Dg1z-8501-a Ford Water Pump on 2040-parts.com

Big Three Truck Premieres

Once just a local agricultural fair, the State Fair of Texas, Dallas, has now become the launch platform of choice for automobile manufacturers to present new trucks. Texas is an immense market for pickup trucks and this year, the Detroit Three were there, along with Toyota, to present world premieres. And for the auto executives that make the trip down, the Texas Fair is surely the easiest assignment they will get each year: people in Texas like full size trucks and buy them as personal vehicles not because they need their capacity but rather because "it's Texas here, y'know".

Ford C-Max Energi and C-Max Hybrid (2011)

Ford has unveiled two new hybrid vehicles at the 2011 Detroit motor show, the plug-in hybrid C-Max Energi, and the C-Max Hybrid. Both are based on the five-seat Ford C-Max, and the pair go on sale in North America in 2012, while European sales follow in 2013. Both the Ford C-Max Hybrid and Ford C-Max Energi use an Atkinson-cycle (like the Prius) 2.0-litre petrol engine and lithium-ion batteries.

Citroen Tubik concept car (2011) first pictures

The Citroen Tubik may have overtones of a guppy fish, but this new nine-seat MPV concept car shows how the French envisage a people carrier of tomorrow. It draws inspiration from the Type H or TUB (French slang for a front-wheel drive commercial vehicle) van from Citroen's history books. So it's a spacious monobox and aims to solve the usual MPV dilemma or seats or baggage, by being simply massive.