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

Renault-Nissan and Mercedes get very cosy

The Mercedes Twingo? Almost, but not quite In yet another – highly expected – sign that the future for car makers is more and more co-operation, Renault-Nissan and Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) have today announced a wide-ranging alliance which will see much of the output of each company utilised by the other. Top of the list for starters is the joint development of the platform for the next SmartForTwo which will be shared by the next generation Twingo.

London world’s most expensive place to park

REX The average cost to park a car for a day in London is a whopping £42 – making London the most expensive city for car parking in the entire world. This is according to new research by ParkatmyHouse.com, which ranks the UK capital number one, well ahead of the likes of New York, Sydney and Tokyo. On Bing: see pictures of car parking in LondonThe world’s strangest car parks The next most expensive city to park in is Tokyo – a place so notorious for its lack of available parking space the Japanese have an entire class of city cars dedicated to making it easier.

Audi A3 1.6TDI announced

The Audi A3 1.6TDI - one of a range of A3s featuring the new 1.6 litre diesel from Audi Audi has announced that they are introducing a new 1.6 litre common rail diesel engine across the A3 range, which will oust the old A3 1.9TDIe and the A3 and Cabriolet 1.9 TDI. The new engine offers the same 104bhp as the old 1.9 litre unit, but manages to improve economy by over 8% to 68.9mpg and cuts CO2 to 109g/km. The new A3 gets stop-start and energy regeneration to achieve the same performance and power from the smaller engine.