The new Audi A2... seriously?

Those LED-ish lines could be supressed...
Now does it look modern? Yes. But beautiful? NEVER!

Audi has just confirmed that a new version of the manufacturer's most hated recent car - the tiny, controversially styled A2 - is coming back from the dead. No, they're not pulling out any spell... they've just facelifted and moulded the thing according to the make's current liking. The concept car is bound to be presented at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, and the production version will show up by 2013, giving Audi buyers a chance to get rid of their bulky A4s and purchase an electric car with their favorite badge. That's right, the new A2 is planned to come in electric form. Packing 116 bhp and 200 km of very, very, very careful driving plus the capacity of carrying four midgets adults, the new baby Audi will go from not to sixty (0-100 km/h) in 9.3 seconds and reach the impossible speed of... 150 km/h. And it will take only four hours to fully charge it.

It does indeed seem that this new A2 will not follow on its predecessor's footsteps. If it did, I'm sure everyone would walk away and leave it to be bought by old ladies.

Dacia: Sarkozy was wrong

The Sandero. Doesn't look cheap, now does it? A little...

Nicholas Sarkozy, the President of France, decided it would be better if he massively deported the thousands of romanians that lived in his fancy country, where many of them enjoyed filling their wallets with tax payers' money. While many considered this act the right thing to do, many others criticized the President's fury against the Romanian people. But the thing is: whatever he had in mind when he ordered the deportations, he was forgetting about one of Romania's greatest affiliation with France: Dacia.
You might have already heard of this low-cost division of Renault - which is one of the most important French automotive makers - , created to churn out not-so-well-built cars at a not-so-absurd price. In my country, you are able to buy the Clio/Polo/Fabia-sized Dacia Sandero for not more, no less than an impossible 8000 euros. The secret behind this bargain? Manual windows everywhere, no radio - hell yeah, old school! - and a build quality that would be frowned upon by the vast majority of buyers around the world. But it ends there. Confort and ride is not perfect, but is certainly average. And that's what it should be: an average, budget car available for everyone. Although noisy and a bit more expensive (nearly 11 K or more), the 1.5 diesel engine is a nice deal if you want to buy this little low-cost vehicle. Just don't forget to fit some extras to make sure you purchase a fairly equipped car!
On the other side of the food chain is the market's cheapest 7-seater - the Dacia Logan MCV. Designed to suit every kind of use, from transporting potatoes to carrying seven occupants (or crash test dummies... oops), it should also be considered when buying more expensive, flashier vans. Its base price beats almost anything, and it can room any kind of passenger/baggage configuration.
So, Sarkozy, what do you think of the Romanians now?

Uh-oh

There have been updates on some of my older posts, and these updates can either bring good or bad news. Unfortunately, the problem is there have only been bad things happening lately. First of all, Chris Hrabalek's wonderful New Stratos will never see the lights of the production line. That's right... the project to produce the machine was canned. Which is a very awful thing for all the Lancia fans out there. But it's not over yet. The 2011 update for the BMW 1-Series is permanent... just take a look at the maker's website and behold the magnificience of disproportion! Seriously...? And the final bad thing: people living in countries like mine will have their wallet tenderized if they try to buy a simple, cheap car. And that's because in Portugal, for example, something that in the US costs around 15 K will cost 100 thousand euros. YES. A HUNDRED THOUSAND. Now think how happy we feel wandering around in this massive recession! And the taxes keep rising... on and on.