Fuel discount proposed for rural areas

MOTORISTS in exceptionally rural areas could see their fuel bills cut by up to 5p a litre under proposals aimed at easing the burden on the UK's remotest families. The UK Government has asked the European Commission to consider seven new regions across Scotland and in a part of north-east England. Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander, a Highlands MP, said: "High fuel prices in areas where cars are a necessity, not a luxury, is a major issue in rural communities across the UK.

New Peugeot 208 won’t spawn Estate or Convertible, but a 2008 SUV Crossover is planned.

There may be a new Peugeot 208 GTi (pictured) but no 208 CC or SW Peugeot has revealed that there will be no CC (Convertible) or SW (estate) versions of the new 208, but a 2008 SUV/Crossover is expected. The new Peugeot 208 has a weight of expectations resting on its new shoulders, with Peugeot finding sales harder to come by and hoping the new 208 may rekindle some of the sales fire the 205 had. So you’d think it would make sense to fill every possible niche imaginable with the 208, including spinning off various iterations in the style of MINI.

New Hyundai Test Centre at the Nurburgring revealed

Hyundai’s new test centre at the Nurburgring If anyone had said, just a few years ago, that Hyundai would develop a test centre at the Nurburgring to help shake-down their cars, they’d have been laughed at. But Hyundai – and Kia – have come so far in recent years that it makes absolute sense for them to develop a full-time testing facility at the Nurburgring to test their cars for the road, along with just about every other car maker of note. James May may object to the Nurburgring factor in the suspension set-ups of many road cars (and we do have some sympathy for his point of view), but the sometimes extreme nature of the Nurburgring’s surfaces – and its endless twists and turns, uphill and down – do offer car makers an easily accessible place to test cars in the (almost) real world.