Toyota Oem 8122006071 Fog Light-fog Lamp Assembly on 2040-parts.com

London Taxi maker Manganese Bronze bought by China’s Geely

China automotive giant Geely has bought Manganese Bronze – makers of the iconic London Black Cab – in an £11.04 million deal. The iconic London Black Cab has been an accident waiting to happen for years, as under investment in making the Black Cab fit for the 21st century saw competition – like the Mercedes Vito Taxi and the Nissan NV200 Cab – start to offer serious competition to the taxi that identifies London. Despite an investment by China’s Geely – when Geely bought 20 per cent of Manganese Bronze, makers of the Black Cab – and the bulk of the Black Cab being produced in China and bolted together in the Midlands, the final nail in the coffin for Manganese Bronze was the recall of 400 TX4 cabs over a steering fault.

The safest cars of 2014 revealed by Euro NCAP

Safety in modern cars continues to move on at a relentless pace, and in 2013 the story was no different. We saw the first Chinese car ever to get a full five-star Euro NCAP rating with the Qoros 3, signalling Chinese manufacturers are really starting to think about the needs of other markets around the world – in fact, just to prove that point, Euro NCAP voted the Qoros 3 the safest car of 2013. What a result.

New Audi e-Tron at Detroit – the ‘Compact’ e-Tron

Audi has revealed a compact version of the e-Tron at the Detroit Motor Show Audi brought along the first Audi e-Tron to the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Looking like an electric version of the Audi R8, it managed to steal some of the thunder from BMW’s Vision ED concept . Most notable was the stratospheric torque figures Audi quoted, which ultimately turned out to be somewhat disingenuous.