Solenoid, A4ld 3-4 Shift Ex-aerostar (1985-1995) (e8tz-7m107a) 1st Design! on 2040-parts.com

‘Amis de la 2CV’ gathering later this month

A record-breaking global gathering of Citroën 2CVs is set to take place from July 26-31 at the 19th International 'Amis de la 2CV', so we thought it was a good opportunity to showcase the now legendary model designed by Flaminio Bertoni. The biennial event is expected to attract over 6,000 examples of the iconic model, with participants from all over the world coming together to celebrate one of Citroën's biggest success stories. The 2011 event, involving many of Europe's 2CV owner's clubs, promises to be the biggest yet.

New (2014) Mazda 3 revealed – no prices yet

The new Mazda3 (pictured) arrives – and it looks good. The Mazda3 is already a better car than its sales would suggest, and the all new Mazda3 looks to be even more competition for the Ford Focus and VW Golf than ever before. Perhaps the only complaint about the Mazda3′s design is that it looks a bit too much like a shrunken Mazda6, but that’s a bit like moaning the DB9 looks like the Vanquish (well, the Mazda3′s not that good looking, but it makes the point).

Honda cutting production in Swindon again – 500 jobs at risk

Honda is cutting another 500 jobs in Swindon It’s only a year since Honda announced 800 job cuts at Swindon (which eventually was 550) and now they’re about to cut a further 500 as weak demand – particularly in Europe – sees the Swindon plant producing just half the cars it could. The plan is to cut shifts from 3 to 2 a day, which will result in the loss of 340 permanent jobs and 160 temporary ones, and production will be centred on just one production line to increase efficiency and flexibility. The Swindon Plant – which builds the Civic, Civic Tourer, CR-V and Jazz (and the Civic Type-R from next year) – has been hard hit by the slump in European sales in the last five years and, despite still strong UK sales, production levels of 120,000 cars a year – just half of the Swindon capacity – are not enough to sustain the current staffing levels.