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

Dacia Sandero really is cheap – from just £69 a month

Renault has boasted about how cheap their Sandero and Duster are, and with monthly payments from just £69, they right. Admittedly, you do need to stick a deposit of £1,845 down if you want to pay just £69 a month, but even if you can only rustle up £699 you can have the duster for £99 a month. At that sort of price – thanks to a deadline offering from just £5,995 – it’s about as cheap a way in to a new car as you could hope for.

Carmel kicks off concours craziness

Consider the Monterey car week begun! The Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours-on-the-Avenue launched with its best-ever crowd and what many were calling the best-ever show for the free-to-the-public event held every Tuesday before the Pebble Beach Concours on Ocean Avenue in Carmel. Eighteen blocks total were shut to traffic and jammed with collector cars, everything from classic 911s celebrating that car's 50th anniversary to Ferraris, Trans Am racers and a whole block of Shelby Cobras.

BMW 640d xDrive announced

On Thursday, Greg Kable waxed effusively about the new BMW M550d xDrive coupe, suggesting that it was the ultimate 5-series for everyday use. On Friday, Munich announced that the 5's two-door sibling will receive an AWD diesel variant: the 640d xDrive. While not quite as high-zoot as the 5-series' top oil burner, the 640d's 3.0-liter, twin-turbo straight-six cranks out a respectable 465 lb-ft of almighty torque between 1,500 rpm and 2,500 rpm, plus 313 hp at 4,400 rpm—numbers that, according to BMW, will carry the 6-series to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds.