Blog on 2040Parts

New car sales surge by 7.6%

THE SURGE in new car sales has continued into the new year. There were 154,562 new vehicles registered last month, a 7.6% rise on January last year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said. The society said sales of alternatively fuelled vehicle increased by 25%.

Renault Kwid concept: star of the 2014 Delhi Auto Show

Small crossovers are big news and the striking Renault Kwid concept car hints at another entry to a category that is expanding rapidly, following the launch of cars such as the Nissan Juke, Peugeot 2008 and the forthcoming VW Taigun. The Indian car market is booming, too, so what better place for Renault to unveil the Kwid concept than the 2013 Delhi Auto Show? The small and funky 4x4 has been designed as "a new vision tailored for new market needs," according to Renault, offering a robust design with hyper connectivity aimed at the youth of today.

2015 Chevrolet City Express van bows in Chicago

Chevy introduced the 2015 City Express urban work van at the Chicago Auto Show on Thursday. The boxy, panel-sided van will do battle with Ford's Transit Connect in the U.S. and Canada when it hits dealerships in the fall.

2014 BMW X3: pictures and full details

This is the facelifted 2014 BMW X3, which will make its global debut at the Geneva Motor Show ext month. BMW’s flagship SUV, the X5, was recently overhauled, and now it’s the turn of the mid-size BMW X3 off-roader to undergo the German firm’s latest corporate makeover. The updated X3 goes on sale in June 2014, and gets even more equipment as standard and an updated range of more efficient engines.

Threat to rural road maintenance

TOTAL ROAD CLOSURES may be necessary as the extreme winter weather has left councils struggling to maintain routes, according to a local government chief. One council - Cornwall - said it was being "starved of resources" and was considering stopping maintenance of rural roads. But the Department for Transport said billions of pounds were being provided for local highways maintenance and it was the responsibility of authorities to cope with severe weather.

2015 Nissan Versa Note gets an upgrade

Nissan revealed the 2015 Versa Note SR at the Chicago Auto Show on Thursday. The hatchback was joined on the stand by the Frontier diesel pickup. The SR trim of the diminutive Note gets a new front bumper and grille with dark headlight treatments and fog lights with black chrome accents.

2014 BMW X3 Facelift and more efficient engines

The 2014 BMW X3 (pictured) gets a facelift and new engines The current version of the BMW X3 SUV has been with us for more than three years, so BMW are giving it a bit of a mid-cycle facelift and more frugal engines to keep the X3 on top of its – very successful – game. Engines on offer for the 2014 X3 include the 2.0 litre diesel in the sDrive18d which offers 148bhp and 56.8mpg and the 187bhp in the X3 xDrive20d which returns 52.3mpg, the xDrive30d – which gets the 3.0 litre diesel unit – with 254bhp and 47.9mpg and the X3 xDrive35 which has an impressive 309bhp but still manages official economy of 47.1mpg. When it comes to the cosmetic facelift bits, BMW hasn’t really pushed the boat out, but the new X3 does get a new headlight design which is sleeker, new front and rear bumpers and a new surround for the kidney grill, which all contrive to make the new X3 look even more like a baby X5.

Citroen C4 Cactus revealed in production guise ahead of Geneva Motor Show Debut

The Citroen C4 Cactus (pictured) revealed in production spec The Citroen C4 Cactus could probably not have been conceived by anyone other than the French, and the concept we saw at Frankfurt last year was certainly original. Now, Citroen are putting the C4 Cactus in to production and, surprisingly, not a huge amount has changed from the concept. That means the C4 Cactus – with a wheelbase the same as a C4 but with a footprint more the size of a supermini – weighs in at just 980kg, so even though its engines are small and frugal it will have acceptable performance.

Black Widow Corvette Stingray debuts in Chicago

The sinister Black Widow Corvette Stingray made an appearance at the Chicago Auto Show on Wednesday. The triple black 'Vette will be featured in the next Marvel comic movie “Captain America: Winter Soldier.” The Black Widow is one of 15 Stingrays being displayed at the show. Black Widow, “real” name Natasha Romanova, is a member of the Avengers comic superhero team.

Fagg captured by DNA on cigarette

A CAR THIEF with the surname Fagg was caught when police found his DNA on a cigarette butt left in the stolen vehicle in Kent. Duncan Fagg, who was using crutches at the time, was captured driving a stolen white Nissan Micra on CCTV from a car park in Gravesend in April last year, police said. Almost two weeks later, a marked police car spotted the stolen Micra heading towards Hoo on the A228.

