Standard Motor Products Fj474 New Fuel Injector on 2040-parts.com

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Mazda CX-5 (2012) first official pictures

This is the new Mazda CX-5, the third addition to the Japanese car company’s SUV line-up after the CX-7 and CX-9 (the latter isn’t sold in Europe). It’s a rival for the Freelander, Kuga and every other compact SUV out there, and will officially unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt motor show in September. What do we know about the new Mazda CX-5?

Bugatti Veyron – Eight Veyrons sold to one buyer

Bugatti Veyron - 8 sold to one customer However wealthy you are it’s hard to imagine spending more than £1 million on a new car; a classic, certainly, but a new car with all that depreciation? No, thanks.  But that’s really just the starting point for a Bugatti Veyron, with the Veyron Grand Sport and the Veyron Super Sport costing substantially more than that.