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Most people remember their first car more readily than their first kiss, according to a new survey.

The British International Motor Show has commissioned a survey about our love for cars: “which one do we remember the most? Our first car or our first kiss?”

Ladies, it’s sad to tell you that more than 40% of those surveyed were so attached to their first car that they could recall its number plate in full, the survey by the British International Motor Show found.

Six in ten regarded their first car as female, a quarter gave it a name and 12% felt more attractive to the opposite sex once they had qualified to drive.

Kirsty Perkinson, one of the show organisers, said: “People develop powerful bonds with their cars, especially their first. First cars represent an explosion of independence and a gateway to untold adventures, which is why they are so special.”

The most common first car was a Ford Fiesta, followed by a Ford Escort, Mini and Nissan Micra, most of which were between six and ten years old.

The Fiat 500 was the hottest car in the press last year and won a bunch of awards. The small Fiat is the hottest car in term of sales this year.

The demand is so strong that Fiat UK sold its first quota in less than a month and there is no sign of a slowing demand. Aware of the problem, Fait has boosted its production output to 190,000 vehicles per year. Initially, the company planned to build 120,000 cars per year but increased the figure to 140,000 due to the initial strong demand, especially in Italy and in France.

The production will jump from 500 vehicles to 750 vehicles per day in its Polish factory locate in Tychy. However the situation might become a baffling problem for the carmaker. By increasing its production so quickly, it might also increase the possibility of quality problems. Such a situation would damage the brand image at a time when Fiat just recovers from its worst years ever. The carmaker might also encounter some problems to produce the expected variants like the convertible or the estate version.

Ferrari has chosen Japan to open its future Asian headquarters. The new headquarters will help the carmaker to increase its sales on the emerging markets such as China and India.

The location comes as a surprise. Indeed, China would have been a more obvious choice with its potential growth, but Japan is the company’s second market after the US and with a gap between poor and rich people growing in the country, there is still a lot of potential for the carmaker.

“The Japanese market is still going for a long time to represent the largest market in Asia. This is a market that has almost 1.2 million high net worth individuals, one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the world, so there’s plenty of opportunity. The key factor is to keep being exclusive,” said in an interview Ferrari Asia Pacific Region President and CEO Marco Mattiacci.
Source: Thomson

Will Volkswagen unveil the eagerly-awaited Scirocco at the Geneva Motor Show? The question is being raised since the car carmaker launch a mini website dedicated to the new model.

As expected, the website doesn’t really unveil the Scirocco, but the carmaker used a similar strategy in last December before unveiling the Passat CC at Detroit in January.

The website reveals a clue regarding the engine range as one picture displays the 2.0 TSI moniker. It confirms that the Scirocco will be powered by the same engine seen in the Golf GTI which has an output of 197bhp. Will the carmaker offer the future coupé with the legendary logo as was the original coupé?

The upcoming Scirocco is expected to hit the showrooms in next September.

During the presentation of the new Fiat 500 Abarth, a Fiat spokesman revealed that Alfa Romeo would launch the baby Alfa in July, about two months earlier than planned.

The launch date of the upcoming small Alfa was the Paris Motor Show in next October. But quick progress allowed the carmaker to move the launch date in July. This is a good news for the carmaker which struggles to increase its sales.

This news might also confirm the fragile situation of Alfa Romeo. In order to increase its sales globally, the company has no other choice than releasing the eagerly-awaited small model as soon as possible.

The baby Alfa will share its inner structure, powertrains and suspensions, with the Grande Punto, but will feature a unique exterior and interior styling. With this new model, the Italian marque plans to take on the established BMW Mini and hopes its Italian charm will convince people to choose the Junior/Furiosa.

Source: Thomson Financial

Porsche has announced it will recall 18,856 Cayenne in the world due to a fuel line problem. There is a possibility that during driving, slight engine movement may cause a fuel line to come in contact with engine compartment cladding. This may lead to a knocking noise and possible wearing of the fuel line.

The affected vehicles were built between November 30, 2006 and January 18, 2008.Porsche will change the layout of the fuel line in the recalled SUVs. There have been five complaints worldwide until now.

The procedure will take 40 minutes of workshop.

The straight talker and car czar Bob Lutz said a lot of interesting comments during a closed-door session with some journalists: global warming is a “total crock of shit,” hybrid and diesel cars “make no economic sense.”

Our good old Bob Lutz is never short of a joke. This time he said that he was rather skeptic about global warming and didn’t want the Volt to be developed to fight global warming but to reduce the US dependance on foreign oil.

He also said that Hybrid cars like those made by Toyota “make no economic sense,” because their price will never come down and that diesel cars are also uneconomic. He justified his view about diesel by explaining that diesel cars make sense when diesel fuel is half the cost of regular gasoline. When it’s not the case, diesel has little market penetration. Surprisingly, in the UK, diesel and gasoline cost the same and still diesel penetration reach 40% in January. It might be interesting for Bob to travel abroad sometimes and not only in a private jet.

He also compared the mission of a car maker to the movie business. “you’ve got to look at the business artistically, too. Part of our business is creating blockbusters”, he said. Unfortunately for GM, Bob doesn’t have a good flair for blockbusters!

Noble ceased to build the M12 supercar but thanks to a Bristol-based company, current owners can give a second life to their cherished car. Salica Cars sells a kit that includes a removable roof, a full redesign of the body plus an engine upgrade.

Salica Cars replace the original body panels and the roof is being replaced by a lightweight removable part that can be put aside when driving. The engine is being upgraded with a new intercooler and radiator.

Salica has also a more ambitious plan. the company wants to build new cars derived from the M12. The future car would be powered by an in-house upgraded twin-turbocharged V6 petrol unit which would devleop roughly 460bhp.

Chang’an Automobile has unveiled the first Chinese hybrid car, the Jie Xun or CV11. Like all Chinese car makers, the announcement must be considered with precaution as it is quite often a great deal of effort leading to nothing much. Indeed, Chang’an hasn’t given any technical details yet.

Derived from the Landwind Fashion seen at the 2006 Paris Motor Show and sold in France at a cheap price, the CV11 is expected to be complaint with Euro 4 regulations and consumes 20% less than the normal version. Chang’an CEO Xu Liuping also said that the company will provide 10 hybrid Jie Xun to the Chinese Olympic games next year.

The hybrid Jie Xun is par of an ambitious plan imagined by Xu Liuping who wants the company to release 36 new models and 12 new engines within the next three years.

If the hybrid Jie Xun proves to be a real hybrid which can run in real conditions like the Toyota Prius does, China might become a hybrid vehicles leader in the future. At least this is what Chinese government wnats, but Chinese consumers are not ready to pay a higher price to buy an environmentally-friendly car. The Prius is a failure there and Honda plans to sell 400 hybrid Civc in 2008 while analysts think Honda’s figure to be too optimistic.

The Chang’an announcement appears to be more a will to get the good grace from the Chinese government which wants the country to be a clean country for the next Olympic games next year than a serious attempt to build a hybrid car.

Here are more pictures of the Subaru Forester which will be unveiled on Christmas day likely to be taken in a dealership.