2015 Subaru Legacy revealed in Chicago

Subaru pulled the sheets off the 2015 Legacy sedan at the Chicago Auto Show on Thursday. The company says it's the roomiest version of the Legacy yet, boasting the largest passenger cabin in the midsize segment. Two engines will be offered.

Classic car prices on the up: Jaguar D-type sells for £3 million

Classic car prices seem to be ever-rising, with historic models becoming an investment to rival buying property or gambling on the stock market. The inaugural RM Auctions Paris sale this week was a case in point, and resulted in nearly £15 million’s worth of the world’s rarest and most exotic cars going under the hammer. Four cars alone went for in excess of £1 million, and a Jaguar D-type sold for three times that amount.

Nissan Frontier diesel teased at Chicago Auto Show

Nissan Motor Co. is exploring plans to put a small but powerful four-cylinder Cummins diesel engine in its mid-sized Frontier pickup. The company used the Chicago Auto Show today to showcase a 2.8-liter turbo diesel engine that would deliver almost 200 hp and more than 350 pounds-feet of torque.

Video: Exploring the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class

To coincide with the announcement that its new C-Class has entered production, Mercedes-Benz has released a video exploring its design. Featuring design chief Gordon Wagener and other key members of the team, the video explains where their inspiration came from and how they experimented with proportions during its development. While the dropping bodyside feature line is a key element of the exterior, it's also found inside the C-Class, where the typical Mercedes sports car interior is combined with the floating, vertical center console.

Renault Kwid Concept is a bonkers baby SUV

The Renault Kwid Concept (pictured) comes with its own flying drone There are concepts of new cars where you can clearly see they’re heading for production, and then there are concepts that look like the designers have been allowed to go berserk with little though to an eventual production car. The new Renault Kwid falls firmly in the latter. Said to be aimed at younger buyers in emerging markets – and designed with Renault’s designers in India – the Kwid Concept comes with a conventional 1.2 litre petrol engine and dual-clutch box – and can take the ZOE’s EV powertrain – but that’s seems to be where any connection with reality ends.

New VW Taigun SUV Concept moves production reality closer

The latest VW Taigun Concept (pictured) debuted in New Delhi The VW Taigun Concept – a new, very compact, SUV based on up! underpinnings – first made an appearance at the Sao Paulo Motor Show in Brazil in 2012 and looked to be not only convincing, but heading for production. By spring of 2013, VW’s Klaus Bishoff was saying the Taigun would go in to production and not just for emerging markets but for the UK and Europe too.

BMW introduces diesel 2015 X3 before Chicago Auto Show

BMW's successful X3 SUV is getting new features for 2015, the company said on Wednesday before the Chicago Auto Show. For the first time in the U.S., a diesel engine will be offered on the midsized 'ute, as will a lower-cost rear-wheel drive model. The BMW X3 xDrive28d -- quite a mouthful -- will deliver 180 hp and a robust 280 lb-ft of torque using a 2.0-liter, TwinPower turbo diesel engine.

New speed cameras planned for motorways

NEW SPEED CAMERAS painted grey and placed along large sections of the UK’s motorway could be introduced within two years. The Highways Agency is looking to increase the amount of ‘managed motorway’ on the network – sections where the overall speed of traffic is adjusted up and down to avoid traffic jams and to allow the use of hard-shoulder running. Currently sections of the M25 and M40 operate variable speed limits Under new plans however cameras will be placed on large sections of motorway designed to catch drivers exceeding the overall 70mph limit.

Aston Martin recalls 75 percent of all cars built since 2007

If you own a left-hand drive Aston Martin -- any left-hand drive Aston Martin -- built since November 2007, listen up: your car has just been recalled. Smug right-hand drive Aston Martin owners can rest easy, unless their car was built after May 2012; those cars are gonna need replacement parts, too. All in all, the recall impacts 17,590 cars, or roughly 75 percent of the automaker's run from the 2008 model year on, according to Reuters.

The dog ate my Aston Martin

A 42-year-old Brit gave his dog away after the border collie-spaniel mix chewed the fiberglass fender of his Aston Martin DB9 Volante while he was away from home, the Daily Mail reports. Royston Grimstead, from Somerset, England, told the Mail he was already contemplating giving his dog, Luce, away because she didn't get along with his other dog. Then he came home to find $4,800 in damage to his Aston.

