08 Passat Rear Seat Assembly on 2040-parts.com

Groups form coalition in effort to replenish the Bonneville Salt Flats

An effort to save the historic Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah is under way with a salt replenishment program to permanently preserve the land. The national landmark is an essential piece of American motorsports heritage, as scores of world land-speed records have been set on the unique formation. The densely packed expanse of land is the dried remnants of a huge prehistoric lake.

Volvo XC60 R-design – more detail

Volvo has released more details of the XC60 R-Design Although the XC60 R-Design doesn’t get any sort of power boost, it does get some tweaks to the setup to provide a more sporty drive. Volvo has stiffened up the chassis and added more damping, and tweaked the steering ratios to give a quicker response.  But Volvo reckons this has virtually  no impact on ride quality (which begs the question ‘Why didn’t they do it to start with if there’s no trade-off’) and sensibly they have not gone down the lowered suspension route, so the XC60 still has good ground clearance. Volvo has added a rear seat entertainment package option to the XC60 On the cosmetic front, the R-Design gets body coloured lower section, matt silk metallic finish for the trim and chrome tailpipes.

Dacia Duster (2012) priced from £8995

Renault's sub-brand Dacia will price its Duster compact SUV from just £8995 when it goes on UK sale on 28 June 2012. That puts the Duster among Ford Fiesta and Hyundai i10 prices, and around £6000-7000 less than its rivals from Skoda and Nissan. A new 4x4 for less than £9000?