Carscoop Version 4.0: Tell us What You Think About our '2010MY' Revisions

We promised you that as soon as the Frankfurt Motor Show came to an end, we would write a post listing all the changes made on Carscoop the past few weeks, and well, here we are. The last time we updated our site was in April 2008 when we replaced the HTML template with a newer XML version. Now, instead of redesigning and updating the site all at once, we decided to slowly refresh and incorporate the new features changing or tweaking them as we go. This means that we're far from done yet.

Before we list the upgrades, allow me to say that many claim Blogger's platform has serious limitations, is much less SEO friendly, draws less attention from advertisers and is far more difficult to work with than Wordpress and we'd agree 100 percent.

But if anything else, despite all the blogger cons, it's worth mentioning that Carscoop has managed to achieve a respectful ranking of 21,485 on Alexa, 4,589 on Technorati and a 5PR on Google. Not saying that we're even close to the segment leaders in terms of traffic, but not bad overall for a blog that began and still is treated as a 'home-made' product.

But enough with that. Let's sum up the changes that have been made on Carscoop these past weeks:

-a wider format with larger photos for the homepage and individual posts

- smaller summaries and thumbnail pics for the archived and categorized posts (e.g. Frankfurt Motor Show -->)

-the addition of a new section with eight rotating stories at the top of the page, right under the navigation bar

-a zoom function for the photo galleries where the pictures open in the same page but more importantly, are automatically re-sized according to the width / height of your browser screen without affecting the original download quality / pixel size. As we've mentioned before, if you like, you can still open the photos individually on a new tab.

-the ability to have a profile aviator for comments - currently, only for those with an account on Blogger and Google (the limitations we talked about...)

-a new 'Related Posts' feature that now incorporates teaser photos of the articles

-a redesigned 'Carscoop' logo plus several cosmetic/color/size tweaks that include but are not limited to the navigation bar, the comment section and the bars on the right-hand side of the page

-quite possibly something we forgot to mention ;-)

We'd like to hear your opinion about these changes and if you have any ideas on how to better Carscoop, feel free to leave your suggestion(s) in the comment section below.

John

Ferrari Voted World's Most Iconic Sports Car Badge in MPH Poll

Can't say that we're surprised by the results of a poll commissioned by UK's MPH featuring Top Gear Live and run by orange.co.uk/cars for the most "iconic performance car badge". As anyone would suspect, first place went to Ferrari with nearly half (48%) of all the 5,235 participants voting for the Cavallino Rampante while Aston Martin (being British and all...) took second place with 1,289 votes (25 per cent).

The raging bull of Lamborghini landed in the third position with 470 votes (9 per cent) while fourth, fifth and sixth place were taken by Bugatti, Porsche and Maseratti respectively.

And if you must know, the poll was created to drum up some publicity for the "MPH The Prestige and Performance Motor Shows" at London's Earls Court (5–8 November) and Birmingham's NEC (12-15 November).

MOST ICONIC PERFORMANCE CAR BADGES

No	Manufacturer	Votes	Percentage
1	Ferrari	2,525	48%
2	Aston Martin	1,289	25%
3	Lamborghini	470	9%
4	Bugatti	263	5%
5	Porsche	234	4%
6	Maserati	143	3%
7	Spyker	117	2%
8	Lotus	80	2%
9	Koenigsegg	70	1%
10	Pagani	44	1%

2010 Opel Astra and Alfa Romeo Milano Styling: Too Close for Comfort?

Many of you, our readers, were quick to point out the Alfa Romeo Milano showcased in the leaked factory spy shots shared one too many styling similarities with GM's forthcoming Opel Astra hatchback. Are we talking about a cloning case here? Absolutely not. Even though we only have these fuzzy photos of the Alfa to go by, the only way you're going to confuse these two cars is if you wasted your paycheck on drinks. But, we think that many of you caught on to something and by that we mean the styling of the rear quarters.

And oh, since we're all quick to jump in the bandwagon when we see a Chinese vehicle 'borrowing' styling traits from other cars it's only fair that we do the same with everyone else.

But before we go into any details, let us say that designs are not finalized in a matter of weeks so don't go and claim that Alfa 'plagiarized' Opel (unless you know something that none of the rest of us don't) just because the Astra made its debut first.

Truth to be said, when we compared the two cars side by side, we were quite amazed by the similarities in the design of the rear quarter panel and the rear-end. If we didn't know any better, we'd say that from the B-pillar and back, it's as if someone drew a rough sketch and gave it to two different design teams for further development: one from Germany and one from Italy.

Just look at the crisp belt-line and how it meets the corners of the same shaped tail lights, then pay attention to the window line, the C-Pillar, the wraparound rear windshield with the roof spoiler and even the styling of the rear bumper with the blacked out apron 'swoopy' curve line.

So in a nutshell, that's what we think. Time to agree, disagree or just simply have your say in the comment section below.