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

VW Polo R-Line Style & more equipment across Polo range

Volkswagen has introduced the VW Polo R-Line Style – price from £11,740 – in the UK and added more equipment across the Polo range for 2013. We though that VW had done the R-Line thing with the launch of the Polo R-Line this time last year, but it seems the bean counters at Volkswagen have worked out there’s room for a Polo R-Line ‘Light’ in the range, so we now get the VW Polo R-Line Style. That’s because VW decided that, unlike most of the VW range where the R-Line is an add-on pack for any model, the Polo R-Line only comes with the 1.2 litre 105PS engine – albeit in 3-door or 5-door guise – so you can’t have a more butch-looking R-Line with ‘lesser’ Polos.

Try a prestige car from Europcar before you buy. Or you could just go to a dealer.

You can hire a BMW 5-Series (pictured) from Europcar before you buy It’s always good to have a promotion to get punters through the door, but the latest PR promo from Hertz does seem to have a very visible flaw in its logic. According to Europcar – the leading car hire company in Europe, don’t you know – the best route for trying out a new prestige car before you buy is to give them a call and book a day or three in the cars of your choice. Europcar say you can have anything from a 4×4 to a luxury saloon and performance cars, with the suggestion you can pit a Mercedes SLK against an Audi TTS or check out the differences between a new E-Class or new 5-Series.

Electric Porsche Boxster being developed

Porsche are developing and electric Porsche Boxster It’s not exactly a surprise that Porsche has announced its intention to develop an electric roadster based on the Porsche Boxster, after all – as part of VW – they have access to an awful lot of technology and they’d be foolish to let car makers like Tesla or Fisker potentially steal some future Porsche glory. So starting early next year – as part of a programme Porsche call Modellregion Elektromobilität – three electric Boxsters will be out and about with their electric powertrains in the real world to give Porsche feedback. Porsche are making it absolutely clear that this rolling lab for an electric Boxster is entirely complimentary to – and in no way undermines – their hybrid programme, which includes the Panamera and Cayenne Hybrid and the Hybrid Hypercar that should soon become the production Porsche 918 Spyder.