99 00 01 Grand Am Automatic Transmission 2.4l 219608 on 2040-parts.com

We're Getting More MPG

The average car/truck/SUV sold by the top eight brands in America makes almost one mile per gallon more than it did a year ago, according to sales-weighted data from the industry analysts at TrueCar. TrueCar's TrueMPG industry average of 23.7 mpg remains the highest the car market has seen, 0.7-mpg higher than at this time last year. The biggest gainers by brand are Nissan and Chrysler, which improved their fleets by 1.1 mpg over last year's numbers.

New (2014) BMW M3 and M4: OFFICIAL

The new BMW M3 (pictured) debuts along with its coupe sibling, the BMW M4 (below) We’ve had teases from BMW for the new M3 and M4 but now, ahead of a public debut at the Detroit Auto Show next month, we get the official details. Key to the four-door M3 and 2-door M4 is the new 3.0 litre engine, a new turbo, direct injection in-line six petrol which produces 425bhp and a very healthy 405lb/ft of torque from just 1850 rpm. That sort of grunt is enough to get the M3 and M4 to 62mph in 4.3 seconds with the standard six-speed manual, but opt for the seven-speed DCT ‘box and it’s even quicker – just 4.1 seconds.

Grab a ‘VAT Free’ Skoda Octavia

In yet another ‘Sign of the times’ Skoda has announced that they are now offering ‘VAT Free Octavias’ until the end of the year. No, this is not a tie-up between Alistair Darling and VW, it’s just Skoda’s way of offering a headline price decrease of a bit over 13% (less expensive to Skoda than last week for the same headline, to be fair, and there is a new model due in January!). Grab a VAT free Skoda Octavia I’m pretty sure that there will be a raft of these ‘VAT Free’ offers floating around on everything from cars to washing machines, capitalising on the fact the VAT is in the headlines.