Blog on 2040Parts

Schreyer: More than a designer of products I wish to be an architect of Hyundai's brand image

There's no denying Peter Schreyer has been instrumental in turning around Kia's image from a manufacturer of wheeled white goods in a creator of design-led products. Now his attention turns to sister company Hyundai in his role as chief design officer for both companies and his plans are no less ambitious. "More than a designer of products I wish to be an architect of Hyundai's brand image," he told an audience at Hyundai's European headquarters, explaining how his job is not simply 'styling' but communicating the brand's message right down to details such as the seatbelt warning buzzer.

One Lap of the Web: Famous Porsches at auction, Smokey the Aventador and classic snow cars

Here's a tip: If you're going to have a rev battle with a collection of Lamborghini Aventador supercars, keep clear of flammable foliage. Better yet, don't participate in something lame like a rev battle. If you're in a part of the country that's recently been socked by winter weather, don't think you have to put away the classic car: Hagerty Insurance lists five old cars that make great winter drivers.

2014 MINI John Cooper Works Concept revealed ahead of Detroit debut

The 2014 MINI John Cooper Works Concept (pictured) will debut in Detroit next month The new MINI was revealed just last month, and it sounds the gong for the start of the race to churn out as many variants on the MINI as BMW can manage. And the first of what will be many variants to come of the new MINI is this – the new MINI John Cooper Works Concept – revealed this morning ahead of a debut in a few weeks at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show. MINI aren’t letting on what’s under the bonnet of the new MINI JCW, but it seems almost certain it will be a more powerful version of the new 2.0 litre petrol for the Cooper S, which gets 189bhp in the Coopper S but will doubtless get something north of 200bhp in the new JCW.

The amazing McLaren F1 replica made by a Top Gear fan for £20,000

Barcroft Media A Top Gear fan has completed the ultimate motor challenge - building a £5 million supercar using scrap and spare parts. Amateur mechanic Jacek Mazur, 48, made his own replica McLaren F1 for just £20,000 - 250 times cheaper than the real thing. He even paid tribute to his favourite TV show by building a tiny rear seat for Top Gear co-host Richard Hammond.

MINI John Cooper Works Concept 2014 revealed

MINI has just launched its third-generation Hatch model, and you know what that means. No, not just people moaning about how it isn’t really ‘mini’ anymore – we’re talking about the imminent arrival of a brand new high performance MINI John Cooper Works. And here it is – or at least, here’s the new 2014 MINI John Cooper Works Concept.

Penalty points separate good girls and bad boys

MORE THAN 30,000 male drivers aged 17-20 have anything up to six penalty points on their driving licences. There is also a wide gulf between offending rates for young men and young women, with women drivers aged 20 or under only recording 9,758 instances of attracting three to six points. As many as 1,210 17-year-old males have accrued up to six points, with 358 currently having the maximum permissible six.

Porsche Macan S Diesel heading for the USA

Porsche Macan S Diesel (pictured) is heading for the USA When the Porsche Macan was revealed at the Los Angeles Auto Show last month, it came in three flavours – Macan S, Macan S Diesel and Macan Turbo. But only the petrol Macan S and Macan Turbo were scheduled for the US market. But that looks likely to change.

Jaguar EATS Mercedes ‘Magic Body Control’ Chicken (video)

Jaguar EATS Mercedes ‘Magic Body Control’ Chicken Mercedes-Benz recently produced a fun video to demonstrate their Magic Body Control using a bunch of chickens to show how, despite undulations, bumps and potholes, MBC would keep everything in shape. The video of the ‘Magic Body Control Chickens’ was a rare glimpse at German humour (although the humour may well have been an accident) and a great way to demonstrate MBC. But we wonder if Mercedes sense of humour will stay intact with Jaguar’s latest video?

Mini previews John Cooper Works concept before Detroit auto show

A new Mini John Cooper Works concept will bow at the Detroit auto show in January. It gets exclusive gray paintwork, red accents, new aerodynamics and new 18-inch JCW light alloy wheels. Mini says the concept has a longer wheelbase and wider track than the outgoing model, which is hardly surprising -- the Mini gets less Mini every year.

Car insurance premiums 'too high'

CAR INSURANCE premiums are too high and should be reduced through far-reaching reforms, the competition watchdog said today. The Competition Commission believes that too many drivers are footing the bill for unnecessary costs incurred during the claims process following an accident. These costs are initially borne by the insurers of at-fault drivers, but they feed through into increased insurance premiums for all drivers.

