Subaru has launched an updated version of its load lugging Legacy Tourer in the United Kingdom. The 2012 model has received a number of technical enhancements highlighted by the presentation of a revised diesel engine and select equipment upgrades.

The most important change for 2012 is of course the fitment of a tweaked 2.0-liter flat-four turbo diesel engine, which is Euro 5-compliant power and features a more efficient turbocharger, and new exhaust-camshaft timing and lighter connecting rods. It also gets a new oxidation catalytic converters and Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF).

It's customary for state officials of a car-producing nation to prefer local manufacturers for their transportation needs.

For example, German dignitaries will mostly be seen on TV stepping out of a Mercedes, BMW or Audi; their British counterparts choose brands like Jaguar, the French large Peugeots or Renaults and so on.

It's also natural to promote their domestic products, though we haven't heard of any law specifically prohibiting the purchase of certain brands for all government agencies. Until now, that is.

The brass over at Kia Motors was only ready for us to see a handful of teaser sketches of its soon-to-be released, rear-wheel drive flagship sedan codenamed "KH", which most of you may know as the K9.

Of course, our spies were also able to snag some shots of a camouflaged prototype, but now, we have two videos of the actual production model without a hint of disguise, spotted on the road.

The two clips, which were probably filmed in South Korea (maybe our readers can help out here), reveal the K9 in all its glory - albeit in low-quality footage.

Kia hasn't published a lot of details yet, but it is reasonable to believe that the KH will share its platform architecture and mechanical hardware with the Hyundai Genesis. This means it could be offered with the same 3.8-liter V6, and 4.6-liter and 5.0-liter V8 engines as its Hyundai counterpart.

Carscoop reader Richard G. just dropped this picture of Land Rover's Range Rover Evoque Convertible into our mailbox.

This is the first time we see the British firm's study with its fabric top in the up position as both Land Rover's official images as well as the single photo of the car spotted by a Twitter user on the streets of London over the weekend, depicted the Evoque Convertible with its roof open.

The news on Volvo's fresh entry in the premium compact hatchback segment just keeps dropping in.

After a boatload of photos were spilled onto the internet this weekend, we now have the first official promo video of the new V40, which will make its world premiere at next week's Geneva Motor Show.

You can watch the short clip in the video right after the break.

The Almera nameplate is set to make a return to Nissan's lineup as a compact-sized sedan model, which the company says has been developed exclusively for Russia and will be manufactured locally in Togliatti on an all-new production line starting from early next year.

According to the Japanese automaker, Nissan engineering teams in Japan, the UK and Russia developed the new Almera.

However, the single photo released by Nissan, suggests otherwise as the new Almera appears to be based on the second generation of the Japanese market Bluebird Sylphy that uses Nissan's B-platform and which was introduced in the country back in 2005.

Back in December of 2008, Top Gear tested the Tesla Roadster. The Elise-based electric sports car was panned on almost every respect, from its abysmal range and overheating engine to the failed brakes.

Last March, Tesla filed a libel suit against BBC’s TV car show, claiming that the whole test was “staged” and demanded that the channel stop airing the episode while also asking for a compensation for damages.

After its first court case was dismissed in October of 2011, Tesla modified its lawsuit and gave it another shot. Unfortunately for Tesla, the lawsuit was dismissed by Mr Justice Tugendhat.

It's no secret that the next step for Lamborghini is the presentation of a roadster version of its new Aventador LP700-4 supercar and our scoop photographers have just landed the first shots of a camouflaged prototype testing in northern Sweden.

The said test car was fitted with fake roof parts to conceal the fact that it is the roadster model, but a close look at the pictures reveals that there's something different about the top of this Aventador.

Our spies tell us that the removable top looked like it was made out of carbon fiber instead of the cloth top found on the Murcielago Roadster.

The Roadster version of the Aventador LP700-4 is expected to be slightly heavier than the coupe iteration due to the necessary strengthening of the chassis to compensate for the loss of the roof.

As the auto industry gears up for the rapidly approaching 82nd Geneva International Auto Show, Nissan released a single teaser photo and video footage of a new concept model called the Hi-Cross.

