Skinz Protective Gear Flex Snow Flaps - Mountain Sf400-bk Short on 2040-parts.com

Jaguar Land Rover U-turn: all three UK plants saved

Jaguar Land Rover today surprised us all by announcing that it wouldn't be closing any of its three UK plants. CEO of Tata Motors Carl-Peter Forster had told CAR as recently as the Paris motor show a few weeks ago that one plant would shut. Instead, today the unions and Jaguar Land Rover hailed a landmark deal to save jobs and all three plants at Castle Bromwich, Solihull and Halewood.

Mercedes A45 AMG (2013) first pictures of new hot hatch

This is the Mercedes A45 AMG: the first time Merc’s in-house tuning arm has tried its hand at building a hot hatch. Packing 355bhp, all-wheel drive and a seven-speed dual-clutch paddleshift transmission, the A45 AMG will outpace a Porsche 911, but cost less than £40,000. It’s on UK sale from July 2013, but if you can’t wait that long, Merc’s baby barnstormer is appearing at the Geneva motor show from 5 March 2013.

Toyota Avensis updated

Toyota has upgraded the Avensis with new engines and spec changes First up is a new, entry-level 1.6 litre petrol Valvematic, which offers 0-60 mph in a bit over 10 seconds, and returns 43.5 mpg. Available in T2 and TR grade saloon and tourer models, the petrol engine gets mated to a six-speed manual ‘box Also new is the 2.2 litre diesel with 148bhp and a 0-60 of 9.5 seconds. This gets Toyota’s 6-speed auto ‘box.