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

Porsche reports big drop in sales

Well, it’s not exactly a surprise, given the doom and gloom in the industry at the moment, but Porsche has just reported a 27% drop in sales, down to 34,000 units, over the last six months. As you would expect, some models fared worse than others. The recently updated Porsche 911, which has had mid-cycle tweaks including the new PDK ‘box, held up pretty well.

Hyundai i30 Tourer gets five-star Euro NCAP

The latest version of Hyundai’s i30 Estate – the Hyundai i30 Tourer – has gained a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating – the same as the i30 hatch. Hyundai has placed plenty of emphasis on the safety stuff in their cars too, with the i30, i20, ix35, ix20, i40, Veloster and latest i30 all getting a five star Euro NCAP rating. And now the new i30 Tourer has joined the gang with its very own top rank safety rating.

Best of the Best for 2012: Audi A7 and Land Rover Range Rover Evoque

Each year, hundreds of new cars and trucks pass through the Autoweek garage for evaluation by our editors. We bring our enthusiast eye to what we'll admit is a relatively enjoyable task of sorting through all of those test cars, looking for those few stellar models that deserve additional consideration for our top honors. For the second consecutive year, we've applied all of that accumulated knowledge and seat time to pick Autoweek's Best of the Best/Car and Best of the Best/Truck for 2012.