For now, the Japanese company is only willing to tell us that the Hi-Cross demonstrates how it is "exploring ideas to expand" its crossover lineup.

However, sources state that the Hi-Cross is a concept model for a new D-segment crossover that will replace the more rugged X-Trail SUV, following in the footsteps of the B-segment Juke and C-segment Qashqai, both of which have proved to be a success for Nissan.

The first official photos of Pininfarina's Cambiano concept car are out in the open ahead of its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show thanks to the folks over at Italian car magazine Quattroruote.

When Pininfarina first announced the Cambiano, it made word of a sedan model but the teaser pictures that followed clearly showed a two-door coupe. As it turns out, the Cambiano study is both a coupe and a sports sedan.

To elaborate, on the driver's side, the concept has one large door while on the passenger's side Pininfarina opted for a suicide door solution and also eliminated the center pillar to afford better entry and exit to all seating positions.

If you like the hissing and grunting sounds of a Nissan GT-R's 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V6, then we're pretty sure that you are going to love these two videos from Singapore showing a convoy consisting of more than 40 (!) Godzillas traveling together on the road.

The drivers are members of the Nissan GTR Owner's clubs in Singapore and Malaysia and they were heading up from the Pan Pacific Hotel Singapore to Dempsey Hill for a special meeting.

Drive through the break to watch both videos.

Land Rover only just released official images of its conceptual Range Rover Evoque Convertible on Friday, but we already have the first sighting of the drop-top crossover on the road, courtesy of Twitter user Simon Truscott who captured the car on the streets of London yesterday morning.

The British company said it would display the Range Rover Evoque study at the Geneva Auto Salon in March to explore the potential for a production version, which if approved, wouldn't take too long to develop and reach showrooms.

As we've seen in the past, there are many non-traditional ways to promote your brand or a product.

Audi Bulgaria and local advertising agency "Noble Graphics Creative Studio" came up with an idea to promote the brand's quattro all-wheel drive system by lending a helping hand to those in need during the heavy snowfalls experienced in the country this winter.

The company sent out the "Audi quattro Action" team comprising four men to assist any Bulgarian drivers that were stuck in the snow. You can watch the short clip in the video after the break.

There's no end to the flow of official images of the new Volvo V40 hatchback. Following on from a pair of pictures we shared with you last Wednesday, we now have a new set with 16 high-resolution shots affording us the most comprehensive look at the V40 to date.

On the outside, as we noted before, the new five-door compact model adopts the Swedish firm's design DNA with a shape that brings to mind Volvo's crossover models like the XC60 and XC90.

The latest batch of images includes the very first pictures of the new V40's interior. While you still get the feeling that it's a Volvo from details like the shape of the center console and the air-conditioning and audio system controls, the Swedish brand's designers added a rather futuristic looking instrument panel into the mix.

You just got to hand it to die Deutschen for their imagination and über clever marketing tactics.

What Japanese carmakers simply called liftbacks and the French didn't even bother naming differently as most of their family cars featured a sloping tailgate anyway (Citroen BX, Renault 25 etc.), the Germans came up with all sorts of fancy names.

For example, Audi calls its five-door vehicles with a top-hinged liftgate "Sportback" while BMW went one-step further baptizing its own lineup with the sporty sounding "Gran Turismo" moniker, which is a smart move if you think about it. I mean, would you be interested in a car called the 3-Series Liftback GLi?

We're not saying it doesn't happen, but it's not that often you see a door coming off a car during a race without the vehicle coming in contact with another racer.

One such incident took place at last weekend's Losail International Race Days in Doha, which is Qatar's largest city, when race driver Rob Frijns bid farewell to the door of his Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

It looks amusing until the video switches to the dash-cam view of the driver following behind. As you can see, this could have easily turned very ugly…

If you weren't content with the patent images of Infiniti's new supercar concept that we showed you earlier this month, you'll be happy to know that the first official pictures of the study…emerged on the internet today, less than two weeks before its public debut at the 82nd Geneva International Auto Salon.

We will admit that we weren't exactly wowed by the patent renderings, but our opinion change after we laid eyes on the real photos of Infiniti Emerg-E concept.

