Harley Davidson 2011 Street Glide Wheels on 2040-parts.com

Crunch watch July 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman, Ben Whitworth and Alex Michaelides Motor Industry 31 July 2009 11:23 Welcome to CAR's news aggregator as we round up the seismic change in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour  Friday 31 July 2009• Lamborghini today posted pre-tax profits of €5.4 million – despite a sales drop of 37% in the first six months of 2009. Sant'Agata said turnover hit €156.9m in the first half (down 43%) as it sold 825 cars globally (Lamborghini)• British motorists could have to pay £250 in tax to park at work from 2012.

Rally star Ken Block gets Hot Wheels line

Rally driver Ken Block isn't the only one who gets to play around with his Monster/Ford Racing rally car. In time for the holidays, Mattel has created a special line of Hot Wheels toys based on Block's Ford Fiesta race car. "This is a dream come true.

Bentley Hybrid Concept is a Mulsanne, but it’ll arrive in the new Bentley SUV

The Bentley Hybrid Concept (pictured) will debut in Beijing There’s been lots of talk of a Bentley Hybrid for a number of years now, and in 2011 Wolfgang Dürheimer confirmed that hybrid was in Bentley’s plans and that it would be a plug-in. Fast forward three years and we get the Bentley Hybrid Concept, Bentley’s first crack at a plug-in hybrid powertrain all wrapped up in the Mulsanne. But it won’t be the Mulsanne that sees a production version of the hybrid powertrain but, as expected, the new Bentley SUV.