1960 Nos Evinrude/johnson Connecting Rod Assembly P/n 378067 on 2040-parts.com

Chancellor to ‘freeze fuel duty’ until 2015?

The chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, has announced that fuel duty will be frozen until 2015 – if the savings can be found to pay for it. The announcement came during a speech at the Conservative party conference, in which George Osborne said: “Provided we can find the savings to pay for it, I want to freeze fuel duty for the rest of this parliament.” The 2p-a-litre rise planned by the Labour government for September 2014 would be cancelled, continuing a freeze that has lasted two-and-a-half years already. But this is conditional on the treasury finding the funds to cover it.

Aston Martin Cygnet preview

Aston Martin has developed a new 'innovative commuter concept car' called the Cygnet. If you're thinking it looks like the design team's placed a downsized Aston Martin grille onto a Toyota iQ, you wouldn't be far off. The luxury commuter concept, which Aston Martin claims will 'offer customers a distinctive, intelligent and exclusive solution for urban travel in style and luxury' is actually based on the diminutive urban runabout and was created in collaboration with the Japanese automaker.

Alan Mulally spells out the future

Ford CEO Alan Mulally is famously on-message, handing out business-card-size versions of his business plan to all and sundry, including his “One Ford” mantra. “One Ford” covers a lot of ground, but it's shorthand for Ford becoming a single entity where the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. It's close kin to the concept of building global product platforms that spread costs for product development and parts over the greatest possible volume.