New Four Seasons Hose Assembly, 55263 on 2040-parts.com

Buick to scrap trim levels

Buick will eliminate its “CX,” “CXL” and “CXS” trim levels in the 2012 model year, opting for a few “stair-step” packages instead, one of the brand's top marketers said today. “It isn't befitting a premium brand. No other premium brand has those designations,” said Craig Bierley, Buick-GMC director of advertising and sales promotion.

"Carry-on" engine will power Le Mans racer

NISSAN will this year compete in the famous Le Mans 24-hour race using a revolutionary 1.5-litre, 400bhp engine that’s small enough to qualify as carry-on luggage. The astonishing new technology produces more power per kilogram of engine weight than the 2014 Formula 1 engines, and what’s more it’s set to lead to road car technology. And while the engine block is too heavy to take onto a plane as hand luggage, its 50cm height, 40cm length and 20cm width makes it small enough.

Hyundai ix20 (2010) first official teaser sketch

Hyundai is the latest car manufacturer to join the mini-MPV party, with the upcoming ix20, and ahead of its preview at the Paris motor show at the end of this month, the Korean company has released this teaser sketch. Designed and developed at Hyundai’s European research and development centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany, the ix20 is essentially Hyundai’s version of sister firm Kia’s Venga.  Hyundai would have you believe it’s a little bit of both – the ‘ix’ moniker has been chosen to suggest its cross-over like capability. The Korean manufacturer says the ix20 is ‘a vehicle with the ability to simultaneously serve as a functional people-carrier while providing a dynamic, fun-to-drive experience’; the Venga has shown that it’s a capable and competent, if unexciting, small MPV.