Beck/arnley 072-8927 Master Cylinder on 2040-parts.com

Build your Mini Cooper Hardtop

We suspect that your initial inclination upon the discovery of a new model's configurator is to throw gobs and gobs of equipment at a car to see just how high the price will go. After all, that's what we tend to do. It's especially satisfying with German automakers — notably Porsche and BMW — who seem to have turned option pricing into something bordering on absurdist theatre.

Vette plant to build high-performance engines

General Motors is moving its Performance Build Center, which let enthusiasts pay $5,000-plus to build the high-performance engine for their Chevrolet Corvette, from Michigan to the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Ky. The move is expected to be completed by spring 2014. It will let a Corvette buyer build his own engine, with help from a GM technician, and then see it installed in his car as it goes down the Bowling Green assembly line.

Nissan at Geneva: Nissan Micra (2010/2011) +video

Nissan has launched their new Global Compact Car - The Nissan Micra 2010 - at Geneva Nissan’s Global Compact Car first saw the light of day last year in design sketches released by Nissan. And the Nissan GCC signals what the project name suggests – a small car Nissan will market throughout the world. Which infortunately means that the UK – which produced Nissan’s last small car, the previous generation Nissan Micra – isn’t viable as a global producer.