97 98 99 00 01 Ford F150 L. Side View Mirror 429219 on 2040-parts.com

Petrol sales '25% lower than 2008'

Petrol sales have plunged in the first half of this year – but diesel sales have risen sharply. Retail petrol sales for the period January to June dipped 5.8% compared with the same period last year, Government figures highlighted by the AA showed. The numbers amount to a fall of 512 million litres.

Beanz Meanz More Eco-Friendly Future Fords

THE car industry is full of interesting and unusual business partnerships, but this latest tie-up between Ford and Heinz promises to be one of the more intriguing. Far from seeking to produce 57 varieties of any particular new Ford model, the two firms are exploring the use of tomato fibre to develop a sustainable composite materials for use in vehicle manufacturing. For example, boffins believe that dried tomato skins could become the wiring brackets in future Ford vehicles or the storage bin a customer uses to hold coins and other small objects.

Who's Where: Jason Castriota opens own design consultancy

Former Bertone and Pininfarina designer, Jason Castriota, has opened his own design consultancy based in New York and Turin. CDN recently caught up with Castriota - who is currently in New York - and discovered he's already working on a series of projects, despite having not yet officially launched the company. Castriota told us that it had always been his "dream to have my own consultancy in New York", yet what's clearly pleasing him most is the volume of work he's already accrued, without officially launching the firm.