1981 Yamaha Xj550 Maxim Ignition Coils/electrical/oem on 2040-parts.com

Old is new again: Will a floor-hinged throttle pedal be in your future?

If you think that every little nut, bolt, switch, gear or widget in your new car wasn't scrutinized by a team of highly educated, overworked car geeks (read: engineers), think again. A couple of recent conversations with automotive engineers confirmed that virtually nothing that goes into a car today is taken for granted. During the recent Pebble Beach weekend, I had the pleasure of spending time with an engineer for Jaguar, and the subject turned to materials used for various switches in the cabin.

Toyota recalls Highlander hybrid, Lexus RX 400h

Toyota is recalling about 82,000 hybrid vehicles in the United States to fix a flawed control board inside the powertrain. The recall covers about 45,000 Toyota Highlander hybrids and 36,700 Lexus RX 400h hybrids from the 2006 and 2007 model years. Toyota says some of the transistors on the control board might have been improperly soldered and could be damaged from large current flow during high-load driving.

Vauxhall Ampera price cut by £3,500

The Vauxhall Ampera (pictured) drops in price by £3500 Although we still feel the range-extender is the right way for car makers to go to get the car buying public to accept EVs, the range-extender Vauxhall Ampera has not exactly been a runaway success. Despite Vauxhall offering potential Ampera buyers the option of trying it for 30 days and handing it back if they don’t like it, the Ampera has failed miserably to sell in any sort of volume. So, with new competition on the way from the range-extender BMW i3, Vauxhall are taking drastic action to try and tempt buyers in to the Ampera and are slashing prices by £3,500.