Mercedes Benz 190sl Side Window Seal on 2040-parts.com

Lexus sales up but Toyota's profits tumble

By Ben Whitworth Motor Industry 13 August 2008 13:25 With spiralling fuel prices, luxury off-roaders may be seen as the devil on wheels in the UK’s current cash-strapped economic climate – which would explain why last month saw a sharp drop in SUV sales at BMW, Audi and Mercedes. But not at Lexus. July 2008 sales of the company’s RX400h hybrid off-roader climbed 28 percent over the same period last year, rising from 223 to 285.

New Volkswagen Tiguan (2012) gets R-Line options

2012 VW Tiguan gets R-Line options The new VW Tiguan turned up earlier this year, looking for all the world like a mini-me VW Touareg. But with the reveal of the 2012 Tiguan came no news of the R-Line add-ons which turned the old model Tiguan from a bit of a bland and boring-looking compact SUV, to something more appealing (as we discovered when we reviewed the old model VW Tiguan R-Line). But now the 2012 Tiguan is in the showrooms VW has decided the time is right to offer a bit more pizzazz for the new Tiguan, so they’ve revealed R-Line packages for the interior and exterior.

Vauxhall launches speed limit detectors on Insignia (2008)

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 19 June 2008 07:53 Vauxhall's new Insignia will be the first of a wave of cars to have a forward-facing camera that can read road signs. The optional kit will detect speed limit and no overtaking signs – and flash up a reminder to the driver on the dashboard.GM calls the tech, which will be launched in early 2009, Traffic Sign Recognition and it uses a small, wide-angled camera system supplied by Hella. It sits at the top of the windscreen near the rain sensors and rear-view mirror, scanning the road ahead taking 30 photos per second.It's 1984 all over again...With a range of 100 metres, the camera focuses on circular patterns and then interprets the numbers inside by contour comparison; if a match is found on the software's database, that road sign will be flashed up in the driver's binnacle.The front-facing camera is also used as a lane departure warning system, alerting the driver if they unintentionally swerve out of their lane on a motorway.Cars with cameras: a growing trendMore and more manufacturers are fitting cameras to their cars nowadays and you can expect a flood of systems like the Insignia's to be launched in 2009, including the new BMW 5-series.CAR tried out these new systems on Bosch prototypes in 2007.