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

GM slashes production, 13 plants to get extended shutdowns

General Motors, battling a 49 percent decline in U.S. sales through March, plans extended shutdowns at most of its U.S. plants this summer.

Mazda SkyActiv technology goes on offer to raise funds

Mazda is looking to license their SkyActiv Technology to raise capital (CX-5 with SkyActiv pictured) Mazda are predicting losses for the current financial year of £750 million and are looking to sell their SkyActiv technology to raise cash. Mazda isn’t having the best of times at the moment, despite an impressive range of cars that are getting more interesting with Mazda’s SkyActiv technology, and are predicting that they will post a loss of around £750 million for the current financial year. There are a variety of reasons for Mazda’s financial predicament – including the strength of the Yen and the production problems after the Japanese Tsunami – but this is the fourth year in a row Mazda has posted losses.

Kia GT and Provo look to be heading in to production

The recent Kia Provo Concept and the impressive Kia GT look like they’re heading in to production as Kia move upmarket. Equally, the stunning Kia GT concept we saw at 2 years ago at Frankfurt  - a swoopy coupe Kia take on the Mercedes CLS – was equally convincing, although we’d begun to think Kia had gone cold on the idea of putting the Kia GT in to production. But Auto Express are reporting that both the Provo (with a change of name ) and the GT are close to being signed off for production after a conversation with Benny Oeyen, Kia’s marketing boss in Europe.