State of Scion: What's next for the original alternative-rock car brand

“This is gonna be awesome!” the spiky-haired guy in the Scion video screams, epitomizing in five words the enthusiasm the youth-oriented brand has tried to stand for over its seven-year history. But now there's competition. It's not enough to make quirky cars and market them to the alt-rock generation.

Chevrolet Cruze Estate: The Cruze Station Wagon arrives

It's a Chevy Estate - the new Chevrolet Cruze SW The first photo of the Chevrolet Cruze Station Wagon – the Cruze Estate – has been revealed ahead of a launch at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. Smallish Estate cars are not exactly something that floats the average American car buyer’s boat. But it’s a different story in Europe, which explains why GM has decided to bolt a small shed on the back of the Cruze to deliver the Chevrolet Cruze Station Wagon for us ‘Old Continent’ car buyers.

Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid: Production underway

The world’s first production plug-in diesel hybrid – the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid – has gone in to production ahead of customer deliveries. Volvo are producing just 1,000 2013 V60 plug-ins, but are aiming to up production to between 4-6,000 a year from the 2014 model year and, despite the problems of integrating the V60′s complicated electric stuff in to a production car, the V60 plug-in is rolling down the same production line as the regular V60, V70, S80 and XC90. That complicated stuff includes two different powertrains and a battery pack – enough for up to 32 miles as an EV only – and a total of 300 additional parts compared to a regular ICE V60.