1996 Mercedes Benz E320 W210 Estate. Vacuum Pump Solenoid on 2040-parts.com

2014 Ram 1500 Mossy Oak Edition debuts at Detroit auto show

Amid the high-tech and highfalutin premieres at the Detroit auto show, it was refreshing to see the 2014 Ram 1500 Mossy Oak Edition. The truck returned to Ram's lineup after a one-year absence, and we got to see it firsthand on the floor of Cobo Hall. Designed for hunting and fishing fans, the Mossy Oak edition is meant for truck lovers who spend a lot of time outdoors.

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.

Frankfurt 2011: 2012 Honda Civic

2012 Honda Civic revealed at Frankfurt 2011 We had quite a tease from Honda on the 2012 Civic in the run-up to Frankfurt, but at least it was a tease with substance, rather than just pointless shots of bits of a new car. Honda made the effort to divvy up ‘official’ spy shots and to put together some talking head videos which, although a little dry, were at least informative. So it’s nice to see the real deal 2012 Civic at Frankfurt, even if it is very much an evolutionary refresh for 2012, rather than anything too drastic in styling terms.