Car and Van News

The Volkswagen Golf has been crowned European Car of the Year 2013, winning the contest by the largest margin for many years.

The Golf secured 414 votes in the award, which is decided by panels of leading motoring journalists from across Europe and presented on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show.

McLaren has finally released full performance figures for its P1, which will debut at next week’s Geneva Motor Show as an upmarket sister to the existing MP4-12C.

The car will be capable of a 0-62mph time of under three seconds, go on to 218mph, and will cost a mere £866,000.

Toyota is to launch a racy version of its GT86 sports car with styling upgrades from the Japanese giant’s motorsport division.

The first TRD (Toyota Racing Developments) car to be sold in the UK will be available as a 250-example special edition.

The eight finalists for the much-prized European Car of the Year award have been revealed.

The winner will be announced in March at the Geneva Motor Show.

Budget brand Dacia has come under heavy criticism from Euro NCAP after the latest series of crash tests.

The safety body tested 15 recently released cars and all secured top five star ratings apart from the Dacia Lodgy MPV, which managed only three.

Toyota is riding out the economic downturn in Europe by reforming the way it does business.

This has included the decision to concentrate production of all its Auris C segment models in the UK, rather than splitting assembly with its factory in Turkey.

Registrations of new cars rose again in October as the UK market bucked the slides of mainland Europe.

The rise of more than 12 per cent has resulted in industry bosses again revising their 2012 full-year predictions upwards, to more than 2 million units.