-speed manual, but if you want the car to shift for you, the DSG transmission option adds £1,300 ($2,135 U.S.) to either car. They're the fastest and most ... Read more →

Steward of the Seven, Graham Nearn, passes away at 76 Jonathon Ramsey

Graham Nearn helped develop and sell the Lotus 7, creating Caterham Cars in 1959 as a retail outlet for the lightweight roadster. After having seen the car through its years of broadcasting fame ...

Renault Mégane Renaultsport 250 drops on unsuspecting Brits Jonathon Ramsey

We're not really fans of yellow cars, but every once in a while we come upon a butter-colored coupe and think, "Oh, that's not bad..." The Mégane Renaultsport 250 is just one of those ...

REPORT: Production lines halted at MG's Longbridge plant. This is not a repeat from 2005. Jonathon Ramsey

It is a travesty that the initials "MG" are coming to be a convenient epithet for the term "woe." The British sportscar maker has had an exceedingly trying history recently, and things haven't got ...

Brick By Brick: James May's Lego house comes down Jonathon Ramsey

Top Gear host James May went to Dorking, England and built a Lego fort house in an orchard with more than three million Lego pieces. Now it's time for him to vacate the premises, and the house has ...

VIDEO: Ken Block takes unsuspecting DiRT 2 players out on hot laps 1 month ago on Autoblog

DiRT 2 had a coming out party in the UK and not only did Ken Block join the festivities, he decided to surprise some big-talking gamers with a couple of hot laps. If we could take anything from the demonstration, it's that Ken Block looks to be just as badass when driving on the other side of ...

BMW planning special-edition X5 xDrive35d as model turns 10 1 month ago on Autoblog

To celebrate ten years of X5 sales, BMW is introducing an xDrive35d 10-Year Edition X5. The special edition SUV gets unique wheels, aluminum trim, and a panoramic glass sunroof, along with Nappa leather, comfort seats, and BMW Individual Piano Black trim inside. There will be just 2,000 of ...

Toyota cutting production capacity by up to 1 million vehicles? 2 months ago on Autoblog

Japan's Nikkei has reported that Toyota is will cut production by 10% in its next fiscal year, from ten million to nine million vehicles. To do that, Japan's largest automaker is said to be shutting down an entire production line in its home country for a year-and-a-half starting next spring. There ...

VIDEO: U.K. texting-while-driving PSA is a return to Blood on the Highway 2 months ago on Autoblog

It looks like Wales hired Danny Boyle or Quentin Tarantino to create a PSA to showcase the dangers of texting while driving (it was actually Peter Watkins-Hughes). As these things do, it starts off with a couple of teenagers doing what teenagers do -- in this case, sending text messages from ...

Renault Mégane Sport Tourer launches in no fewer than 21 flavors 2 months ago on Autoblog

Renault has introduced its new Mégane Sport Tourer, which might rightfully called "Blackjack," because there are twenty-one different versions in the range. That's one car available with four different engines in five different trim levels. It's the antidote to the kind of economic ...

Tata gets private-sector loan, doesn't need UK government money 2 months ago on Autoblog

Tata's target was £1 billion ($1.65B U.S.) in loans to keep the JLR group going. And while Tata is in talks with the U.K government about providing a large chunk of that, some of the government's terms -- like veto power over management decisions-- prevented Tata from pulling the trigger. ...

Land Rover increases production of new Discovery and Range Rover Sport 2 months ago on Autoblog

It's a little difficult to keep track of what's happening at Tata and JLR these days. While the XF sales continue apace and the XJ is promising, the JLR division lost £673.4 million pounds ($1.11B U.S.) last year, and parent company Tata was $520 million in the red at the end of its 2008 ...

Dealer accidently unveils Audi R8 Spyder in classified ad? 3 months ago on Autoblog

Stafford Audi, a U.K. Audi dealer, placed an advertisement on the popular website Pistonheads for the forthcoming R8 Spider. For a picture of the car, they used an uncamouflaged picture of an R8 Spider from the Iron Man sequel, as you can see from the California license plate that reads "Stark." ...

