Depo Replacement Cooling Fan Lower Shroud 96-02 Toyota 4 Runner V6 1670262030 on 2040-parts.com

The scramble for scarce tires

North American automakers are struggling with a nagging shortage of tires, caused in part by tire plant closings and rising demand for low-volume specialty tires. Automakers are paying much higher prices -- double-digit percentage increases from a year ago -- as tire makers gain pricing power. "We have been bombarded from every side for additional tires, and we can't keep up," said David O'Donnell, Continental Tire's vice president of original equipment in the Americas.

Porsche engineer Rolf Frech named engineering chief at Bentley

The Porsche-ization of luxury-car maker Bentley moved another step forward on Wednesday as Rolf Frech was named as its engineering chief. Frech, who has been Porsche's director of the complete vehicle engineering group for the past decade, replaces Ulrich Eichhorn, who is set to become head of the VDA, the German auto-industry association. Eichhorn, 50, joined Bentley as engineering chief in 2003 from Volkswagen, where he had been in charge of research and development.

Skoda Fabia vRS & Skoda Fabia vRS Estate (2010) revealed

The Skoda Fabia vRS on the floor at Geneva Well, none of us are perfect and we’ll be the first to admit we’re far from it. But it’s a bit poor that in amongst all the Geneva news we managed to miss out a report on Skoda’s hot baby – the Skoda Fabia vRS - getting revealed. Slapped wrists all round.