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

Grab a ‘VAT Free’ Skoda Octavia

In yet another ‘Sign of the times’ Skoda has announced that they are now offering ‘VAT Free Octavias’ until the end of the year. No, this is not a tie-up between Alistair Darling and VW, it’s just Skoda’s way of offering a headline price decrease of a bit over 13% (less expensive to Skoda than last week for the same headline, to be fair, and there is a new model due in January!). Grab a VAT free Skoda Octavia I’m pretty sure that there will be a raft of these ‘VAT Free’ offers floating around on everything from cars to washing machines, capitalising on the fact the VAT is in the headlines.

World Car of the Year 2014 – the contenders

The provisional list of entries for the 2014 World Car of the Year awards has been revealed – this is like the European Car of the Year awards, only judged on a global scale. Each candidate for the main awards must be available for sale on at least two continents. In addition to the main category, the World Car – or WCOTY – awards also includes separate prizes for the World Car Design of the Year, World Green Car and World Luxury Car, the last a change from the World Performance Car of previous years.

BMW M750d & M650d on the way

BMW M650d & M750d on the way BMW are planning to offer the new tri-turbo diesel from the new M550d in the 6 Series and new 7 Series. Paris launch likely. The BMW M Division range of cars – the power of ‘M’ with the frugality of diesel – officially arrived at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, offering performance almost on a par with BMW’s M cars but with the joy of frugality when you aren’t in the mood to drive like your hair’s on fire.