29 December 2002: Prices for the new SEAT Cordoba have been set at E15,650 for the 1.2 Stella model, the entry version, and go up to E24,050 for the 130bhp 1.9TDi Sport. The higher spec Signo 1.2 will cost E16,650.

29 December 2002: Two more Irish car distributors have announced that they are to absorb the recent VRT increases on their 1901cc-2001cc cars, following the VRT band changes imposed by the minister for finance. This follows a similar move by Ford.

29 December 2002: BMW is launching its first 3-series Coupe diesel as part of its 2003 lineup, but RHD versions won't be available until 2004. The 330Cd features an uprated version of BMW’s 3.0-litre diesel engine and will also appear in the 330d Saloon and Touring models.

29 December 2002: The RAC is to continue its programme of bringing its driving simulator to schools and universities around Ireland for 2003, following a similar programme aimed at Transition Year students during 2002.

29 December 2002: MG Rover is to launch a new small Rover car in 2003, based on the Indian manufacturer Tata's Indica platform. The car will be manufactured in India, by Tata Engineering and will be sold throughout the UK and Continental Europe by MG Rover's dealer network.

29 December 2002: The young driver insurance lobby group MIJAG says any changes to the Provisional Licence rules 'should involve an amnesty' for the hundreds of thousands of long term provisional licence holders who have years of accident free driving.

28 December 2002: The first commercial test of a GM liquid hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will take place in Tokyo in the middle of next year, when a when a Hydrogen3 will be used for a delivery service by Federal Express.

28 December 2002: Fiat has sold its stake in General Motors for E1.16 million, and has agreed to sell most of its customer financing arm Fidis.

28 December 2002: Audi will show a 6-seat crossover vehicle concept at the Detroit auto show in January. It is described as an updated version of the Volkswagen Magellan shown at Detroit a year ago, and will form the basis of a production vehicle that may go on sale as early as 2004.

28 December 2002: BMW is dropping its top-end 'Z' car, the Z8, and is producing a special Alpina version of the V8-engined car to mark the occasion.

28 December 2002: Older cars are being targeted by criminals who steal from cars, according to the RAC Foundation. This is because new cars tend to have much greater security, and are bristling with alarms.

28 December 2002: On 1 January 2003 Project Rolls-Royce will become Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited and five days later an all-new Rolls-Royce will be unveiled to the public for the first time at the Detroit Motorshow.

28 December 2002: The 2003 Mitsubishi Pajero has been given significant re-styling treatment after two decades as a significant contender in the 4x4 sector.

19 December 2002: BMW will unveil its new xActivity 4WD concept vehicle at January’s North American International Auto Show 2003 in Detroit. It gets a new acronym too - Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV) - and gives some indication of what to expect from any future extension of the X range.

19 December 2002: Ford has reacted to the Minister of Finance's decision to increase the rate of Vehicle Registration Tax to 30% on cars of 1901cc and over, by announcing it will absorb the tax increase on all 2-litre diesel models. In the case of a 4-door Mondeo LX diesel, this amounts to an effective saving of E1,877. The offer applies with immediate effect until stocks last.

19 December 2002: Four Suzuki Ignis Super 1600 cars will participate in the seven rounds of the junior world series in the 2003 World Rally Car programme. The cars will be driven by four privateer teams, but will receive technical support from a newly created company: Suzuki Works Techno (SWT).

18 December 2002: Nissan Ireland is giving away E10 million worth of holiday vouchers between now and March 2003. Every person who takes a road test in any new Nissan product, including the new Micra, gets a E200 voucher.

18 December 2002: Lack of good roads, indiscipline on the part of drivers, and the absence of good law enforcement measures by the relevant authorities 'all combine to render vehicular movements unsafe', and result in almost a quarter of all road traffic crashes being fatal.

18 December 2002: The BMW Group has reached one of its most important targets for this year - to increase volume sales of BMW and MINI brand automobiles to more than one million vehicles. Karsten Engel, Head of the BMW Group's Munich branch, handed over the millionth automobile which was a BMW 730d Individual in carbon black-metallic.

18 December 2002: The European Union strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from passenger cars appears to be succeeding, according to the latest survey of new car emission figures.

17 December 2002: The chance to represent Ireland in the Land Rover G4 Challenge - the ultimate global adventure - has been narrowed down to two contestants following the Irish national final held in the Land Rover Experience Centre at Aughrim, Co Wicklow.

17 December 2002: A Chicago car dealer now offers time-sharing, or 'fractional ownership' of luxury cars, in which car lovers can get into the seat of a Bentley for a few months a year.

16 December 2002: Nissan Ireland is planning on selling over 7,000 units of the new Micra in 2003, against a background strategy of building incremently on the 4.1 per cent market share of the outgoing car.

16 December 2002: Peugeot's new 807 MPV will arrive in Ireland in January with a 2-litre petrol SR model, a 2-litre HDi 110bhp SRDT and a 2-litre HDi 110bhp STDT. Prices will be announced closer to the launch date.

16 December 2002: Opel Ireland is strongly promoting special Njoy versions of the Corsa and the Astra for the key January buying period.

