Polaris 2006 05 Fusion Dragon 600ho Shift Switchback Iq(brake Caliper) on 2040-parts.com

New car sales in UK still growing – up 14.8% April 2013. Driven by PPI Claims?

It is quite hard to fathom just how UK new car sales (well, registrations) continue to rise inexorably against a backdrop of otherwise stagnant economic activity, but they do. April 2013 has seen a total of 163,357 new car registrations, up a huge 14.8 per cent on April 2012 and the best figure since 2008, and these sales figures are not being driven by fleet buyers but by private motorists – private sector registrations grew by 32.3 per cent in April and are up by 15.2 per cent year to date. Not surprisingly, it’s the Superminis that are performing strongly – although all sectors are showing a rise – and it’s the Ford Fiesta that continues to be the best seller in the UK with sales of over 8,000 in April and over 42,000 so far in 2013, and the rise of superminis has also seen an increase in sales of petrol-engined cars thanks to the wave of small capacity, frugal petrol options.

One Lap of the Web: Humvees, abandoned Ferraris and a Volvo collection

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. -- Auto Blog drives a military Humvee that's fully armored for duty in combat zones, weighing in at 14,400 pounds.

Vauxhall Corsa gets a 2010 eco facelift

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 19 November 2009 00:01 Blink and you'll miss it – but your accountant won't. The new 2010 model year Vauxhall Corsa has been nipped and tucked, tweaked and polished to produce an impressive average 13% fuel saving across the range.Five out of the six Corsa engines now produce less than 125g/km and the 2010 Corsa Ecoflex diesel now manages up to 76.3mpg (on the Government's not-especially-representative combined figures).How have they made the Corsas so much cleaner?Just good old-fashioned engine tuning, apparently. Most models also come with an eco gearshift indicator to guilt-trip drivers into shifting up at the earliest opportunity.Vauxhall claims it'll sell more sub-125g/km cars than any other model range in the UK in 2010; all manual gearbox Corsas will qualify for free tax discs from next spring when Britain's new VED rates come into force.Anything else new on the 2010 Corsa?It's not just fuel-saving, miser-making tips.