Maybe we're just not seeing it in these pictures, but we expected something a little bit different, a little bit more attractive from SsangYong when it released the first teaser sketches of its redesigned Rodius minivan on Wednesday, in advance of its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Read more »

Just because carmakers don't publicize specifications of future models, doesn't mean that they're not obliged by law to register prototype vehicles created for development purposes if they intend to use them on public roads.

In some cases, depending on the country and local rules, they have to provide specific details. If we are to believe a report from the BMW loving crew over at the F30Posts, one of their members discovered a registration document for an M4 Coupe test car through a VIN check (there no mention on how and where).

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Touring variants (BMW talk for station wagons) of the M5 have been an on-off affair for the Bavarian carmaker, which to date, has only presented two such models in the vehicle's 28 year-long history.

The first M5 Touring came with the second-generation model (E34) in 1992 and the last, with the fourth generation E60 in 2007. BMW had also created a prototype for the third gen M5 (E39), which it kept a well-guarded secret until it finally showed the car to the public in 2009.

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Vast as it may be, the Mojave Desert is a good place to begin your search for automotive engineers trialing camouflaged prototypes of future models. The scoopsters at KGP Photography know this all too well and were on hand to record a number of 2014 Range Rover Sport test cars. Read more »

Don’t let those tiny wheels with the low-cost hub caps fool you; what you see here is the Combi variant of the new generation of the Skoda Octavia RS (labeled the vRS in Britain), the sedan, or rather liftback version of which, we saw through a series of leaked screenshots from an online car configurator in December. Read more »

When a Chinese website dropped a flurry of images of a restyled Volvo XC60 last month, we weren't sure if the aesthetic changes would be applied to the local market model alone or if it would be offered on all versions sold around the world.

These scoops of a thinly disguised XC60 test car shot in Europe put that question to rest as it features the same styling treatment as the camouflage-free model from China.

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It’s almost time for Alfa Romeo to unleash its first true rear-wheel drive sports car since the demise of the 8C Competizione coupe and roadster in 2010, the new 4C mid-engine coupe.

This week, our spies nabbed a pre-production prototype of the 4C testing in Europe. While Alfa Romeo's engineers had the car covered almost from top to bottom, we can still see all some of the styling modifications made over the impressive concept displayed at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show.

These include the addition of new exterior mirrors with a larger surface mounted on the doors, the visible door handles positioned right in front of the side air vents, the new circular tail lamp fixtures, and the redesigned (and dare we say, more impressive looking) diffuser at the rear end that also gains a set of auxiliary lights.

When Alfa presented the study two years ago, it told us that the 4C features a 1.7-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine coupled to a dual-clutch transmission driving the rear wheels. We still don’t know how strong the engine is, but the word on the street is could deliver 300 or more horses.

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Ferrari has an old habit of showing off its future models to potential buyers (read extremely wealthy) behind locked doors well before it reveals the cars to the rest of the world.

One such private preview is rumored to have taken place on Wednesday, in Maranello, where Ferrari lifted the wraps off the F150 Project, which is the codename for the Enzo replacement that may or may not be called the F70 in production trim.

To prove that this event did indeed occur today in Ferrari's home town, one participant took a shot of a metal plate from the event, while at least two people have shared some very interesting details about the new mid-engine hypercar, though, keep in mind, there's no way of confirming the numbers (yet).

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We've been telling you for some time now that the Citroën is working on the replacements for its C4-based five-seater Picasso and 7-seater Grand Picasso minivans in the popular compact segment in Europe.

We could in fact see one of the two models making their world premiere as early as the Geneva Auto Salon in March, with the Frankfurt motor show in September also being a possible venue for their presentation.

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For almost a year now, Opel and its sister company from Britain, Vauxhall, have been testing camouflaged prototypes of the Insignia series, which in sedan form, is sold as the Buick Regal in North America.

In a first, the European model scooped here affords us a clear look at the restyled Insignia's new headlamp fixtures that will work together with a sharper front grille, new front and rear bumpers, and a different set of tail lamps featuring a chrome stripe from side to side, just like on the new Cascada convertible.

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The launch of the new generation of the Audi A3 in three door, five-door "Sportback" and S3 trims over the past year is only the beginning for the brand with the four-ring badge from Ingolstadt, which has more in store for the premium compact segment.

Last week, we shared scoop pictures of Audi's upcoming Mercedes-Benz CLA-rivaling A3 four-door sedan, and now, our spy photographers have nabbed the first images of the open top version of the series testing in Europe.

