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

CAR tech: what's next for car interior design?

Your new car could soon be as thoughtful, powerful and communicative as KITT from the Knight Rider TV series. That’s the ultimate expression of the connected car, a trend which is intensifying rapidly. Over the next five years, car cockpits will be able to relay more information on bigger, multiple screens and through the windscreen, and you’ll be able to give commands far more intuitively thanks to voice recognition and gesture control software.

Lotus fights back with three-year warranty and servicing deal

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 02 July 2014 12:55 Lotus has this month launched a three-year warranty and servicing deal for all new Elise, Exige and Evora models. The move is designed to kickstart interest in the brand, which is suffering a 9% slump in sales in 2014 year to date. Lotus has sold just 73 cars in the United Kingdom over the first five months of the year.

2014 Fiat 500 UK price and specs – costs from £10,160

The 2014 Fiat 500 arrives in the UK It’s hard to update a car that’s already a pastiche of an original, so Fiat has been very cautious with the updates for the Fiat 500 for 2014, although there are some welcome improvements. One modern change is the arrival of a 7″ TFT digital instrument display – standard on the 500S and 500 CULT and optional on 500 Lounge versions – which does a good job of mimicking the 500′s analogue instruments but with a central section that can be configured to display stuff like trip information and allows for more detailed information on everything from gear shifts to SatNav info (where specced). The biggest mechanical update comes with the arrival of a 104bhp version of the 0.9 litre TwinAir engine promising 0-62mph in 10 seconds (and it’ll feel a lot quicker) and official economy of 67.3mpg (you’ll get a lot less).