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

Do Traffic Lights Hold The Key To Saving Fuel?

SUPERMARKET fuel price cuts may come and go, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to achieve longer lasting savings. German car maker Audi thinks it may have the answer, as it’s developed a system that ‘talks’ to traffic lights. The goal is to save fuel by alerting drivers to when lights change so they can slow down, plus prime a car’s engine stop-start system when a change from red to green is imminent.

Ram introduces CNG-powered pickup

Aside from the Honda Civic Natural Gas, compressed-natural-gas-powered vehicles have usually been converted after the fact, generally for fleet use. Chrysler is hoping to carve out a niche in the corporate-pickup segment by selling a factory-built CNG Ram 2500 that can seamlessly switch over to gasoline operation when the natural-gas tanks run dry. The twin 4.6-cubic-foot CNG tanks (which store the equivalent of 18.2 gallons of gas) take up a section of the bed, while an eight-gallon gasoline tank provides fuel during start-up and then reserve capacity when the compressed tanks are tapped out, allowing the bruiser a measure of operational flexibility.

Sales enthusiasm? Sports-car and luxury brands show strong market gains

Count Porsche among enthusiast and luxury brands enjoying huge sales gains this year. Sales for the German automaker are up 29 percent so far this year-one of the largest increases in the industry. Almost one-third of Porsche's total sales came from the four-door Panamera.