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

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.

Ford to upgrade, extend warranty on MyFord touchscreen system

Ford Motor Co. will upgrade and extend the warranty by two years on its MyFord Touch system following a series of consumer complaints and poor reviews of the automaker's touchscreen entertainment and navigation system. Ford has improved the voice recognition capability and navigation in what it calls "version 3.5" of the software, Mark Fields, Ford's head of the Americas, said on Wednesday.

Infiniti-designed Santa's sleigh (2010)

Today's sleighs are courtesy of Infiniti. The design team in Japan have sketched out a couple of Infiniti sledges for Father Christmas to deliver his presents across the globe in imperious style. The first sleigh looks like an Essence supercar concept meets an FX crossover - from that long snout and high-mounted, wedgy headlamps to the complex, textured surfaces, sliced and diced by a laser-pointer's worth of sloping lines flying off at all sorts of angles.