The Japanese premium brand's study is an impressive looking supercar with what we could even dare to describe as an Italian finesse in its styling. Of course, you'll find Infiniti's latest styling cues such as the pinched rear quarter window and the bulbous front grille, but it all works out nicely.

Infiniti has said that the Emerg-E will be propelled by a mid-mounted range-extender drivetrain comprising an electric motor and an internal combustion engine.

A male driver of a rental Chevrolet Cruze was involved in what can only be described as a nightmare scenario for any road user when an 18-wheeler truck loaded with cardboard boxes flipped on its side and landed on top of the compact sedan.

The accident took place in the northbound lanes of the Dallas North Tollway in Texas in the late morning hours of Thursday.

The large rig also knocked over the concrete center barrier and hit another vehicle, a black Volkswagen Touareg, hurling it over the median and onto the other side of the road.

Famed aftermarket and motorsport specialist HKS has released a new video of the Toyota 86 race car it is working on to participate in the 2012 season of Japan's D1 Grand Prix production car drifting competition. The new clip shows the 86 being tested on the dyno.

As well as the motorsports version of the 86, which you should know by now is a sister model to the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ rear-wheel drive coupes, the Japanese company is also preparing a raft of tuning parts for the production model.

If you've never heard the name Melkus before, we won't blame you. The German company founded by race driver Heinz Melkus started building racing and sports cars in the mid-1950s before closing shop in 1986 only to reopen again in the 1990s by Heinz's son Peter.

Currently, the company's sole model is the RS2000, the range of which is being expanded with the addition of the new Black Edition variant.

There's no prize for guessing where it's name comes from. We'll just note that according to Melkus, this is no ordinary black paint job but a special black lacquer finish that requires six layers with each layer being sanded separately. The exterior upgrades also include a carbon-fiber bodykit.

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne may have succeeded in signing a deal with the Italian worker unions, yet decreasing demand in the struggling European market may still force him to take extreme measures.

And while Marchionne does not expect the situation in Europe to improve “at least until 2014", on the other side of the pond, he said that Chrysler's plants are already at full capacity, necessitating imports from the group’s factories in Canada, Mexico or Europe to satisfy a third of U.S. demand.

Therefore, as he told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, it’s a perfect opportunity for Fiat’s Italian plants to increase their production and make up for the drop in local demand by exporting models to the States.

Granted, no one is expecting miracles in less than six hours when you're working on a beater 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle you just picked up from Craigslist, but Doug Glad and the Car Craft crew proved that that it is possible to turn it into what they describe as a "respectable street machine" in this new episode of Hot Road Unlimited.

You can watch the video for yourself right after the break.

Mazda has released UK pricing for its updated compact hatchback that's available for orders now. The 2012 Mazda3 starts from £13,495 for the 1.6 TS model, however, the price includes a special £2,300 saving that ends on March 31. The regular OTR price will then be £14,795.

The revised five-door Mazda3 has improved aerodynamics (Cd 0.29) and is distinguished on the outside by the tweaked front fascia, new rear bumper and twist-spoke alloy wheels.

This past Wednesday, Lotus sent us an invitation to take part in the world premiere of a "special edition of a special edition" Evora at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.

The company's invitation noted that the car would be an F1-inspired version of the limited-edition Lotus Evora GTE first shown at the Frankfurt auto show last year. This

"We're launching a special edition of a special edition, and to make things extra special our Lotus F1 Team driver Kimi Raikkonen will be there to field questions. Now, it doesn’t get more special than that…," read the British automaker's invitation.

Lotus did not release any photos of the car leaving us more or less in the dark, but today, Patrick Garcia from French auto site Caradisiac, sent us these photos of an F1-themed Evora that he discovered at a parking lot during a trip to Jerez to cover the F1 pre-season testing earlier this month.

Classy but at the same time dramatic and seductive, the tango is an impressive dance that was born in the 19th century along the shores of the Rio de la Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay, but has since spread throughout the world.

Nice, but what has the tango got to do with the automotive world, we hear you ask?