16 December 2002: Mazda has introduced a 7-seat version of the 2003 Premacy MPV, which has been recently upgraded to include air-conditioning and thicker windscreen glass to help reduce noise.

16 December 2002: Audi is to spend E11.5 billion in the next five years overhauling its product range. The investment will represent around seven per cent of sales volumes, between 2002 and 2007, and some 70 percent of the investment will go into new products.

14 December 2002: The Porsche Cayenne SUV is 'the biggest challenge' the sports car company has faced, according to Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking. But he suggests that already the 25,000 to be produced next year are likely to be sold out, as dealers have already committed to the full year's run.

14 December 2002: Sales of the new Chevrolet Niva joint venture between GM and Lada in Russia won't get properly into gear until early new year, following some hiccups in production and pricing policy.

14 December 2002: The MG Rover Group has won the Autocar award for Outstanding Achievement and its designer Peter Stevens the Autocar Designer of the Year.

14 December 2002: US Tractor maker John Deere & Company and fuel cell developer Hydrogenics Corp are teaming up to develop a technology demonstrator fuel cell-powered Commercial Work Vehicle (CWV).

13 December 2002: MG Rover has announced an extension to its diesel model line-up with the introduction of a higher output engine. Available in January, the MG ZR (above) and ZS, and Rover 25 and 45 utilise the Longbridge-built L Series turbo diesel engine, now engineered with an increased tune to produce greater operating performance, but with no penalty in CO2 emissions.

13 December 2002: For the second time in two years, Pat Doyle (above with Gowan Distributors MD Dave McConnell), Dealer Principal at Doyle’s Garage Courtown, was presented with the much-coveted Peugeot Dealer of the Year award, at the annual Peugeot Dealer Conference in Dublin on the 4th December.

13 December 2002: The Fiat Group has received an international award for its work with young people. It was presented at the annual Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards ceremony in London.

12 December 2002: Mercedes-Benz C-Class models have new engines for 2003, a number of which are not affected by the VRT changes that bring cars over 1900cc into the higher band.

12 December 2002: BMW sales continue to show a healthy growth in 11 month figures, when the carmaker announced it had sold more vehicles in the period than in all of last year.

12 December 2002: Are Fiat about to hit us with a major 4x4 onslaught? Looking at their stand at the Bologna Show, the concept vehicles, Simba and Doblò Sandstorm, certainly showed the Italian manufacturers majoring on a strong off-road theme.

11 December 2002: Commercial vehicles keep our economy on the move. And saleswise, they happen to provide a good barometer on how it's performing. That, my friends is pretty, pretty poorly!

10 December 2002: The next Toyota hybrid could be a RAV 4 SUV, and it is also likely that the first luxury brand hybrid will be a Lexus RX300 SUV, according to reports coming out from the global motor industry.

10 December 2002: Alfa Romeo is to be removed from the Fiat Auto business unit and will be put into a new luxury car group alongside Ferrari and Maserati, in a restructuring of the struggling Italian carmaker to be discussed at a board meeting today.

9 December 2002: Honda produces the least polluting vehicles range on the US market, according to a new survey. Bottom of the list is DaimlerChrysler.

6 December 2002: First pictures of the next Nissan Maxima have been released by Nissan. They show a total rethink of the bodystyle.

6 December 2002: The biggest increase in road tax for 10 years is to be announced today by the minister for the environment, Martin Cullen TD.

6 December 2002: In the runout towards the next generation Toyota Avensis, due at the end of March in Ireland, Toyota Ireland has announced a special edition of the current car with extra specification at keen cost.

5 December 2002: Metallic silver, blue, black or grey are the the top colours at the moment according to UK automotive analysts Glass Information Services.

5 December 2002: The increase of 5% on an already penal rate of VRT on vehicles over 1901cc effects more people than previously, is 'regrettable', says Robert Taylor of RAC Ireland.

5 December 2002: A Ford Mondeo LX diesel goes up by more than E1,800 following the minister for finance's realigning of the Vehicle Registration Tax bands yesterday. It is a move that has been described as 'myopic and misguided' by the chairman of Ford of Ireland.

4 December 2002: A select group of Irish motoring journalists drove part of the Paris-Dakar rally route yesterday, trying out Toyota’s next Land Cruiser. And in a real test on a mixture of motorway and offroad south-west of Granada in Spain, it proved to be a very impressive machine indeed.

3 December 2002: When it comes to breaking news, we at Irishcar.com are on the front row of the grid. That's why this is the first place you'll read about the Ford Connect winning the prestigious International Van of the Year Award for 2003.

3 December 2002: BMW built only 10 identical cars in its Munich plant last year, a testament to the effect of the 'build-to-order system it inaugurated eight years ago.

3 December 2002: Peugeot's 206 supermini is holding onto its lead as best-selling car in Europe by less than 6,000 units against Volkswagen's Golf - which says something about the popularity of the VW car on its last year in the current model.

2 December 2002: Carlos Ghosn, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Company, welcomed Tony Blair to Nissan’s plant in Sunderland, UK, last Friday to launch the production of the next generation Micra.

2 December 2002: International oil giant Exxon (Esso in Ireland) is doing a lot of work with Toyota on the development of fuel cell cars, according to Toyota Ireland’s Dave Shannon.