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

Production output decline slowing

By Alex Michaelides Motor Industry 24 July 2009 12:09 It appears there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for ailing car manufacturers as the most recent vehicle production figures are released. The data, presented by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), show that, while production levels are still on the decline, the pace at which they are declining is slowing. Car production figures for June 2009 are still down by 30.2% compared with this time last year, however this is an improvement on the 50.2% by which production is down so far this year.

Who's Where: Craig Metros heads back to Michigan to become Ford's exterior design director of The Americas

Craig Metros is heading back to his native Michigan to take up a new position as Ford's exterior design director of The Americas. Metros leaves his current role as design director of Ford Asia Pacific in the company's Melbourne studio in Australia, where his team led the Everest, Falcon and Ranger programs. During Ford's PAG (Premier Auto Group) era, the CCS graduate was the first American designer to work in the Jaguar design studio in the UK before returning to America to lead the interior and exterior design themes of the 2004 Ford F-150.

New 2013 Nissan Note gets more appealing

The new Nissan Note has turned in to a Ford Fiesta basher as Nissan turn the Note from a boring little MPV in to a convincing small hatch. We did think the Invitation would be watered down to produce a slightly titivated new Note for production, but much of the style has found its way through in to the new Note – which we first saw in the JDM Nissan Note last summer – and the Note now looks set to take on proper compact hatches like the Ford Fiesta. The nose of the new Note is now more convincing – with new headlights and grill – and the doors get a great big feature crease that looks like a giant smoothing iron has stamped its mark, although Nissan say it’s a ‘Squash Line’  whose ‘angles were inspired by the flight of a fast moving squash ball travelling around a court’.