Mazda 2 unveiled

All-New Mazda 2

Another Geneva debutant is this, the all-new Mazda 2 (which you may have gathered from the title of this piece). It replaces the old Mazda 2 (suprise!) which has always been good to drive but was undone by tall, geeky styling.

No such danger here, and the new 2 gets swoopy looks and very sharp styling. And hopefully, that lime-green paintjob will make it to the showroom models too. Who wants silver?

Engines will be updated versions of todays 1.25, 1.4 and 1.6-litre four cylinder petrols, and the 1.4 diesel, but more significantly, the 2 rides on the platform of the forthcoming all-new Ford Fiesta, a car whose fortunes are critical to the Ford empire. The 2 will give a very good indication of what the new Fiesta will be like to drive, as well as being important for the sales figures of Mazda in Europe, which has enjoyed something of a resurgence of late.

Expect to see it in your nearest Mazda showroom by late summer, with prices starting from around €15,000.

Lightweight Lamborghini

Lamborghini Superleggera

Slobber... Dribble... Drool... Gibber... Sorry, let us just gather ourselves. This is, gulp, the new Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. Superleggera, for those who were reading the Serie A results in the back of Italian class, means Very Light, which means, in turn, that this latest version of the Gallardo has a 530bhp V10 5.0-litre engine and hits a magic bhp-per-tonne figure of 400bhp/tonne. That's thanks to a radical, 911 GT3-style-diet that uses thinner glass, thinner seats and the binning of all the sound deadening and the radio. You still do get air conditioning and four-wheel-drive, however, which Lamborghini hopes will make the Gallardo Superleggera more useable and friendly day-to-day than its key rivals, the Ferrari F430 Challenge Stradale (which gets unleashed next year) and the Porsche 911 GT3 (just out).

So let's see, a Lamborghini with more power, less weight and no sound-proofing and it's supposed to be user-friendly? Right. The queue for the brown trousers starts on the right...

Fiat Brings Abarth Back

The Scorpion Returns.

This is the sporty new face of Fiat, which is actually the sporty old face of Fiat. Confused? Don't be. It's simply that Fiat is having another go at resurrecting the famous Abarth brand and it's legendary scorpion badge.

Abarth started life in the sixties, tweaking Fiat 500s into buzzing, screaming, high-revving track machines that stunned much bigger machinery with their speed and agility. Think Mini Cooper, but more insane.

Well now, the name established by Carlo Abarth is back, and much like AMG is to Mercedes and M is to BMW, it's now been brought thoroughly in-house, and is designed to serve as a separate high-performance brand. Indeed, this first model, based on the Grande Punto and due to be shown at Geneva next week, has no Fiat badging, only Abarth. That may change for production versions, however.

Under the bonnet is Fiat's all-new 1.4 T-Jet turbo engine, pumping out 150bhp, with a 180bhp version due before the end of the year. We've driven the T-Jet in the new Bravo, and it's a nicely punchy engine that, like VW's similar 1.4 TSI engine, suffers from a little roughness in the pursuit of power. Which sounds perfect for an Abarth, to be honest.

Expect prices to start at around the €25,000 mark for the 150bhp version, rising to just under €30,000 for the 180bhp.

Jag XJ Facelift

New Jaguar XJ

This is the face of the new XJ saloon which Jaguar will showcase at Geneva next week, and which the company hopes will re-ignite interest in its largest car, which has been criticised since its 2003 launch for throwback styling that owes more to the 1968 XJ6 and rather less to modern styling ideas.

Under the skin, changes are minimal, which is to say, non-existant, but that's not a problem. Under the old-fashioned panels, the XJ is actually one of the most advanced cars in its segment, with a super-lightweight aluminium chassis and ultra-modern 3.0 V6 and 4.2 V8 petrol engines, and the brilliant 2.7-litre twin-turbo diesel which Jaguar shares with Land Rover, Peugeot and Citroen.

There's a new grille, tweaked lights and alterations to the bumpers, which are now much deeper and more sharply defined. Prices should remain roughly the same, and the first versions should be in Irish Jaguar dealers by the summer.

More excitingly, rumours are already circulating about the 2009 XJ replacement, which will continue with the basic structure of today's car, but will be clothed in, according to insiders, a far more modern body, which uses the square grille from the C-XF concept car, and a Mercedes CLS-esque coupe-like window line.