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

Frankfurt 2011: 2012 Honda Civic

2012 Honda Civic revealed at Frankfurt 2011 We had quite a tease from Honda on the 2012 Civic in the run-up to Frankfurt, but at least it was a tease with substance, rather than just pointless shots of bits of a new car. Honda made the effort to divvy up ‘official’ spy shots and to put together some talking head videos which, although a little dry, were at least informative. So it’s nice to see the real deal 2012 Civic at Frankfurt, even if it is very much an evolutionary refresh for 2012, rather than anything too drastic in styling terms.

Honda cutting production in Swindon again – 500 jobs at risk

Honda is cutting another 500 jobs in Swindon It’s only a year since Honda announced 800 job cuts at Swindon (which eventually was 550) and now they’re about to cut a further 500 as weak demand – particularly in Europe – sees the Swindon plant producing just half the cars it could. The plan is to cut shifts from 3 to 2 a day, which will result in the loss of 340 permanent jobs and 160 temporary ones, and production will be centred on just one production line to increase efficiency and flexibility. The Swindon Plant – which builds the Civic, Civic Tourer, CR-V and Jazz (and the Civic Type-R from next year) – has been hard hit by the slump in European sales in the last five years and, despite still strong UK sales, production levels of 120,000 cars a year – just half of the Swindon capacity – are not enough to sustain the current staffing levels.

Concept Car of the Week: Fiat Ecobasic

This week we're celebrating if not the most glamorous then certainly one of the most relevant concept of the last decade, the Fiat Ecobasic. The car was first shown at the 2004 Geneva motor show as Fiat investigated how to replace Giugiaro's ancient but brilliantly utilitarian Panda. The brief was: cheap to produce, cheap to own and friendly to the environment.