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

New car sales in UK still growing – up 14.8% April 2013. Driven by PPI Claims?

It is quite hard to fathom just how UK new car sales (well, registrations) continue to rise inexorably against a backdrop of otherwise stagnant economic activity, but they do. April 2013 has seen a total of 163,357 new car registrations, up a huge 14.8 per cent on April 2012 and the best figure since 2008, and these sales figures are not being driven by fleet buyers but by private motorists – private sector registrations grew by 32.3 per cent in April and are up by 15.2 per cent year to date. Not surprisingly, it’s the Superminis that are performing strongly – although all sectors are showing a rise – and it’s the Ford Fiesta that continues to be the best seller in the UK with sales of over 8,000 in April and over 42,000 so far in 2013, and the rise of superminis has also seen an increase in sales of petrol-engined cars thanks to the wave of small capacity, frugal petrol options.

Volvo V40 (2012) first official pictures

This is the all-new Volvo V40, the Swedish car company’s latest rival to the Ford Focus, VW Golf et al. It will be officially unveiled at the 2012 Geneva motor show next month. Volvo is being particularly bullish about the prospects of its new V40, with Volvo president and CEO Stefan Jacoby claiming the new model ‘will give our toughest competitors a headache’.

Electric-car guru Tom Gage steps down from AC Propulsion

Electric-car innovator Tom Gage resigned the morning of Oct. 5 from California company AC Propulsion, Autoweek has learned. Gage, the now-former CEO, joined the company in 1996, several years after its founding, and has become its public face and a widely used resource on electric cars.