Mercedes at the Paris motor show 2008

By Ben Whitworth Motor Shows 02 October 2008 12:04 Mercedes’ new Project Fascination – easily the best-looking car from Stuttgart in a long while – took centre stage on Daimler's stand, followed by the new S400 Blue Hybrid, a grenade-proof Pullman stretch limo, en electric smart and a new biturbo diesel. A busy stand. No wonder it took almost half an hour to unveil them all!

MINI owners paying TWICE for servicing

Don’y pay to service your MINI twice MINI has been busy launching the New MINI of late, with the bigger – and some would say less ‘Mini’ MINI – now revealed in both regular 3-door and new 5-door guise, and many will be popping off to their local MINI showrooms to spec up their new car. And despite a headline starting price for the new MINI Hatch of just £13,750, many buyers will end up adding thousands to the cost once they’ve been tempted by the multitude of options on offer. But one option that’s a real no-brainer is the MINI TLC Pack.

Government abandons plan to make driving test tougher

Proposals to make learning to drive much tougher in a bid to improve road safety amongst young people have been abandoned by the government, Radio 1’s Newsbeat reports. The changes would have involved the introduction of a probationary licence for the first 12 months, a curfew on driving late at night and compulsory lessons on motorway driving. But plans have been scraped because they would restrict young drivers’ lives too much.