1995 Yamaha 15hp Lever Clamp on 2040-parts.com

EVs rev up for Act 2

After years of preproduction buzz, the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf are generating interest among the people who count most: buyers. Most owners are charging their cars at home without any issues. They brag about cruising past the gas station.

Toyota Avensis, Prius & Corolla recall affects 75,000 UK cars

Toyota is recalling 75,000 Corolla, Avensis and Prius models in the UK – and 2.7 million worldwide – to fix a steering fault. Last month, Toyota revealed a recall for the Auris, RAV4 and Yaris to fix a fault with electric window switches, and just to make sure those cars weren’t the only faulty Toyota’s, they’ve managed to find a fault with the steering on the Corolla  Avensis and Prius. Oh, and the Prius might have a water pump problem.

New Jaguar XJR will see the end of the XJ SuperSport

The launch of the new 2013 Jaguar XJR at the New York Auto Show this week heralds the end of the line for Jaguar’s other Supercharged V8 XJ – the SuperSport. With a much more fulsome 542bhp, some very ‘Jaguar’ go-faster bits, some proper fettling to make the steering, gearbox and suspension focus more on the drive without making a mess of the ride and altogether more dynamism in prospect than the SuperSport, we’d assumed Jaguar were making the XJR the performance pinnacle of the XJ range and leaving the SuperSport in place as the ‘luxury’ alternative. With that thought in mind we’d expected to see Jaguar push the price of the new XJR up towards the XJ Ultimate (which costs £121,000), so count us gobsmacked when Jaguar revealed the new XJR will cost from £92,335 – just £500 more than the SuperSport.