Crown Automotive 4746316 Key Blank on 2040-parts.com

Half of all used cars go wrong ‘within a month’

With over seven million secondhand cars purchased in 2012, you’d expect one or two to develop a problem soon after purchase. But rather shockingly, as many as half of all used cars sold develop faults within a month of changing hands. That’s according to a report by the Citizens Advice Bureau, which helped with over 84,000 problems with secondhand motors in the past 12 months.

Subaru XV gets world’s first self-cleaning function (+ video)

Subaru UK has revealed that the Subaru XV Crossover can now be specified with the world’s first self-cleaning function for a car. It’s a decent effort from Subaru, with added credibility as a compact urban warrior coming from Subaru’s 4WD prowess, a choice of a couple of petrol engines and a couple of diesels, manual or auto options and prices from £21k to £30k. But in a crowded market place it’s good to have a USP, so Subaru has pushed the boat out and is offering a world first for the Subaru XV – a self-cleaning function.

CAR tech: what's next for car interior design?

Your new car could soon be as thoughtful, powerful and communicative as KITT from the Knight Rider TV series. That’s the ultimate expression of the connected car, a trend which is intensifying rapidly. Over the next five years, car cockpits will be able to relay more information on bigger, multiple screens and through the windscreen, and you’ll be able to give commands far more intuitively thanks to voice recognition and gesture control software.