UPCOMING NEW CARS

So you want your own limousine? Sure, I can dig that. Who hasn’t thought of trading in their daily commute for something that’s chauffer driven? And what better place to start your search than on eBay, where you’re sure to find something both unique and affordable, if not exactly well built or driveable.

Here’s one such find, based on a 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit (Golf for the rest of the world) with a Mercedes-Benz nose piece. The seller’s description reveals that this vehicle has new brakes, struts, a new exhaust, new wheels and tires, new windshield and gas tank. And it still has its original motor and transmission, with a twin barrel carburettor with aluminium intake and header which the seller assures us makes it, “Fast for what it is.”

Inside there are two bench seats facing each other, and an electrically operated tinted glass partition that can separate the passengers from the driver. Classy.

The interior is in need of a lot of attention, though. There’s no headliner, no carpet and the custom interior panels have yet to be fitted. The air conditioning’s not hooked up and there’s no sound system, either. The car’s also missing a, “Few other odds and ends.”

On the upside, it has a clear title and the car comes with a fixer upper GTI engine and a white rabbit plush toy that has been stretched and has a VW hat on its head. Sadly there are no pictures of the latter. The starting price is a low, low US$4,999.00 (€3,676). Price for a first generation Rabbit, but not bad for something with such...uh...”unique qualities.”

The strange this is, this car has been on sale before, almost two years ago. And it was in the exact same state it’s in now. We don’t know what this means, except maybe that the owner grew tired of working on it. Take that however you want, and leave your comments below.

Link: eBay

This here is the actual, factual Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition special in the flesh, photographed at the Autopolis Fiat dealership in Luxembourg. We say this because yesterday, we reported on the limited run special and Fiat's photoshoped picture that made the internet rounds. While our friends from Auto55 and Autofans verified the story with the official press release, we were left wondering what the Italian mini with the classic racing-livery would look like in real life.

Today, our pondering came to an end as the Marketing and Communications director of Autopolis Luxembourg dropped the first real life shots of the car in our mailbox. We believe Fiat should have released these photos instead of the 'chop from the beginning, but we'll give them props for keeping a close eye on the web-o-sphere and swiftly reacting to our post.

As for the car itself, it was created by the Italian brand's official importer for Luxembourg, Autopolis, in association with Gulf Petroleum, to celebrate the latter's 10th anniversary in the country.

Only ten examples of the Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition will be built, each priced at €25,000 (not including VAT) a piece, which is about US$34,000. Aside from the iconic Gulf Racing livery, the special edition 500s also get the 'esseesse' performance kit that pushes the 1.4-liter turbo engine's output to 160-ponies, a Monza sport exhaust and Corse-Sabelt racing buckets with the seatbacks finished in Gulf-blue.

German tuner AC Schnitzer has launched its first tuning package for the MINI Countryman . The focus is clearly on the wheels, as clients can choose between four different designs in two different sizes (18- or 19-inch) to go with the two-tone white and black exterior paint job. In fact, AC Schnitzer has just broken a personal record: in a company first, it has fitted a MINI with 19-inch rims. As for the interior, the tuning house offers an aluminum pedal set and gear knob or various knobs clad in leather with incorporated, digital gear display unit.

Apart from the humorous articles and the plethora of eBay finds we come up with, Carscoop’s bread and butter is automotive news straight from the manufacturer. And as such, we read a lot of press releases. In all the ones I’ve read, General Motors refuses to call the Chevrolet Volt a hybrid. It’s a range extended electric vehicle.

I speculate that it might have something to do with hybrids being uncool (so sayeth GM CEO Dan Akerson) or to avoid comparisons with that other hybrid. You know, the one made by the world’s other biggest car manufacturer.

So let’s hear the cases for and against:

Yes, GM should call the Volt a hybrid and here’s why:

A hybrid, by definition, is a vehicle that has two or more powerplants. In most cases, one is an electric motor and the other is a gasoline engine. There’s no requirement that these run in tandem, or be connected to one another in any way. More than one powerplant and you have a hybrid. And let’s face it: GM isn’t trying to lure buyers away from the Nissan Leaf or the Mitsubishi iMiev; their target is and always has been the Toyota Prius. And what’s the Prius, children? “A hybrid!” In a dumbed down worldview, nobody wanted to buy a Saturn Green Line so this was Option B. The Volt looks like a hybrid, is mechanically like a hybrid and was designed to compete with hybrids. For this, the Volt is one and the same.