2014 European Car of the Year finalists revealed. Could the Mercedes S-Class win?

Could the 2014 Mercedes S-Class (pictured) win the Car of the Year? We’re at the end of 2013, so the time has arrived to take a look at the finalists for the 2014 European Car of the Year award. In the last few years, despite Europe producing some of the most impressive luxury and performance cars on the planet, the Car of the Year Award has gone to much more prosaic machinery.

BMW vs Winter: how to beat the freeze

By Phil McNamara First Official Pictures 17 December 2013 09:00 Winter: the long nights, slippery roads and punishing weather can turn driving from a pleasure into a chore. But to ensure you get home safely this winter – or merely to entertain you with our antics – we’ve created some stories and videos of us tackling wintry conditions in cars. • WINTER TYRES: we took an M3 on summer tyres and a 435i coupe on ADD LINK winter tyres to Pirelli’s Milanese test track, to pit the two cars in a wintry drag race, brake test and timed laps of the circuit • xDRIVE: Ben Barry drove an all-wheel drive 330d Touring to Sölden in the Austrian Alps, home of the inaugural round of this winter’s Alpine Skiing giant slalom.

Ultrasonic shields may replace wipers on future McLarens

A few weeks ago, the NHTSA issued a recall for all McLaren MP4 12-Cs originally sold or currently owned in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. The reason? The combination of high heat and high humidity may cause wiper motor brushes to fail, something we imagine would be especially inopportune in the middle of a downpour.

Urban gridlock costs economy £4.4bn

GRIDLOCK in urban areas is costing car-commuting households £4.4 billion a year, according to a report. Congestion in London accounts for £2 billion of the overall annual cost, the report by traffic information company Inrix and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) showed. The report was compiled by studying congestion in the UK's 18 largest urban areas.

London world’s most expensive place to park

REX The average cost to park a car for a day in London is a whopping £42 – making London the most expensive city for car parking in the entire world. This is according to new research by ParkatmyHouse.com, which ranks the UK capital number one, well ahead of the likes of New York, Sydney and Tokyo. On Bing: see pictures of car parking in LondonThe world’s strangest car parks The next most expensive city to park in is Tokyo – a place so notorious for its lack of available parking space the Japanese have an entire class of city cars dedicated to making it easier.

CAR 20 Most Wanted of 2014: VW Golf R

By the CAR editorial team First Official Pictures 17 December 2013 15:00 Everyone knows the Golf GTI: fun, practical, affordable, understated, it’s the default hot hatch. The Golf R is more complex: unravel its DNA and you’ll find traces of the four-wheel drive, supercharged Mk2 Rallye, the front-drive Mk3 VR6 with its 2.8-litre V6 and leather interior, the Mk4 and Mk5 four-wheel-drive R32 and the Mk6 R that ditched the potent V6 for a punchier, more fuel-efficient turbo four. It’d be a nightmare of a custody battle.

Mini John Cooper Works concept (2014) first official pictures

By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 17 December 2013 16:00 This is the Mini John Cooper Works concept, which previews the look of the hottest version of the new third-gen Mini. The new JCW takes the larger, third-gen Mini three-door, which was revealed at Oxford last month, and gives it a triple nostrilled front bumper, red bodywork accents and myriad (doubtless superficial) vents for a racier look than its predecessor. New intakes also usurp the previous car’s front foglights, and 18in five-spoke alloys ape the look of the outgoing Mini GP flagship.

Fast & Furious fan charged after setting his car on fire in Paul Walker tribute

Tributes to Paul Walker, the 40-year-old star of the Fast & Furious movie franchise who was killed in a car crash on 30 November, have reached the Beach Boulevard Retail Park in Aberdeen. Local car fans gathered in the shopping centre’s car park to pay their respects to Mr Walker but one of the group took their tribute a stage too far. The teenage motorist revved the engine of his Ford Focus for 20 minutes The unnamed teenage motorist revved the engine of his mk1 Ford Focus for a full 20 minutes until the inevitable happened and the car burst into flames.

Forget Christmas presents – buy a car instead

Chevrolet According to a recent survey by Scotland Debt Solutions, we will spend between £472 and £611 on Christmas presents this year. Excuse us, but how much?! Back in the day, we'd have been happy with a small clementine, a pack of playing cards and a modest toy.

2015 Lincoln MKC pricing announced

We've been impressed with the 2015 Lincoln MKC so far, but price and performance are going to have a lot to do with whether or not these crossovers will fly off lots when they go on sale next year. We're still waiting for a test drive, but at least we now have a better grasp of the MKC's pricing structure. The crossover will be offered in three basic trims: Premiere, Select and Reserve.

One Lap of the Web: What's your automotive sign? Plus amphibians, Lancia Stratos parts, and delivery scooters

-- Some people like horoscopes, astrological signs and whatnot. But few have ever thought to combine horoscopes with cars. Perhaps it's because the results are so out there, as this wild "cars of the zodiac" series demonstrates.

