1980-86 Ford Bronco / F-series Belt Weatherstrip Kit No Reserve! on 2040-parts.com

Best Western Hotels rolling out EV charging points in the UK

We’re electric car sceptics – or at least sceptical about their ability to replace the ICE car as our principal form of personal transport – although EVs do have their place as runarounds in urban areas, where their limited range isn’t really a factor. But taking your EV off for a weekend jaunt does pose logistical problems when the average range is probably no more than 80 miles, and something worth making the effort for a weekend away is almost always going to be further away than that. But a bit of smart marketing by Best Western Hotels – a group of 270 or so independently run hotels round the UK – means EV drivers will soon be able to plot their weekend away on the basis of Best Western Hotels en route, with Best Western planning on fitting EV charging points in their car parks, with half their hotels having free charging points by September.

New Saab 9-3 leaks – Saab’s future?

New Saab 9-3 leaks It makes a change to have a Saab story that isn’t more doom and gloom and financial meltdown, but it does seem a bit of a coincidence that an image of the new Saab 9-3 should surface on the day Saab reveals the Chinese investment plans to put Saab back on its feet. Still, casting our cynicism aside, the new Saab 9-3 will be a key part of the plans to revive Saab – but this leaked photo isn’t the first news we’ve had of the new 9-3. Apart from Victor Muller’s musings about Saab’s future, we saw a proper concept of the new 9-3 back at Geneva in the Spring when Saab called the Saab PhoeniX (the 9-3 Concept) an ‘Aeromotional Design’ and managed to allude to Saab’s background in fighter planes by saying the PhoeniX  ‘liquid metal’ forms and a dramatic jet canopy-inspired glasshouse’.

Volkswagen Passat drops United States model when new sedan debuts

Volkswagen probably will drop the Passat sedan and wagon in 2011 when VW's new U.S.-built mid-sized four-door is expected to go on sale. "We are looking at it in detail," Stefan Jacoby, VW Group of America CEO, said this month at a press event here. The U.S.-built sedan, which has yet to be named, will be larger than the Passat but priced lower.