And mind you, this isn't just any A3 Convertible but the range-topping (unless Audi surprises us with an RS edition) S3, as evidenced by the quad exhaust tips and the design of the air-vents on the corners of the front bumper, which are identical to the S3 hatchback.

Unlike the current A3 Convertible that’s shares its platform with the previous hatchback, the new model is based on the upcoming A3 sedan's longer wheelbase MQB architecture, something that will not only help improve rear passenger and luggage space, but also affords the car a sleeker look with more balanced proportions.

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Ever since its Japanese launch in 2007 (USA 2008), the Nissan GT-R has gained a huge following and respect with its supercar-bashing performance. Subtle upgrades have been applied over its current lifespan with the aim of keeping Italians, Germans and Americans at bay with its AWD drivetrain coupled to a potent 3.8L twin-turbo V6.

However, the competition will not surrender; cue GM and Porsche with their new Corvette Stingray and 911 models respectively, as prime examples - hence why Nissan is expected to respond again.

For those of us like myself who grew up as part of the early-adapting PlayStation generation, the GT-R obsession grew with the R32-34 Nissan Skylines of the 1990's. Their bang-for-buck thrills combined with endless modification options has turned the GT-R moniker into something of an automotive cult status.

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Unlike McLaren, which has all but revealed the shape of the P1 and even released videos of its development, but is keeping mum on the powertrain specs, Ferrari has been very open about its own hypercar, currently code-named the F150 (rumor has it that it may be named F70). However, aside from a couple of teaser photos, Maranello won't fully show us the Enzo's replacement. Read more »

Anyone who claims that being a spy photographer for the automotive industry is a walk in the park, clearly hasn’t a clue what this profession entails.

On the other hand, we also understand that being followed / stalked by people with cameras while you're trying to do your job as an engineer can be frustrating and time-consuming. Nevertheless, if you're not driving on a private track but on public roads, you just have to learn to live with it.

Now, it's one thing for an engineer to display his or her anger with sign language, as we've seen it happen many times in the past, and a completely different story when you get physically aggressive.

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The word on the street is that BMW is making plans to unwrap a thinly disguised concept version of the M3 sedan at the Frankfurt motor show in September, with the final production model to appear in dealerships around the world in 2014.

Like many other publications, Britain's Car Magazine has come up with an illustration to give us an idea of what to expect about the M3 sedan's looks in its latest issue.

And it's not alone, as the creative minds over at Bimmerpost used their Photoshop skills to turn the BMW 4-Series Coupe Concept from the Detroit Motor Show into an impressive M4 Coupe study.

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After setting foot on the compact hatchback segment, Germany's premium car brands are now eyeing the sedan category, with Mercedes-Benz being the first to present its proposal in the form of the CLA sports saloon.

Even though Audi told us it would launch an A3-based sedan at the end of 2012, that never happened. Instead, we're now waiting for the premiere of the A3 Sedan to take place at a major international auto show in the coming months before it begins to arrive in showrooms at the end of the year or for some markets, in the first quarter of 2014.

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There's really no point in trying to hide the styling elements of the new generation of the Skoda Octavia Combi since the liftback version has already been formally introduced and we've even seen the station wagon without camouflage (albeit from a distance), however, the Czech carmaker continues to circulate lightly masked prototypes like this one, nabbed earlier in the week. Read more »

As BMW begins to circulate craftily camouflaged prototypes of its second generation 1-Series Coupe and Convertible models, which will form the new 2-Series range, out in the open, the question arises if the Bavarian carmaker has plans for an M2 high-performance version.

From what we have heard, BMW M seems open to creating an M2 model, possibly powered by a four-cylinder turbocharged engine instead of the M135i hatchback's 3.0-liter force-fed straight-six, which would mark a first for the brand since the demise of the original M3 E30 back in the early 1990s.

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While it's been over a year since we first spotted a prototype of the refreshed 2014 Panamera testing out in the open, Porsche isn't ready to release the car to the public just yet, but fear not as our sources tell us that it will make its appearance sometime this year, possibly at the Frankfurt auto show in September.

What these latest spy pictures provide us is with a better look at the facelifted Panamera's rear end that sports new LED tail lamp clusters that look similar in styling to those used on the new Cayman coupe and Boxster roadster models, as well as the newly styled bumper.

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After the recent sightings of the refreshed S80 sedan and XC60 crossover in China, our scoop photographers landed these images of a prototype of the facelifted S60 saloon testing in northern Europe.

On the outside, the only part of the car that appears to change is the front end. While heavily camouflaged, we're guessing that Volvo will follow in the path of the 2014 S80 and XC60 discarding the inner set of lights positioned between the headlamps and the grille, which itself, will also obtain a different shape and new details, as will the front bumper.

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