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.

Volvo S60 Concept car (2008): first official photos

By Simon Stiel First Official Pictures 24 November 2008 11:41 Volvo today releases the first exterior photograph of its new S60 Concept car that will appear at the Detroit motor show in January 2009 – ahead of a showroom launch in 2010. Last month, teaser photographs revealed the interior of the S60 concept car, but now we’ve got a glimpse of its exterior lurking in the shadows. Some have criticised the S60 for looking too similar to the S80 and other Volvos and this new model is designed to address that. Volvo is seeking a racier image and, we hear, is setting its sights on the Audi A4 and BMW 3-series (a task its predecessor never cracked).

2015 Ford S-Max revealed – debuts at 2014 Paris Motor Show

The new Ford S-Max debuts at Paris and goes on sale next summer The Ford S-Max Concept arrived at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year as Ford worked hard to prove they really did have new cars on the way, despite the huge delay in delivering the new Ford Mondeo to Europe – with which the new S-Max shares its underpinnings – and now we get the real deal – the 2015 Ford S-Max. Looking very like the S-Max Concept, the new S-Max is the same size as the outgoing model but gets an evolutionary redesign complete with Ford’s ‘Aston Martin’ grill and some funky headlights, with the A-Pillars further back, higher beltline, bigger shoulders at the back and a set of slim tail lights at the back separated by a chrome strip. It all conspires to make the new S-Max sportier and more appealing.