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

Subaru XV gets a price cut – down by £1300 on 1.6 litre versions

It wasn’t a bad starting point for an able mid-sized crossover – a high-riding Impreza, in all but name –  but it wasn’t the cheapest offering in the class. But now, with the Yen being a bit kinder to Japanese car makers, Subaru has decided to nudge the price a bit lower to start the XV range off below £20k for the first time. The price drop for the XV only applies to the 1.6 litre petrol versions, but you can now get the entry-level XV 1.6i S for a more affordable £19,995 rising to £23,415 for the XV 1.6i SE with the Lineartronic gearbox, reductions across the range of £1300.

Volvo plans to polish its image with styling, high-tech engines

Volvo's brand image is stuck somewhere between "premium" and "luxury," but the Swedish automaker aims to move further upscale with a fresh design language and a new generation of vehicles powered by more fuel-efficient engines. New mid-sized and large models will begin arriving in 2014 based on Volvo's lightweight SPA platform. The vehicles will use Volvo's coming generation of smaller four-cylinder engines.

Tomorrow's world: lightweight carbon composites

Once all the dust settles on The Great Battery Farce (the idea that the world's ills will be taken care of by sticking a battery in everything that moves and charging it up) we may eventually face up to the fact that the best way to move something around more economically, is to move less of it. That means making things lighter, a lot lighter. Car makers are working on it and manufacturers like Audi and Jaguar have already become masters in bringing aluminium to the mass production.