Car News

Kia Australia has made the crossover-styled Picanto X-Line a permanent fixture in its range, following the success of this year's AO Edition. Speaking with CarAdvice, Kia's local communications boss, Kevin Hepworth, said: "[The] X-Line is an ongoing model. The only difference is that it is no longer badged as an AO model".

The Ford Ranger is the first ute on sale in Australia with autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection and speed sign recognition as standard across an entire range, from the cheapest tradie model to the flagship Raptor. The advanced safety tech – which automatically slams on the brakes in stop-start traffic if the driver isn’t paying attention – is due to roll out on all Ranger models sold in Australia, arriving in local showrooms from June.

As part of the company's global restructuring, Ford is exiting the Russian passenger car market, and closing many of its facilities there. Ford says the Russian passenger car market is recovering "slower than expected" with new car buyers preferring "lower priced passenger vehicle segments", which has led to its Russian factories being underutilised.

McLaren Automotive has unveiled a very special version of its Senna track monster, which has been made entirely out of Lego. The full-scale 1:1 model took nearly 5000 hours to assemble, according to the British supercar specialist, and comprises of 467,854 individual Lego components put together by a team of 42 men and women from the Lego build team. Interestingly, the Lego Senna is actually rather heavy – at 1700kg, it's around 500kg more than the production car.

US dealers were given a preview of the new Ford Bronco at an event held in Palm Springs, Florida, last month. After handing in their phones and photography equipment, the dealers were reportedly shown a two-door version of the new Bronco. Dealers who spoke to Automotive News confirmed the car will have round headlights, a rectangular grille, prominent Bronco branding, and a retro design theme.