2015 Mini Countryman on 2040-cars

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Man criticized for filming rather than helping road rage victim

A man from Cheshire in England was criticized on social media after he filmed a road rage brawl and provided color commentary for it instead of helping the victim. According to the Daily Mail, Alec Wall was traveling through Cheshire when he came upon a strange scene. A red Mini was stopped at a light, and standing next to it in traffic was a woman in a white dress. As Wall watched, the woman lunged for the Mini's driver's door, wrenched it open, and began fighting with the woman behind the wheel. While the women fought, Wall pulled out his phone and started recording. "Road Rage!" he shouted as he filmed. Apparently finding the situation extremely funny, Wall continued to film, giggling all the while and providing commentary on the scuffle. "Oh my God, actual road in a rage!" he shouted. Once he returned home, Wall uploaded his video to a Facebook page called Idiot UK Drivers Exposed where it racked up nearly 90,000 likes. Not everyone found it as funny as Wall did, however. Comments began piling up chastising Wall for his flip attitude and his failure to intervene in the fight. "How about instead of laughing and screaming 'road rage' like a moron you do something productive like get out of your car and try to defuse the situation? Use some intelligence..." said one commenter. "I really have failed to see what the camera man is laughing at," said another. "It looks to me like someone being seriously assaulted. Why is that funny?" There is no report on the cause of the incident, or how it ended. Related Video: News Source: The Daily Mail Auto News Weird Car News MINI road rage fight

Mini pegs its future on crossovers, electric cars, and the Chinese market

Mini shed light on how its range of models will grow during the 2020s. It confirmed the longstanding rumors claiming it will expand its presence in the crossover segment, and it announced plans to launch more electric cars, including some that will be built in China through a joint-venture established with Great Wall Motors. Executives at the BMW-owned firm have approved what they describe as a realignment of the line-up that's primarily built on three pillars: electric technology, crossovers, and China. "Harnessing new target groups and sales markets will be crucially important for the future of Mini," stressed company boss Bernd Korber. As of writing, Mini's only entry into the crossover segment is the Countryman (pictured), which is well into its second generation, and its only electric car is a variant of the two-door Hardtop. It confirmed two more crossovers are in the pipeline. One is described as a being positioned in the small-car segment, and the other is billed as a compact model. The former will exclusively be available with an electric powertrain, while the latter will be offered with internal combustion engines, though some degree of electrification will almost certainly be available. Mini stopped short of providing concrete details about its future high-riders, and we don't know precisely when they'll be unveiled, but an earlier report sketches the outline of a battery-powered crossover that resurrects the Paceman nameplate and that's about as big as the BMW X1. Possibly called Traveler, or Traveller if product planners select the British spelling, the second model will reportedly ride on BMW's CLAR platform, meaning it will be the first Mini equipped with a longitudinally-mounted engine, and the brand's first rear-wheel drive car. Like its parent company, Mini realistically aims to give customers what it calls the power of choice. While electrification will spread across its line-up, it's not planning on phasing out gasoline- or diesel-burning engines in the near future. It pointed out internal combustion technology remains an ideal solution in some markets. Whether current members of the Mini range will be canned during the realignment is a point executives steered clear of. They confirmed the Countryman will sooner or later return for a third generation, but unverified rumors claim the open-top variant of the Hardtop will retire without a successor in February 2024.

Get lost in Evo's sublime 2013 Car of the Year testing

Every year Evo stages its Car of the Year test, bringing the best performance cars in the world to one location for an epic shootout. This year the magazine pitted eight CotY finalists against each other on Route Napoleon in Southern France - Evo claims it's the "best road in the world" - and then proceeded to nitpick the smallest of faults on each car until the winner could be named. You see, this year's lineup of machines was just so good that only one car obviously wasn't CotY material from the get-go. Can you guess which one judging from the list below?
- Aston Martin V12 Vantage S
- Audi R8 V10 Plus