Forester in urban jungle

Subaru has been busy over the past few months with new car launches and the North American International Auto Show was no different with the arrival of the new Forester. British buyers will have to wait till March for the Forester to go on sale and the new 2.0-litre turbodiesel version won't reach showrooms till the end of 2008.

CC the new Passat at Detroit

Volkswagen has chosen the CC tag for its new Passat model, but the car does not have a folding metal convertible roof as the name may suggest. Instead, the Passat CC unveiled at the North American International Auto Show is a four-seat, four-door coupé is aimed at tackling the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes C-Class.

Kia SUV goes large

Kia has launched a full fat, full-size SUV at the North American International Auto Show to take a slice of the large SUV pie that still dominates US car sales. Although not as big as many American SUVs, the Borrego is big enough to compare with the Land Rover Discovery and Jeep Commander.

RX-8 gets three-pronged update

Mazda says that its update of the RX-8 revealed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit concentrates on the styling, performance and packaging, all of which have been key reasons for the success of this coupé. For that reason, Mazda has not meddled too much with the formula.