1947 - 1948 Chevy Passenger Car Steering Column Gear Shift Lever Support Bracket on 2040-parts.com

How safe are new minicars?

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently tested a total of 11 minicars in its relatively new small-overlap crash test, and the Chevrolet Spark was the only one to earn an Acceptable rating. The small-overlap crash test was instituted in 2012 with the goal of better replicating real-life car crashes, most of which don't follow the pattern of traditional government crash tests. Instead of a car hitting a stationary object with 100 percent of its front making contact, the small-overlap test examines how a car behaves in a frontal impact at 40 mph where only a quarter of the car's front hits an object.

CDN Interior Motives Student Design Awards 2012 deadline this Friday

The CDN Interior Motives Student Design Awards 2012 competition deadline is fast approaching, with entrants having until 11 May to submit their entries. The theme of this year's competition – which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year – is ‘What Comes Next? Make your mark on the car of tomorrow' and is comprised of the following four briefs, devised in collaboration with Volkswagen and Peugeot: The Next Icon Considers the legacy of cars that have achieved iconic status in the car design automotive industry as a result of technological advances and improvements in construction and ergonomics among other things.

2010 Kia Forte: More goodies for a lower price

The new Forte replaces the Kia Spectra compact sedan for 2010. Kia's biggest seller gets new skin and a wider, longer version of the Hyundai Elantra platform for the 2010 model year but falls short in simple things such as the workings of shifters and clutches. Still, it's only $14,390 to start, and that includes Bluetooth, an iPod jack and three months of Sirius satellite radio.