1949 Ford Fog Lamp on 2040-parts.com

Ford announces electric car plans at the Detroit auto show

Not to be left out of the electric car party, Ford announced Sunday at the Detroit Auto Show that it was developing a line of electric powered vehicles. In addition to its already announced hybrids and plug-in hybrids, Ford is working with Magna International to bring fully electric cars to market with lithium-ion battery packs. In the works is a Focus and Fusion-based vehicles that will be available in with all three powertrains.

Mercedes-Benz sells 1000,000 cars in a year in the UK for the first time

Mercedes Bristol hands over the 100,000th Mercedes old in the UK in 2013 It looks like Mercedes move in to a more convincing compact car with the new A-Class is already paying dividends, with Mercedes announcing it has already broken the 100,000 car sales in the UK for this year with a full month still to go. The 100,000th car is, appropriately, a white Mercedes  A 180 CDI Sport – perhaps the best-selling A-Class – which has been collected by its new owner from Mercedes-Benz of Bristol. This is the first full year the new A-Class has been on sale (although the first customer cars didn’t start arriving until well in to the new year) and augers well for sales numbers in 2014.

Renault replaces Scenic with Renault Scenic XMOD Crossover

The Renault Scenic is no more, to be replaced by a rufty-tufty crossover with a raised ride height called the Renault Scenic XMOD. But Renault think they have the answer to the problem and are following the lead of partner Nissan – who junked their mainstream cars and replaced them with crossovers (step forward the Qashqai and Juke) – by dumping the Scenic and replacing it with the Scenic XMOD. The Renault Scenic XMOD isn’t a new car, but the Scenic with a facelift, raised ride height, butch bolt on bits and a nod to 4WD with a new Grip Xtend Traction control system.