Honda Fork Ears on 2040-parts.com

European car sales down 5.2%

EUROPEAN UNION car sales are still sagging despite the return of modest economic growth. For the first eight months of the year, passenger car sales were down 5.2% to 7.84 million compared with the same period last year, the European Auto Manufacturers' Association said - the lowest January-August figure since the group started keeping records in 1990. New car registrations in August fell five per cent from a year ago to 653,872.

New Honda Insight Hybrid: Insight Exclusive gets 1.5 litre from CR-Z

Honda Insight Exclusive gets bigger 1.5 litre IMA Hybrid You can’t blame Honda for wanting to keep a toe in the hybrid waters, especially as arch rival Toyota has all but cornered the market. But you can blame them for the rather woeful Honda Insight Hybrid which, despite offering good headline economy and a bit of a green halo, is something of a dog. However, a chunk of the criticisms levelled at the Insight were addressed by Honda last month when it revealed its nips and tucks for the Insight for 2012.

One Lap of the Web: A Miata ninja, classic race cars and the world's most vintage-car-friendly city

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- If you (or your children) love the smartphone and tablet app Fruit Ninja, you will get a kick out of Motor Authority's photo gallery from the Donington Historic Festival.