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These are the first official sketches of Mazda’s new city car. It will be revealed in concept form at the Paris Motor Show in October.

It is most likely to be badged the Mazda 1 when it goes on sale. It will rival the Volkswagen up! and Toyota’s iQ.

The city car concept is likely to feature Perspex panels with sliding doors and seats, which should increase practicality.

Peter Birthwhistle, who is the chief designer at Mazda’s European Research and Development Centre has said: “The finished article will be even more radical than the car seen here. It will be aimed at young people and feature the likes of iPod connectivity, sat-nav and Blue- tooth. It will be environmentally friendly, and weigh as little as possible.”

The concept is likely to be powered by a combination of fuel cells and batteries.

Munich/Garmisch-Partenkirchen - On July 4-6 it will once again be the time of year when motorcycle fans from all over the world come together to party. BMW Motorrad looks forward to welcoming many riders and friends of all motorcycle brands, particularly after last year’s BMW Motorrad Days attracted more than 34,000 visitors to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

What is there for this year’s visitors to look forward to?
The show: Defending title holder of the Indoor Streetbike Freestyle World Championships, Chris Pfeiffer, will once more be displaying his considerable skills with some amazing stunts. He will also be demonstrating his supremely confident performance and rapid sequences of trick moves, with which he is bound to leave the competition standing once more at this year’s competition.

The ultimate riding machines: There will be plenty of thrills on offer to visitors. As well as offering test rides through the beautiful surroundings of Garmisch-Partenkirchen with the latest BMW Motorrad motorcycles, they will also once again be organising a fantastic motorcycle parade through the town on the Saturday, followed by a classic model parade on the Sunday.

No less than 40 BMW R1200 GS motorcycles will be on hand at the 10,000 m² Enduropark, a site which regular visitors will already be familiar with. Free training sessions will be available throughout the weekend, given by experienced instructors.

A new addition to this year’s event are the special motorcycle tours which will be offered exclusively to women, headed by a female tour guide, and with BMW motorcycles available.

The bands: This year’s event will get going in the large party tent with “The Goodfellas” on the Friday evening, followed by the Munich party band “Gerry and Gary” the following evening. But there will also be plenty of things to see outside the main tent. The US Lodge will be the venue for the bands “Plug-in” and “Steinzeit”. The front man of the latter group is none other than the head of BMW Motorrad Motorsport, Berti Hauser. With hits by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many more international stars, they are sure to get everybody up on their feet.

Courtesy: BMW Motorrad, Germany

Mercedes first debuted their G-Class in 1979, since then not a lot of updates has been done. For 2009 Mercedes will update the very light G-Class SUV.

The outside of the G-Class won’t change much, Mercedes-Benz will just update the face with a new corporate grille and wheels. The engine will change on the new G-Class with the model now having a 5.0L V8 and a horsepower boost from 292 to 382. The torque will also rise from 336lb-ft to 391lb-ft.

Bad Homburg - With about 318,000 new registrations in April 2008, the passenger car market grew 20 percent compared to April 2007. This means that the market has been gaining ground in the first four months of the year, with a 7.3 growth compared to the same period last year. Due to the effect of anticipated vehicle purchases in the fourth quarter of 2006, the numbers in the first months of 2007 had been marked by double-digit decreases.

The market recovery was expected, and even after adjusting the numbers for the three additional business days in April, there still has been a gain. Despite the growth, however, the private market is easing up only slightly. So far, private demand grew by approximately 70,000 units, making up for a large portion of the severe slump in demand by around 100,000 vehicles last year. The current upswing in demand spans passenger cars with diesel and gasoline engines, as well as vehicles with alternative engines.

VDIK President Volker Lange: “These numbers clearly show that additional growth can only be achieved through an increase in private vehicle registrations. The Federal Government must implement clear and convincing incentives as soon as possible to make the switch to more fuel efficient low emission vehicles more attractive. Looking at the models for the conversion of the motor vehicle tax to a CO2-based tax that we have become aware of, we are concerned that the exchange of old vehicles for new, more environmentally friendly vehicles will be hindered, rather than encouraged. If older vehicles are not taken into consideration in the tax, we do not expect the new motor vehicle tax to provide effective support for the VDIK ‘Initiative for Clean Air’ that started in 2006.”

Courtesy: VDIK, Germany