The 1960 Ferrari 250 GT that sold for £6.6m at a charity auction on Wednesday was far from museum ready - with 100,000 miles on the clock, blemished paint and leaking oil are some of the signs of wear and tear the new owner might want to check out before its next MOT in May 2016.

If someone asked you what the perfect car looks like, we bet you wouldn't image it looking like this. Using public feedback, a university professor pieced together the 'dream look' - but it has not quite come out as an automotive design classic.

The average price of a used 4x4 has increased by £1,200 in two months, according to new research from Manheim auctions, with prices 40 per cent higher than this time last year. After Met Office predictions of a harsh winter, UK motorists have snapped up second-hand 4x4s quicker - but which SUVs are the best?

Ferrari's latest creation can accelerate from 0-62mph faster than you can tie your shoe laces, has a top speed of 211mph and more power than nine superminis put together. Just 799 F12tdf examples will be built and each one is expected to cost in the region of £275,000.

VW has admitted UK cars fitted with emission 'defeat device' did cheat EU tests and says the majority of the 1.2 million affected models can be corrected with a software update. However, some models will take longer to fix. VW UK boss apologised 'sincerely and unreservedly' to customers during questioning by the transport select committee on Monday.

Skoda and Mercedes-Benz are two brands you probably wouldn't put on a level playing field, but the Czech carmaker's new Superb Estate might be the car to blur the lines of luxury. When you take price, power and boot space into consideration, which one comes out on top?

Five years after the 'bangers for cash' Government incentive - prompting the sale of almost 400k new cars - Vauxhall has introduced its own Scrappage Allowance Scheme. As long as you've owned the car for a minimum of 90 days, you can trade-in your motor to receive £2,000 towards a new Vauxhall.

If a hot rod with metal panels, an exposed engine and glass windows in the floor isn't enough to draw you in, an all-new two-seat sports car, a hydrogen-cell powered vehicle and a talking robot astronaut should do the trick. All of these Toyota creations take centre stage at the Tokyo Motor Show in October.

Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and SEAT have all launched new websites to allow owners to check if their vehicle is one of the 1.2 million UK cars fitted with the emissions cheat device. German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported the device does cheat the test in Europe as well as the US.

With 690bhp and a top speed of 217mph at his disposal, John Barnes loses a head-to-head race in a Lamborghini Aventador to Harry Kane...driving a Vauxhall Corsa. The current England striker takes victory with a flamboyant skidding pirouette in this Vauxhall video spoof.

Families buy 4x4s for a host of reasons, for some it's the obvious excellent all-terrain ability, while for others it's for the space and practicality. Covering all the popular family SUV-buyer's needs - from luxury to the school run - we reveal a countdown of the top ten used 4x4s compiled by WhatCar?

Dubbed the 'Flying Huntsman' by the team of British engineers who created it, the Defender Double Cab Pickup was made in response to Jaguar Land Rover's decision to stop building the Defender this year - almost 70 years after the first model rolled off the production line.

The biggest fear of large scale buyers is that the resale value of VW vehicles will plummet, leaving them seriously out of pocket. Company car drivers themselves are also turning their backs on the German car giant, believing the brand no longer carries the kudos it had.

One in three motorists pay over the odds for their car insurance - and the worst thing you can do is simply renew. We reveal ten tips to get the cheapest car insurance deal and show you the places to go to compare car cover and potentially save hundreds of pounds.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage was caused when the Aston Martin DBR1 (inset) was crushed in a crash during a race of supercars from the 1950s in Wiltshire. The classic, which finished 2nd at Le Mans in 1959, was ignominiously returned to the paddock at Castle Combe, Wiltshire, on the back of a recovery truck.

A hire car stolen by a highly sophisticated gang of criminals was tracked on its journey all the way to East Africa - and led to discovery of dozens of stolen high-end motors. The Lexus RX 450h - worth £45,000 - was stolen in April in London and found itself on a boat via Le Havre in France, Oman in the Middle East, Kenya, Africa before ending up in Uganda two months after it went missing.

