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New Minis will be zipping around town this year. BMW owned Mini has announced a whole new range of engines for their new range of cars, most notably, the creation of the Mini One Convertible. The new Minis will feature improved petrol engines offering more power and torque without the usual drawbacks; meaning the environment will embrace the new engines as it has cleaner emissions and better fuel consumption. Minis have always been iconic, and now, with the new line-up, the leader of small hatchbacks is not looking to step down anytime soon. Having a Mini always meant owning more than just a car. It becomes part of your lifestyle, part of what you wear like a fashion accessory. Predictably, Mini has come up with what they call 'unique Rainbow colour options' which basically just means every colour in the world can be used to paint that body of your Mini. The increased palette size will attract car-fashionists to the showrooms like moths being drawn to a lamp. There's even a new entry level Mini called the Mini First. It gets a 1.6litre, Valvetronic 4 cylinder engine, a stable of 75 horses on tap and an increase in torque by 17% from the old 1.4litre while the 'Valvetronic' is the key to the increase in torque and improved fuel consumption. The new Mini One should be contented with an increase in horsepower to 98bhp and a 0-100km/h time of 10.5seconds, and improvement of 0.4seconds. The biggest star in the new line-up will have to be the Mini One convertible. It used to be offered to only the people who have deeper pockets but now, it can be bought by people who used to buy only Protons. The One Convertible offers a lower entry point into the Mini Convertible variants and it has clever features too. The fabric roof opens and closes hydraulically even when the car is on the move, well up to 20mph. DSC stability control is standard, 4 airbags and even a rear roll bar which pops up in the event of a rollover. The range topping Cooper S features a twin-scroll turbocharger, whatever that is, which aids the 1.6litre engine and produces a stunning 184bhp and a torque figure of 240NM from 1600rpm to 5000rpm which is virtually the engine tachometer. And the figures keep getting better. There's even something called an 'Overboost' which increases torque temporarily to 260NM for more grunt and 0-100km/h is dealt with in 7 seconds. Minis will always be cool. They just got cooler.

One of my favourite cars is going to get a new face, the Volvo C30 to be precise. The Swedish company has decided to steer clear from emulating their German rivals and its main man, Stefan Jacoby say that this new model will be quintessentially Swedish in terms of its design.. And I'm looking forward to that! It'll be like Ikea with wheels I suppose. The most distinct difference between its old model and the new one will be that it comes with 5 doors instead of 3. This move is meant to make the C30 more practical and more desirable for family men. Their most important goal though is to compete with the other manufacturers like Ford, Volkswagen and Vauxhall (Opel to us in Singapore) who have well established their place in the world of hot-hatches. Since Jacoby intends to keep things Swedishly simple in the new C30, he says that things will be elegant and minimalistic on both the exterior and the interior, but with 'more interesting choice of materials'. I wonder what that really means.. Also, technology in the car is said to be inspired by Apple so I would expect more minimalism fused with style on the tech front. Everything that was 'bad' about the C30 is now under a revamp. While the old car's rear seats were cramped and with a rubbish boot, the new car will come with more rear passenger space and larger luggage capacity. Not much news has been released about the engines though, but the current one is already rather perky and fun to drive around. By the looks of it, I feel like I already want one. The model is set to be released in 2012. [photos courtesy of autoexpress.co.uk]

Hi! caught between the Jazz and Colt Plus, can help?

Hi people, I noticed almost all hatchbacks had rear windscreen wiper attached to it but not the case for sedan cars.. Any reason why it is design this way ? So far I only noticed Evo got rear wiper.

I'm currently deciding between this two cars (hatchback versions). Hope to get some feedback if possible from anyone driving these cars... The only factors that i'm concerned are; 1) Looks (Just hearing opinions..) 2) Performance (How responsive, cornering, braking etc..) 3) Reliability (Weird mechanical problems breaking down) Thanks!