No, GM should call the Volt a range extended electric vehicle and here’s why:

The Prius uses its electric motor at low speeds, when idling and when overtaking. The rest of the time it’s running on its gasoline engine alone. On the other hand, the Volt engages its gasoline engine only when its electric motor has run out of juice. Like a WWII submarine limping home on its diesel engines after its batteries have run dry. So if anything, the Volt is like a Nissan Leaf with the added security of a gasoline engine making sure you don’t end up on the hard shoulder, waiting for the AAA man to come along with a very long extension cord. For this, the Volt is a range extended electric vehicle.

So where do you stand? Do you buy GM’s marketing buzz or do you side with the cynics? Cast your vote and leave us a comment.

What should GM call the Chevrolet Volt?

Seventeen years after the great Ayrton Senna died, the documentary about his life, aptly named 'Senna', was shown at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival last week and was met with critical acclaim. The work of British director Asif Kapadia and screenwriter and executive producer Manish Pandey, Senna tells the story of one of the greatest drivers who ever lived exclusively through archive footage.

That means that all the great racing sequences are there, showing incredible overtaking maneuvers, spectacular crashes and some of the greatest rivalries that Formula 1 has ever seen.

According to the LA Times, the documentary not only shows Senna’s incredibly competitive personality, but also his spiritual side.

“Though he drove like the devil, he was a spiritual person who believed deeply and profoundly in a higher power. A philosophical mystic with a jewel thief's nerves and a poet's sensitivity (and good looks), Senna was an altogether remarkable human being”, the review states.

The Brazilian pilot entered the world of racing driving karts and at the height of his career he won 33 races and three Formula 1 World Championships. Senna died aged 34 in a crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

The official trailer of the Senna documentary is available below.

We knew BMW's brand-new 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine was coming to the States but now, the Bavarian automaker has made it official. The German company released a statement saying the first cars to be equipped with the force-fed four-banger will "arrive later this year" in the USA.

The 2.0-liter unit made its debut on the X1 compact crossover and will eventually replace BMW’s trademark normally aspirated 3.0-liter inline six. While BMW's US division has yet to announce which models will get the new engine, in Europe, the automaker has already confirmed the powerplant for the Z4 coupe-roadster and the 5-Series range.

In the U.S., the naturally aspirated 3.0-liter inline-six is currently available on these models:

-128i Coupe / Convertible 230HP

-328i Sedan / Coupe / Convertible / Sports Wagon / xDrive 230HP

-528i Sedan 240HP

-X3 xDrive28i 240HP

-Z4 sDrive30i 255HP

There's a strong possibility that BMW will offer the new 2.0-liter turbo on all of these models in the U.S. but this has yet to be confirmed.

BMW's more for less 2.0-liter unit combines twin-scroll turbocharging with high-pressure direct-injection and the firm's VALVETRONIC intake control. In the X1, the maximum output of 240 horsepower is achieved at 5,000 rpm, or 1,500 rpm lower than in the normally-aspirated 3.0-liter inline six. The peak torque of 260 lb-ft, comes on tap at just 1,250 rpm, which according to BMW, is not only 30% more torque than the aforementioned inline six, it also peaks 1,500 rpm earlier. On top of that, BMW says the four-pot also returns 16 per cent better fuel consumption and lower CO2 emissions.

Aston Martin has released the third and final part of its promotional trilogy “True Power Should Be Shared” starring the Rapide four-door coupe. There's less action in this film as our heroes drive towards their destination, wondering what they are transporting. Well, it turns out to be some kind of a time machine, which saves them from being killed in an ambush and returns them to Lisbon, where everything started. Not what we expected, but at least the Rapide didn’t get blown up. Hit the jump to watch the video.