Original Plymouth Road Runner Manifolds on 2040-parts.com

This Mercedes turns up the heat -- in your house

Mercedes-Benz brought some interesting and unusual examples of in-car connectivity tech to Las Vegas, partnering with some trendsetters in the electronics game -- namely, Nest Labs, Pebble, and Google. The connectivity and app technology will eventually make its way into the C-, the E- and the S-slass. Get it?

Crunch watch Jan 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Gareth Evans Motor Industry 30 January 2009 12:39 Friday 30 January 2009• Honda is about to close the Swindon factory for four months when Friday's shifts are finished; the shutdown will affect 2500 of the 3700 staff, who will receive full pay for two months and then 60% pay for the next eight weeks (BBC News)• Porsche has announced a sharp drop in sales and likely profits. It forecasts a 27% drop in 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne sales to around 34,000 units in the six months to the end of January 2009 (Financial Times, subscription required)• Ford wants Washington to do more to stimulate car sales, after posting a record loss of nearly $14.6 billion earlier this week (Detroit News)• Honda's quarterly profit has crashed by 90% – forcing the Japanese car maker to halve its annual profit target (Detroit Free Press)Thursday 29 January 2009• Ford of Europe is a bright spot in the Blue Oval's quarterly results today, making $1.06 billion pre-tax profit in 2008 (up from $997m in 2007). It's the first profit of more than $1bn since 1989 (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Volvo suffered a 'disastrous 2008' with a pre-tax loss of $1.46bn.

Skoda Rapid Sport concept (2013) first official pictures

Skoda is taking this Rapid Sport concept to the 2013 Wörthersee show. The cosmetically hotted-up Rapid is the latest VW Group car to get a modified version for the Wörthersee enthusiast’s show, though CAR hears the Rapid won’t get a production performance version. What puts the ‘Sport’ into the Skoda Rapid Sport concept?