2011 Chevrolet Impala Rear Center Seat Belt Retractor on 2040-parts.com

Ram introduces CNG-powered pickup

Aside from the Honda Civic Natural Gas, compressed-natural-gas-powered vehicles have usually been converted after the fact, generally for fleet use. Chrysler is hoping to carve out a niche in the corporate-pickup segment by selling a factory-built CNG Ram 2500 that can seamlessly switch over to gasoline operation when the natural-gas tanks run dry. The twin 4.6-cubic-foot CNG tanks (which store the equivalent of 18.2 gallons of gas) take up a section of the bed, while an eight-gallon gasoline tank provides fuel during start-up and then reserve capacity when the compressed tanks are tapped out, allowing the bruiser a measure of operational flexibility.

Audi R8 GT Spyder arrives

Audi R8 GT Spyder - a mere £200k You didn’t think that Audi – Kings of the niche-fill – would settle for producing just 333 tin-top Audi R8 GT, did you? Of course not, so you’ve been expecting the next instalment in the race to make the most expensive Audi, and here it is – the Audi R8 GT Spyder. Just as it was with the R8 GT Coupe, the R8 GT Spyder will be limited to just 333 cars and all of those will come in LHD, even though Audi expect 30 to be sold in the UK.

Mazda SkyActiv technology goes on offer to raise funds

Mazda is looking to license their SkyActiv Technology to raise capital (CX-5 with SkyActiv pictured) Mazda are predicting losses for the current financial year of £750 million and are looking to sell their SkyActiv technology to raise cash. Mazda isn’t having the best of times at the moment, despite an impressive range of cars that are getting more interesting with Mazda’s SkyActiv technology, and are predicting that they will post a loss of around £750 million for the current financial year. There are a variety of reasons for Mazda’s financial predicament – including the strength of the Yen and the production problems after the Japanese Tsunami – but this is the fourth year in a row Mazda has posted losses.