Skoda Vision C (2014) first official sketch

By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 05 February 2014 12:00 Want a slice of evidence proving how confident Skoda is these days? Here's a cracker. This is the Vision C concept, a five-door ‘coupe’ that will be shown at the Geneva motor show in March 2014. That’s the idea, and what a good one it is too.

VW shows improved Taigun concept in New Dehli

Volkswagen is closer to entering the mini-SUV market after revealing a new Taigun concept in New Dehli, India on Wednesday. The second version of the concept gets a new trunk lid and a spare tire that is mounted on the outside of the tailgate. The compact Taigun measures only 151.9 inches long, 68 inches wide and 61.8 inches tall.

New scheme lets drivers rent their cars out

Car owners can now make money by renting their vehicles when they’re not being used, using a new car rental scheme. The ‘easyCar Club’ venture lets drivers advertise their cars and matches them with people looking to rent a car for a short period. On Bing: see pictures of unusual hire cars Hertz offers supercar hire Although the service is now available nationwide, it was initially trialled in London – meaning many of the cars advertised are concentrated on the London area.

Audi reveals new 70mpg+ models

Audi’s new Ultra range may look like the firm’s standard line-up of saloons, coupes and estates, but don’t be fooled. The German firm has performed some key tweaks to make its new 2014 A4, A5 and A6 Ultra models even more efficient. The new core range of ‘Ultra’ frugal Audis follows on from the firm’s high-efficiency debut model, the A3 1.6 TDI Ultra, which went on sale in autumn last year.

2014 Citroen C4 Cactus: pictures and full details

The 2014 Citroen C4 Cactus has been revealed ahead of the car's official debut at the Geneva motor show next month. The all-new model is the first in Citroen's new C-Line model range and introduces a world-first, in the form of  'Airbump' - air-filled plastic panels at the front, rear and sides of the car which are designed to protect the bodywork from minor bumps and scrapes . The C4 Cactus production car closely resembles the stiking concept car of the same name that was unveiled at the 2013 Frankfurt motor show and it will be one of the most distinctive cars on the road when it goes on sale in the UK in October.

Watch the Nissan IDx concepts invade Southern California

Nissan cut together a video of its IDx concepts taking on Southern California. The flashy pair hit Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Cars and Coffee in Irvine and the Petersen Automotive Museum during the Super Bowl weekend tour. Nissan was even able to squeeze a little one-on-one time with us.

Skoda Vision C Concept is a stylish 5-door coupe

The Skoda Vision C Concept could be heading for production as an Octavia Coupe The rise and rise of Skoda since it was a Soviet skip maker has been dramatic under the banner of the VW Group, and many of its cars are the pick of the VW Group offerings. But now Skoda look to be heading in a new design direction which looks set to produce far more stylish and dramatic cars than they have to date – just like this Skoda Vision C Concept. The VisionC – seen in the design sketch from Skoda above – is a swoopy five-door coupe with a low roofline, shallow glass area and a steeply-raked windscreen; it looks like a Skoda take on the VW CC or Mercedes CLA.

Alcraft Motor Company crowns competition winners

If you’re looking at that picture above and thinking, “that looks like a smart Range Rover Evoque,” don’t worry – you’re not seeing things. It is indeed a ‘re-imagined’, restyled version of Land Rover’s luxury compact SUV, by Alcraft Motor Company competition winner Jed Sheahan. On Bing: see pictures of Alcraft Motor Company cars Find out how much a used Range Rover costs on Auto Trader Alcraft is a new British brand performing bespoke re-engineering and design projects on famous vehicles from Blighty.

Audi RS4 Avant Nogaro (2014) first pictures of RS2 tribute edition

By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 05 February 2014 12:20 Audi is congratulating itself on inventing the super-estate by building a special edition version of the RS4 Avant, in tribute to the classic RS2. The RS4 Nogaro edition will be revealed at the Geneva motor show in March 2014. Retro cosmetic tweaks, inside and out.

BMW X3 facelift (2014) first official pictures

By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 05 February 2014 23:00 The revised BMW X3 plays spot-the-difference with, on the outside at least, BMW having done a pretty convincing job of turning it into an X5 lookalike. The new X3 goes on sale in June 2014, costing from £31k. The X3 has an all-diesel line-up, teamed with either a six-speed manual gearbox or an eight-speed automatic.