The last of the current model of Land Rover Defender are selling for thousands of pounds more used than they did new, according to latest data from valuation specialists CAP Automotive. Demand for the Defender spiked when Land Rover announced 2015 would be the last year of production.

British luxury car giant Bentley has unleashed its first ever 4X4 and pledged that the £160,000 Bentayga will be 'the most powerful, luxurious, and exclusive sports utility vehicle in the world'. Bentley hopes the new Bentayga will prove one of its biggest sellers by capitalising on the boom in luxury 4X4s among the world's super-rich.

The launch of the luxury Model X represents a milestone for the loss-making Silicon Valley automaker during a period of high spending and modest growth, because it can now boast a second model in production beyond its Model S sedan, launched in 2012. 'I think we got a little carried away with the X,' CEO Elon Musk told reporters ahead of a launch event near the company's Fremont factory, where luxury Model Xs have been moving down the production line in recent weeks, nearly two years behind the company's original schedule.

British luxury car maker Rolls-Royce today took the wraps of a new £250,000 convertible that it is hailing as its 'sexiest' model ever. Rolls-Royce says its new four-seater 155mph soft-top was inspired by its famous 1950s Silver Dawn car and Anita Eckberg in classic film La Dolce Vita.

Vauxhall is set to launch the new Astra next month which will be built at its Ellesmere Port, guaranteeing 2,000 jobs in Cheshire over the next decade.The manufacturer says it takes approximately 24 hours to build an Astra, from sheet steel to the finished article - but this is expected to reduce to just 22 hours as production grows.

They may not be the most lusted after cars on the road, but Britain's love affair with the humble supermini shows little sign of cooling. If you're in the market for a supermini, how do the big-selling little cars stack up? Russell Bray runs the rule over five of the UK's favourites.

Having test-driven one for a week, I'm impressed with Volvo's exceptionally striking, high-tech and nimble XC90 sports utility vehicle.  So are the neighbours, and our builders, who seemed to know more about it than I did.  This week, it also impressed judges at the motor industry's Oscars - the Auto Express Awards in London - at which it was named Car Of The Year and where it also took the prize for best large sports utility vehicle. 

For school run mums who still hanker for a bit of motoring fun and dads who feel too young for a traditional saloon, Jaguar has today taken the wraps off its first 'family friendly' sports car. The new F-PACE is Jaguar's first ever sports utility 'crossover' vehicle and is designed to put the 'phwoar factor ' into the 4X4 market - with plenty of room for the kids.

This is a highly capable, ruftytufty 4x4 from Russia - for a fraction of the price of a new Land Rover. On the road, the basic 1.7-litre petrol engine (your only option) is deafeningly noisy, but tolerably smooth. Power steering, manageable dimensions and a tight turning circle make it reasonably practical for the supermarket or school run. You won't have to agonise over pages of extras because the Niva is an unabashed frills-free zone. This is a very basic utility vehicle, after all.

One of the most beautiful supercars ever created, as gorgeous to look at as it is to drive. The icing on the cake is that this sumptuous tourer converts at the flick of a switch from a svelte, hard-topped coupe into a gorgeous cabriolet. And though there's fun to be had with the top down, it looks even better with the aerodynamic roof raised. The car can accelerate from rest to 62 mph in just 3.6 seconds, to 124 mph in 11.2 seconds and has a top speed of 196 mph.

Lesser known classic cars have seen the biggest gain in price during the last six months according to the latest index from expert valuation firm Hagerty. In the index, it says 23 cars have seen their value increase by more than 30 per cent and with three exceptions, these motors are all 1970s and 1980s classics, with the majority valued at under £100,000.

James Knight, head of Bonhams' motoring department, has been auctioning cars since 1984 and says he has never experienced a long-term downturn in the market. Here he passes on some of what he's learned.