Ford 1962-70 Nos Motorcraft Alternator Voltage Regulator D9pf10316ab on 2040-parts.com

New car sales in UK still growing – up 14.8% April 2013. Driven by PPI Claims?

It is quite hard to fathom just how UK new car sales (well, registrations) continue to rise inexorably against a backdrop of otherwise stagnant economic activity, but they do. April 2013 has seen a total of 163,357 new car registrations, up a huge 14.8 per cent on April 2012 and the best figure since 2008, and these sales figures are not being driven by fleet buyers but by private motorists – private sector registrations grew by 32.3 per cent in April and are up by 15.2 per cent year to date. Not surprisingly, it’s the Superminis that are performing strongly – although all sectors are showing a rise – and it’s the Ford Fiesta that continues to be the best seller in the UK with sales of over 8,000 in April and over 42,000 so far in 2013, and the rise of superminis has also seen an increase in sales of petrol-engined cars thanks to the wave of small capacity, frugal petrol options.

2011 Toyota Yaris T Spirit & Yaris SR revealed

2011 Toyota Yaris gets two new models - T Spirit & SR The Toyota Yaris isn’t the coolest supermini on the block, but it does have a certain appeal and the benefit of being a proper ‘mini’ car – perfect around town. It even handles quite well, is well-built and has a surprising amount of room inside. Even with all that going for it Toyota are obviously expecting the New Year to be less than easy on car sales, so they’ve announced a couple of new models at the top of the Yaris range to tempt buyers with extra goodies for just a wee bit extra – or nothing at all.

VW will build small run of XL1 plug-in hybrid

Volkswagen will begin production of its XL1 plug-in hybrid in two years. "We want to go into series production with this car starting in 2013," VW chairman Ferdinand Piech told Automotive News Europe on Tuesday at an event in Doha, Qatar, ahead of the 2011 Qatar auto show where VW unveiled an XL1 prototype. (a href="http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130221/GENEVA/130229972">Read the latest update here announcing the XL1 hybrid's Geneva Auto Show debut).