Follow-up: Toyota may not produce hybrid Yaris after all 3 months ago on Autoblog

A Toyota insider is countering yesterday's report that the automaker is planning a Yaris-based hybrid to be built in France. Such a vehicle would be unnecessary, according to the unnamed source. Today's Toyota Yaris is already a fuel miser. The European variant is currently quipped with a ...

REPORT: James May to build life-sized Lego house. But what's in the garage? 3 months ago on Autoblog

James May, a.k.a. Captain Slow on Top Gear, has a BBC show called James May's Toy Stories. After building an award-winning Plasticine garden and the world's largest model airplane, the next thing on May's list is a house built of Legos. A two-storey house. And he intends to live in it for a ...

British government drags its feet, Tata threatens to cancel Indica EV for the UK 3 months ago on Autoblog

In January, the UK government set aside £2.3 billion for loan guarantees to help automakers start producing electric cars on the island. In April, Tata applied for £10 billion from the program to build its Indica Vista EV. Last week the Indian firm was told that it would be another ...

Top Gear draws fire for 'glorifying' 210 MPH ticket. Only it's a fake. [w/VIDEO] 3 months ago on Autoblog

ESPN sports columnist Bill Simmons proposed a 72-hour reportage moratorium for the web – that way, news could be vetted before was broadcast to the entire universe. Had that been in effect, the story of Orange County resident Philip Robert Odegard might not have ended up on Top Gear and ...

Ad aims to put butts in seats Ad puts naked butts in Seat Altea 3 months ago on Autoblog

Seat wants to make sure that people in the U.K. don't equate a family car with being boring, and what better more Latin way to do it than by using happy naked people? The print campaign for the Seat Altea features two "parents" hopping out of their Seat and frolicking on their way to a skinny ...

VIDEO: Unlikely Goodwood - Rod Millen's Toyota Tacoma charges up the hill 3 months ago on Autoblog

Last year, Rod Millen took his Toyota Tacoma Pike's Peak runner to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Looking, sounding, and handling nothing like a Tacoma, and powered by – according to the caption – a "2-little turbocharged 4-cylinder," Millen flings the thing up the hill, all the ...

VIDEO: Express mail Top Gear style - Porsche Panamera vs. U.K. postal service 3 months ago on Autoblog

The latest Top Gear challenge pits the Panamera against Britain's postal service. James May and Richard Hammond race a stamped and mailed letter from the Isles of Scilly to Zanzibar Bungalow, Birsay, Orkney -- about 900 miles over land and sea. The stakes: according to James May, arriving in ...

VIDEO: Vauxhall trying to bring back roller skating? Groovy. 4 months ago on Autoblog

Vauxhall is rolling out the retro cool by holding an invitation-only roller skating event in North London on July 29. As part of the festivities, the General Motors division has reportedly commissioned bespoke sets of Vauxhall Corsa roller boots (seriously), and the event will even feature a ...

Findings from inquiry into demise of MG Rover finished... only took 4 years and $26M 4 months ago on Autoblog

The final days of MG were disastrous and disastrously expensive. The British government finally has an accounting of what happened, but it only adds to both sides of the disaster: the report took four years and £16 million ($26 million U.S.) for CPA firm BDO Stoy Howard to compile. For now, ...

Don't Tread On Me: U.K. church angers some by offering Wimbledon parking in cemetery 4 months ago on Autoblog

Every year during Wimbledon, St. Mary's Church offers parking to fans attending the tennis tournament. Normally, the church opens an adjacent field for car parking, but this year St. Mary's allowed tourney visitors to park their cars in the oldest portion of its cemetery -- on top of actual graves ...

Jeremy Clarkson upsets Scouts, Catholic Church with Skoda commentary 4 months ago on Autoblog

What do you get when you mix Clarkson, May, a Skoda, and the Catholic church? Controversy, of course. During a review of the Skoda Scout, May and Clarkson engaged in a bit of banter that mingled scouts -- as in Boy Scouts -- the church, and inappropriate touching. And when you "have a dig at two ...

VIDEO: Stig scam gets you around for free 4 months ago on Autoblog

Here's a fantastic challenge that the Top Gear team didn't think up: if you walked around London dressed as the Stig, how many strangers would let you drive their cars? Aussie comedy show The Chaser's War on Everything went to London to find out, in an attempt to find a cheaper way to travel. ...