Well, not much, unless you have an extremely talented pair of drivers that can successfully recreate the dance steps using an older generation Subaru Impreza hatchback and a UAZ Patriot SUV as their partners. See how it turned in the video that follows.

A couple of weeks ago, famed Italian coachbuilder and design house Bertone published two vague sketches of a new concept named after the son of the founder of the company, Giuseppe "Nuccio" Bertone, that will be officially revealed at the Geneva motor show next month.

Now, Bertone has issued three new renderings that clearly depict the shape and styling of the Nuccio Concept while also providing some initial facts on the car.

The car Henry Ford II described as the most beautiful Italian vehicle he had ever seen, has inspired the creation of a new concept model called the Cisitalia 202 E, which will be unveiled in the flesh at the 82nd Geneva International Auto Salon this March.

Following the release of the first renderings, IED has published more details on the modern day Cisitalia 202, which is the work of eleven students of the Master course coordinated by Pininfarina Lead Designer Luca Borgogno and Maserati designer Luigi Giampaolo.

After watching this video of a man in a Renault Clio driving for miles on end on the wrong way of a highway in Scotland, we can say that without any doubt, the person behind the steering wheel of the French supermini has some loose nuts in his head.

Given the speed he is traveling at, it's actually a miracle that he wasn't involved in a very serious accident. The video footage adorned with some NSFW commentary from the blokes filming the Renault driver follows after the break.

The two-seater replacement for Ferrari's 599 GTB Fiorano, which will likely be called christened the F620 GT, wasn't supposed to come out in the open before February 29, as stated in the company's teaser videos.

However, we don't have to wait that long for our first look at Ferrari's new supercar model as a reader of GTSpirit was able to take a quick shot of the car during what appears to be some sort of a presentation.

The new model adopts a similar design language to the Ferrari FF with curved fenders and a large grille up front, behind which you'll find what the Italian automaker describes as the most powerful engine ever to be used in a regular production Ferrari.

It was rumored for a long time that Land Rover was mulling the development of an open-top version of its Range Rover Evoque crossover and now, the British automaker has lifted the wraps off a concept version ahead of its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

As it seems, Land Rover wants to measure reactions at a couple of international events that will very likely include the New York Auto Show in April before it gives the green light for the production model, which could follow as early as next year.

In order to encourage carpooling and decrease traffic congestion, the State of California came up with the idea of creating the so-called High Occupancy Vehicle lanes or HOV for short, which could only be used by cars with two or more occupants.

Last July, however, the Golden State altered the regulations allowing single-passenger vehicles to use them as well, provided they were all-electric or powered by hydrogen fuel cells or natural gas.

Despite being a hybrid, the Volt was excluded from the list specifying the vehicles allowed to use the HOV lanes, which span more than 1,400 miles and reduce driving time by an average of 36 minutes each day, because of its emissions.

We will get our first opportunity to see the production version of the Yaris Hybrid at the 82nd Geneva Auto Salon in March, but prior to that, Toyota today announced pricing for the UK market and also gave out details on its fuel economy and emissions levels.

The new Yaris Hybrid is available for pre-order from Toyota showrooms in Britain now with an on-the-road price of "less than £15,000" with customer deliveries to commence from July 1.

In comparison, pricing for the regular, 99hp 1.33-liter gasoline powered Yaris ranges from £13,260 to £15,385, while the 90hp 1.4-liter diesel from £14,260 to £14,760.

The revised RS5 Coupe is the subject of Audi of America's newest promotional video that depicts the crown jewel of the firm's extended A5 lineup deep in the desert.

The RS5 is motivated by a 4.2-liter V8 that delivers 450 horsepower and is matched to seven-speed S tronic transmission with launch control program that transmits power to all four wheels through Audi's quattro system.

Ingolstadt's answer to the BMW M3 Coupe will launch in the U.S. this year.

Less than 24 hours after bringing you the first pictures of the DS4R that were leaked onto the web on Thursday, Citroën released official images of the concept model that will be make its world premiere at the 82nd Geneva Motor Show in early March.

As reported, the DS4 Racing Concept is powered by a tuned version of the 1.6-liter turbocharged engine found in many of the PSA Peugeot-Citreon group models and which was developed in conjunction with the BMW Group.

