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

Vauxhall Adam: Prices & on sale at Paris 2012

The new Vauxhall Adam (and its European sibling, the Opel Adam) have their debut at the Paris Motor Show when the order book opens. We’re still not entirely convinced that the Vauxhall Adam has enough individuality to be a star in the marketplace, but it looks a decent offering nonetheless. Its styling is distinctly generic – it looks like a mish-mash of ideas from successful competitors – but Vauxhall is promising much for the Adam with extreme levels of customisation and lots of high-end toys, even if many will be cost options.

Kia recalls 7,000 cars

KIA IS recalling more than 7,000 of its UK models due to a possible seatbelt problem. The recall affects 5,787 Sportage models and 1,432 Soul vehicles and concerns a possible fault with the vehicle's seatbelt pre-tensioner. Kia said that although it was not aware of any injuries resulting from this possible fault, discovered as a result of monitoring of customer vehicles, it was concerned that some pre-tensioners might not work properly due to a faulty piston within the mechanism.

Automakers need love, not just quality, Strategic Vision study shows

Strategic Vision, a company that studies how and why consumers make decisions, released its yearly Total Quality Index on July 12, and the results might be surprising. The study found that love--how much or what part of a car that people like--is more important than the number of problems a car has when choosing a vehicle. For example Ford, which was a quality leader in the study, received a number of complaints about its Sync system.