The sleek Spanish small car that bypasses Australia

The Volkswagen Group’s Spanish subsidiary, Seat (pronounced say-art), has spent €1.1 billion developing and producing its new Volkswagen Golf spinoff hatch and wagon in Barcelona. Design-wise the Leon sports a hexagonal grille flanked by angry LED headlights, a sculpted body, a raking window line with large C-pillar, and 'coast-to-coast' tail lights. The coefficient of drag is around eight per cent better than before.

Iconic 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Stradale to be auctioned

A rare 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Stradale is expected to fetch around AU$1 million when it goes under the hammer next week. Due to be auctioned by Bonhams on February 6, this example has only driven 3300 kilometres since new, and still has its original Alcantara seats and steering wheel – along with its original Italian documentation and books. The successful bidder will be the car’s third owner.

2021 Volkswagen Caddy spied

Volkswagen's soon-to-be-revealed 2020 Caddy van has been spied during cold weather testing, ahead of its full debut in February. Although it's disguised with a heavy plastic cladding at the front end, we can see the new Caddy will have Golf-style headlamps linked with a slim grille. Expect to see an aggressive lower fascia, too, in keeping with a sketch revealed earlier this week.

The week's top news stories: February 2, 2020

The automotive news wheel is always turning. If you’re not constantly checking CarAdvice – which you should be doing, by the way – it can be easy for some headlines to slip through the cracks. To make sure you haven’t missed anything important, we’ve gathered what we reckon are the hottest news stories from this week, right here. Check them out, and let us know what caught your eye. Fourth quarter launch locked in for a much-needed sub-Seltos offering in the Kia SUV family.

2020 Kia Seltos S review

Starting from $25,990 drive-away, the 2020 Kia Seltos S is the entry point into a segment that was a long time coming for Kia Australia. The Seltos has also been immediately popular from the get-go, illustrating just how vital this vehicle is for Kia locally.

Cars you didn’t know you want: Toyota Crown ute

If your knowledge of Toyota utes starts and ends with HiLux, you’re in for a surprise. The Japanese giant has never shied away from workhorses, utilitarian vehicles designed to cope with light commercial duties day in, day out. And so it was with the Toyota Crown. ‘Wait? What?’ I hear you exasperate. ‘Wasn’t, indeed isn’t, the Toyota Crown an accommodating sedan primarily for the Japanese domestic market?’

Goodbye Mercedes-Benz X-Class, we hardly knew you...

Sometimes the best-laid plans go awry, and I’d never want to discourage a car manufacturer from rolling the dice and having a crack. But when it comes to automotive miscalculations, the short life of Mercedes-Benz Vans’ X-Class pickup has to rate pretty highly on the list, and serve as a lesson to others. As revealed this week, the X-Class will be axed globally from May this year, less than three years after its global reveal and two after its introduction to the vital Australian market.