Blue Ox Base Plate on 2040-parts.com

BMW i3 ‘virtual test drive’ app (2013) CAR review

Though we’ve seen new the BMW i3 in full production trim, and had a ride in the carbonfibre electric city car, there’s still a short wait before anyone can get behind the wheel of a showroom-spec example in the UK – or is there? BMW has launched a smartphone and tablet app – ‘BMW i3: Become Electric’, which it claims allows users to virtually test drive the new i3 without so much as setting foot outside their front door, yet alone finding the time to head to a BMW dealership. It’s available now on the Apple App Store, and from 26 September 2013 on Google Play.

Honda CR-V 1.6i-DTEC does 77.86 mpg in the ‘Real World’

The Honda CR-V 1.6i-DTEC (pictured) does 77.86 mpg in the ‘Real World’ Official car economy figures are pretty useless at being anything other than a guide to the relative economy of cars on sale. But Honda are trying to prove that’s not true. They’ve taken their new CR-V 1.6i-DTEC – which has official economy of 62.8 mpg – out on a mission to prove it can do even more miles to the gallon in the real world than in official tests.

Volvo V40 Cross Country arrives

Volvo has revealed the 2013 V40 Cross Country, a new variant on the new V40, offering a more rugged option for the V40 range. We thought it was going to be the Volvo XC40 – denoting an SUV come crossover version of the new V40 – but Volvo has decided that their more rugged version of the V40 will take the Cross Country name - first used on the V70 in 1997 – and so we get the new Volvo V40 Cross Country. Following on from the new V40 R-Design, revealed last week, Volvo now offers a V40 they say is for ‘those who want a sense of adventure in their everyday life‘ – in other words, this is a slightly more rufty-tufty V40.