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

European Car of the Year shortlist 2010

The shortlist of entries for the 2010 European Car of the Year award were announced today. No doubt bound to cause controversy with our readers, the cars which made it onto this year’s seven-strong shortlist are: • Citroën C3 Picasso• Mercedes-Benz E-class• Opel/Vauxhall Astra• Peugeot 3008• Skoda Yeti• Toyota iQ• Volkswagen Polo Chosen by automotive journalists from all over Europe, the competition will come to a close at the end of the year when an all-out winner is announced. Vauxhall took top honours in 2009's contest, with its Insignia stealing top spot from Ford’s new Fiesta by a single point.

BMW X1 (2009) at 2009 Frankfurt motor show

By Ben Barry First Official Pictures 02 July 2009 00:01 CAR’s Georg Kacher drove a camouflaged prototype a few months back, but now BMW has pulled the covers off its X1 mini-SUV and revealed UK specs and pricing for the first time. Nope. Firstly, only diesel power will be offered in the UK, buyers getting a choice of 18d, 20d and 23d models.

Car makers to be forced to disclaim ‘Official’ economy figures

We’ve banged on for a long time about the futility of official economy figures, especially as car makers get better and better at ‘gaming’ the official economy tests to produce the results they want. Much of the impetus to create the best headline economy figure for a car is driven by taxation, with car makers well aware that the better the official economy results are, the lower their CO2 will be (CO2 isn’t tested for – it’s just extrapolated from the official mpg) and the more appealing the car will be to buyers, particularly fleet buyers. But a ruling by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) against Audi could at least see car makers having to admit in their adverts that the ‘official’ economy figure bears no relation to what owners can expect to achieve in the real world.