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Maintenance 'favours' end up costing more

GETTING help from family, neighbours or friends for basic car maintenance tasks costs the UK public an estimate £300million a year, according to a new survey. Over 2,000 people were surveyed on behalf of Halfords Autocentres and one in six said they regretted asking for help in the first place. 45% who subsequently had to pay a professional to rectify mistakes were left with a bill in excess of £100.

Nissan creates 'scent of the future'

NISSAN has created what it calls ‘the scent of the future’, representing what Planet Earth might smell like in an imagined world where everyone drove zero-emissions vehicles. By teaming up with master perfumer and Aroma Academy Scientist Dr George Dodd, the firm has created its ‘aromatic blueprint’ for the future. Dodd, reportedly inspired by long walks in the Scottish Highlands, has created an in-car fragrance that he says is proven to inspire ‘a positive sense of well-being’ in people who smell it.

Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid: first official photos

By Ben Whitworth First Official Pictures 16 September 2008 15:08 This is the first official photograph of the new Chevrolet Volt – GM's landmark petrol-electric plug-in hybrid car, unveiled today to mark the General's centenary. CAR Online dropped into the centenary event and has the full photographs and details of the Chevy Volt and the other announcements made today. New Chevrolet Volt: is it the car to save GM?Amid an orchestrated flurry of congratulatory backslapping, GM pulled the wraps off the production version of its Volt – the car and technology tasked with hauling the General back from the brink of financial collapse.It's a landmark car for GM – and one of the first cars to evolve hybrids to be revealed in production spec.