Car News

The new Bentley Continental GT Limited Edition coupe is designed to celebrate its record as the fastest production car at Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Modelled on the car driven up the 20 kilometre course in Colorado (above at the back), the Limited Edition (above at the front) is finished bright green Radium paint, and has green brake calipers.

The Mazda2 city hatch and sedan range has been halved from 14 models to seven – and prices have risen by up to $5420 as another facelift arrives in local showrooms. The previous Mazda2 hatch ranged from $15,570 to $24,400 plus on-road costs but there are now only three model grades from $20,990 to $25,990 plus on-road costs, putting it in line with the prices of small cars that are the next size up, such as the Kia Cerato and Hyundai i30.

EXCLUSIVE The true depth of Holden’s sales disaster will be exposed 24 hours from now, with official figures expected to show the former top-selling brand sold just 2665 cars in November – half what it sold at the same time last year and its weakest monthly result since the company was established 71 years ago. It is the sixth record low for Holden in 11 months. The figure is so low that each of the top three selling cars outsold the entire Holden line-up last month (see tables below).

EXCLUSIVE Holden boss Dave Buttner has stepped down as chairman and managing director after just 16 months in the job – one of the shortest tenures in the company’s 71-year history – following the lowest sales since the company was formed in 1948.

Audi has used a number of small tweaks to free up 25km of extra range from its electric E-Tron SUV. The changes were debuted on the E-Tron Sportback revealed at the Los Angeles motor show, but have been passed on to the more practical E-Tron. According to Audi, the regenerative braking system – which uses the electric motors to harvest energy usually lost to heat when you brake – has been reworked to reduce residual brake torque, created by the brake calipers sitting close to the discs.