REPORT: The Stig is to be unmasked unhelmeted on tonight's Top Gear! 4 months ago on Autoblog

Jeremy Clarkson has written that some time after the new season of Top Gear begins tonight at 8 p.m. on British televisions, "Stig barges into the studio and in an atmosphere that you could cut with a knife removes his helmet." Ostensibly, that means we'll finally learn the identity of the ...

UK man loses license for towing son on sled with his 4x4 - past the police station 4 months ago on Autoblog

A pickup truck, a sled, ten inches of snow, and the chance to give a six-year-old a once-in-a-lifetime experience. What does that add up to? For Simon Lewington it could have added up to a jail sentence, but instead, he'll lose his license for a year and have to do 180 hours of community service. ...

STUDY: UK police officers confuse diesel and gas pumps four times a day, cost taxpayers £1 million 5 months ago on Autoblog

British police have an expensive problem. It's not crime and it isn't corruption, it's much worse. The £1 million problem is stupidity. Over the course of three years, UK cops have on 4,709 occasions put the wrong fuel in their police cruisers. That's an average of four cars damaged per day, ...

Jaguar UK launches new police package for XF 5 months ago on Autoblog

The long arm of the law now has a cat to stroke with Jaguar's creation of a high performance police pursuit vehicle. It hasn't been commissioned by forces yet, but is apparently under evaluation by UK authorities across the country. The model in question is the new twin-turbo XF Diesel S, a ...

REPORT: Ford passes on bringing current Focus RS to America 5 months ago on Autoblog

UPDATE: Ford just wrote us to clarify that while the all-new Focus RS just introduced in Europe won't be for sale in the U.S., "Ford intends to bring some new RS' to the US (as we've already seen in the spy photos of the white car) to use as marketing assets for feedback from enthusiasts" and media. ...

Electric female string quartet Bond creates mini-album for Peugeot [w/VIDEO] 5 months ago on Autoblog

To kick off the launch of the 308 CC, French carmaker Peugeot has enlisted the musical services of the high-heeled female string quartet Bond. Peugeot touts the car as "the only convertible in its class that is adaptable to every season" because of its Airwave Neck Heating System, à la ...

Movement afoot to resurrect British Motor Show sooner rather than later? 5 months ago on Autoblog

A gent in Britain with a load of can-do spirit and a personal fortune has decided that the British Motor Show must go on next year. Scuttled this year after a long decline, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has an eye toward resurrecting the show in 2013, even though some believe it ...

Honda UK workers vote in favor of 3% pay cut to save jobs 5 months ago on Autoblog

The numbers for the UK car industry in April point to a 50% drop in production, and factories that aren't shut down completely are being run at glacial paces. After closing its Swindon, England plant for four months, the choice Honda gave workers there fit the template of the times: take a pay cut ...

McLaren intends to build new production facility to rival Maranello 5 months ago on Autoblog

First came Paragon, the terrifically high-tech McLaren Technology Center that is the corporate and production HQ for Ron Dennis' various company interests. Now, Dennis is planning a McLaren Production Center (MPC) that will engineer and build "McLaren Automotive's range of innovative ...

Rolls-Royce to double workforce ahead of Ghost production 5 months ago on Autoblog

The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost will not only mean more sales for the company, it will mean more workers. Rolls is adding 300 production workers to the payroll, bringing its Sussex workforce to 900. The majority of new positions will be in the wood, leather and paint shops, but there will be ...

REPORT: Nissan GT-Rs being purchased under UK Cash-For-Clunkers provisions 5 months ago on Autoblog

When legislators in the United Kingdom decided to introduce its Cash for Clunkers program, it was widely suggested that older, fuel-guzzling vehicles would be removed from the road in favor of the latest crop of clean, green, fuel efficient cars and trucks. As is often the case, reality isn't so ...

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Autoblog Podcast #151: With Car and Driver's Eddie Alterman

Eddie Alterman wades in with Sam, Chris, Dan, and Jonny to talk about SEMA and other recent events.

 
 

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