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

Hyundai i40 saloon – that’s the Euro version – finally arrives

It's the Hyundai i40 Saloon for Europe As we reported last week – after Hyundai had, rather pointlessly, teased us with an image – the European version of the Hyundai i40 saloon is about to launch at the Barcelona Motor Show. So we have details, although much of what we have is what we already know from the Hyundai i40 Estate. What we do know is that the European  i40 – whatever guise it comes in – seems a fine car and a real threat to the sector domination by the Ford Mondeo and VW Passat.

Ford door protector takes the sting out of dings

Nothing ruins car joy like a door ding--whether it's the first blemish on your pride and joy or the latest door divot. Now, the engineers at Ford in Europe have developed a way to take the sting out of the parking lot--a retractable door-edge protector for the Ford Focus. It's no surprise that this comes from Europe, where roads are narrow and parking spaces are squeezed tight.

Mercedes-Benz sells 1000,000 cars in a year in the UK for the first time

Mercedes Bristol hands over the 100,000th Mercedes old in the UK in 2013 It looks like Mercedes move in to a more convincing compact car with the new A-Class is already paying dividends, with Mercedes announcing it has already broken the 100,000 car sales in the UK for this year with a full month still to go. The 100,000th car is, appropriately, a white Mercedes  A 180 CDI Sport – perhaps the best-selling A-Class – which has been collected by its new owner from Mercedes-Benz of Bristol. This is the first full year the new A-Class has been on sale (although the first customer cars didn’t start arriving until well in to the new year) and augers well for sales numbers in 2014.