Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

2014 European Car of the Year finalists revealed. Could the Mercedes S-Class win?

Could the 2014 Mercedes S-Class (pictured) win the Car of the Year? We’re at the end of 2013, so the time has arrived to take a look at the finalists for the 2014 European Car of the Year award. In the last few years, despite Europe producing some of the most impressive luxury and performance cars on the planet, the Car of the Year Award has gone to much more prosaic machinery.

Jaguar XF 2.2 Diesel: 57mpg on a romp to Munich

Jaguar XF 2.2 Diesel on its way to 57mpg The much denied – but always going to happen – Jaguar XF 2.2 Diesel finally arrived officially at the New York Motor Show in April. And actually, Michael-extracting apart, the arrival of the 2.2 Diesel XF is a sure sign that Jaguar has its swagger back. Because if they were still afraid - as they were for a very long time - that a cheaper, smaller-engined XF would undermine the premium status the XF had earned since its arrival, they’d have continued to make excuses for its absence from the XF range.

We sample Honda's car technology of the future

Ahead of the Tokyo Motor Show 2013 we’ve been to Honda’s research and development facility in Tochigi to see and experience some of the Japanese firm’s new and upcoming products and technology. We’ve covered the new Honda Civic Type R in some detail separately, but among the other cars driven here is the next generation Honda Jazz (known as the Fit in Japan), no less than three different types of Honda hybrid system, including one similar to that fitted in the forthcoming NSX supercar, and an all-carbonfibre CR-Z prototype. On top of which, we’ve also experienced a self-driving car, watched a crazy automatic-parking demonstration and sampled the latest version of the all-electric Micro-Commuter, Honda’s equivalent of the Renault Twizy.