In the DS4 R concept, it puts out a whopping 256 HP – that's 160 HP per liter, which Citroen says is a record for a mass-production car. At the same time, despite its high output, CO2 emissions are just 155 g/km.

Like the DS3 R that kicked off the French firm's “Racing” performance line, the DS4R study makes its presence felt with a ground effects kit that includes tweaked bumpers with large air intakes on the front, carbon fiber trim on the grille, a diffuser at the rear, wheel-arch extensions and side sills.

According to most purists, a BMW sports coupe or convertible are supposed to have a smooth gasoline engine –preferably an inline-six- mounted up front and sending power to the wheels at the back.

The new 640d xDrive Coupe and Convertible that will debut at the Geneva Motor Show next month ticks only one of those boxes: the straight-six found under the hood. However, it's not fed by gasoline but by diesel fuel and it channels power to all four wheels.

It's not the first diesel-powered 6-Series as that taboo was broken by the previous generation model, but it's the first to combine an oil-burner with BMW's electronically controlled all-wheel drive system.

We told you the story and showed you the spy pictures, but today, BMW officially revealed the new M135i sports hatch, ahead of its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show.

Despite the fact that the Bavarian company is calling it a concept, it's not hard to see that the M135i is essentially ready to enter production, which it will within the next year.

Aside from previewing the next member of BMW's new M Performance range, the M135i also gives us our first look at the three-door version of the latest 1-Series range, which is currently available only in five-door form.

BMW's answer to the Audi RS3 is the first M Performance car with a gasoline and not a diesel engine. Under the hood lies a 3.0-liter Twin Power Turbo straight-six that BMW says delivers "more than 300 HP". Our sources state that it will produce 320-horsepower in production trim.

Honda has releases the first photos of the CR-V Prototype (nee production-ready), which previews the European version of the crossover model and which will be displayed at the company's Geneva Motor Show stand.

The fourth generation of the Japanese manufacturer's compact SUV, which has already gone on sale in North America, Japan and other parts of the world, won't be available in Europe until the coming autumn.

After we posted the poll on whether you prefer the updated European market 2012 Chevrolet Camaro with its LED taillights to the original model, we sent an email over to General Motors asking if the company had any plans to apply some or all of the upgrades to the North American version.

A Chevrolet spokesperson replied in an email that the automaker has no such plans and that a number of these changes were made to the European Camaro in order to meet local regulations.

"There are some minor changes between North American Camaro and cars for export markets," a Chevrolet spokesman told Carscoop. "Often, there are even variations between markets, to meet regional requirements. And, no, these changes will not be integrated into the U.S. Camaro."

The teenage boy that wrecked his father's brand-new $60,000 Ford Mustang GT (equipped with an Eleanor Package) in 2006 by driving it through a garage only minutes after a salesperson brought the car to his house, has received his so-called "Web Redemption" on Daniel Tosh's show on Comedy Central.

If for whatever reason you missed the said episode but want to know the backstory of Joey's highly publicized crash some six years after it happened, all you need to do is follow the break and watch the extended version in the video.

Lamborghini has reaffirmed its plans to unveil an SUV concept at the upcoming Beijing Auto Show in April. The Italian company said that the reason why it opted for an SUV model is the car buyers’ preferences in China.

“Chinese customers love their big cars”, Christian Mastro, Lamborghini’s general manager for the Asia-Pacific region, told Bloomberg News. “All the brands are making cars more specific for the Chinese market.”

It’s a fact that has been noticed by other luxury carmakers, such as Bentley. VW Group’s other exclusive brand, will also unveil its first-ever SUV concept next month at the Geneva Motor Show. It plans to roll out the production version in 2015, one year ahead of Lamborghini’s successor to the 1980s LM 002.

A driver of a tourist bus wanted to play hardball with a rider of a small scooter during a road-rage incident, which presumably took place somewhere in Asia, but in the end, he only managed to make a fool of himself as he forgot to pull the handbrake on his vehicle!

Watch the incident from a dashboard camera of a nearby passenger car in the video that follows after the jump.