Win a BMW winter driving course with CAR

By Phil McNamara Competitions 16 December 2013 11:30 How exhilarating is it to drift a high-performance BMW M3 on an ice circuit? Or take on punishing, snowy terrain in a BMW 4x4? You can find out for yourself, if you win our competition prize.

Future Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda imagined by design students

Students at the Royal College of Art in London were challenged to redesign the Fiat 500 and the Fiat Panda for the year 2020. Part of Fiat's "Two of a Kind" design training experience stretching out over three months, the competition attracted more than 50 entries. The design challenge was more than a competition to design the most effective exterior, as students were divided into several interdisciplinary teams and tasked with developing new solutions for the interiors and exteriors of both cars, integrating such concepts as interactivity, sustainability and global appeal into their designs.

Mercedes C-class (2014) first official pictures

By Damion Smy First Official Pictures 16 December 2013 09:00 This is the new Mercedes C-class that goes on sale in spring, 2014. With a full reveal in the metal at the Detroit show in January, the C-class is Mercedes’ biggest selling car, so an all-new model has to be good – or else. Everything.

Nissan LEAF hits 3000 sales in the UK

Nissan LEAF hits 3000 sales in the UK What can probably be considered the first properly convincing electric car – the Nissan LEAF – has clocked up 3,000 sales in the UK since it was launched in 2011. In terms of overall car sale in those two years it’s an insignificant fraction, but in terms of making the electric car a viable form of transport it’s a big milestone. The second generation LEAF – launched earlier in 2013 – moved Nissan’s EV game on a bit with a raft of improvements, and has sold 1300 in the UK in just the last six months,.

Mercedes-Benz reveals all-new C-Class

Mercedes-Benz has uncovered the new C-Class – a model aimed at toppling the all-conquering BMW 3 Series. Benefitting from the full might of Mercedes’ technological arsenal, the new C-Class is the most advanced version yet by a clear margin… and in some respects, is the most sophisticated vehicle the junior executive class has ever seen, too. It also takes on a sleek new look, owing plenty to the highly-praised new S-Class, while the interior offers, says Mercedes, an experience akin to stepping from economy class to business class on an aircraft.

Supercar design contest's final three announced

Dutch supercar maker Vencer has announced the top three entries in its design contest, which challenged the global design community to submit ideas for its second model. The competition, launched in May last year, saw around 90,000 voters judging over 350 designs on its website. From these, the three with the most ‘likes' were chosen.

2014 Mercedes C-Class: OFFICIAL – and it looks like a proper baby S-Class

The 2014 Mercedes C-Class (pictured) looks like a proper baby S-Class The 2014 (or 2015 if you’re in the US) Mercedes C-Class has finally been officially revealed ahead of its debut at the Detroit Auto Show next month, and it looks to be a convincing take on a proper scaled-down S-Class. With Mercedes launching a more credible range of compact cars beneath the C-Class – with the new A-Class and CLA – targeting younger, funkier buyers, Mercedes has taken the C-Class from the ‘entry-’level’ real Mercedes to become a properly grwon up luxury saloon, just smaller than its E-Class and S-Class siblings. The new C-Class is wider, longer and has a longer wheelbase – with most of the extra 3 inches in the wheelbase benefiting the rear passengers – yet it’s lighter and more dynamic than the model it replaces, thanks in no small part to an aluminium hybrid body that now has up to 50 per cent aluminium in its panels.

SEAT’s future model plans

SEAT Last week MSN Cars went to visit SEAT at its major base of operations – the Martorell factory in Spain. Here we spoke to CEO Juergen Stackmann and executive vice president for research and design Dr. Matthias Rabe about the brand’s future model plans.

Car of the Year 2014 shortlist announced

By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 16 December 2013 11:00 The seven-car shortlist for the 2014 Car of the Year [CotY] award has been announced. The jury is looking for ‘the most outstanding new car go on sale in the [last] 12 months.’ BMW i3 – the first branch of BMW’s family of electric ‘iCars’, to bear fruit, available in fully EV and range-extender form, and aiming to make electric cars desirable at a fraction the price of Tesla’s impressive Model S luxury saloon Citroen C4 Picasso – Citroen isn’t giving up on the good old MPV despite the onslaught of new crossovers – the new C4 Picasso boasts outlandish bug-eyed design and a fresh take on family-mover cabins, thanks to two enormous touchscreen interfaces to keep the kids – and parents occupied. Mazda 3 – the third-gen 3 family hatchback is lighter than before thanks to Mazda’s energy-saving ‘SkyActiv’ tech, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.