Eibach 4.14035 Coil Spring Sportline Set Focus St Early 2013 on 2040-parts.com

Yearly driving costs rise 3.4 percent

This won't be a surprise to anyone--it's costing more to own and drive a car. Higher prices for fuel and tires, and a larger drop in the resale value of cars, pushed the average cost of owning a sedan to $8,776 a year, according to AAA of Heathrow, Fla. That's up 3.4 percent from a year ago.

Electric cars must get noisier, ICE cars must get quieter

Electric cars will have to make a noise to protect pedestrians It’s four years since the Lotus solution for making electric cars noisy raised its head, since when the US has had a go at the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act in 2010 to do the same thing, the Japanese are playing too, and Toyota revealed the Prius Vehicle Notification System, and now the EU has decided its time to act to make EVs emit ‘noise’. Despite the most appealing part of an EV being that it makes our cities quieter, legislators worry about the blind, partially sighted and distracted pedestrian (think earphones and a Smartphone) being mowed down by a stalking electric car and feel the need to act. So the European Parliament has decided that by 2019 new models of electric vehicle will have to make a noise in cities, and that by 2021 all new hybrids and electrics must be noisy too.

Audi Sport Quattro concept (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

The Audi Sport Quattro Concept will be shown at Frankfurt as a spiritual successor to the 1980s rallying legend. This time, the road-going version can muster 0-62mph in a stonking 3.7sec and top 189mph thanks to its 690bhp drivetrain.  Haven’t we seen an Audi Quattro Concept before? Yes – but this is a different take on the 2010 Quattro concept, and may make it into showrooms.