Toyota Townace 1997 Left Head Light Assembly [8810900] on 2040-parts.com

VW win Dakar Rally in a Diesel Touarag

The Dakar rally is a cruel and hostile event, over 5000km of the toughest territory for any car rally. Never before won by a diesel engined vehicle, VW has achieved a first by not only winning the gruelling event in a diesel Touarag, but coming in second as well. This ends a seven year domination of the Dakar Rally by Mitsubishi.

Crunch watch Dec 09: the auto industry in crisis

Welcome to CAR's news aggregator as we round up the seismic change in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour Wednesday 30 December 2009• Saab's PR chief told AN that GM is extending the deadline for a sale to 7 January – and the Trollhattan factory will resume limited manufacturing in early January to build the new 9-5 and some 9-3 cabrios (Automotive News, subscription required)• Last night Bloomberg reported a Saab board member claiming that the 31 December deadline for a Saab sale or closure 'is not holy'. If GM receives a bid that is 'sufficiently interesting', it'll extend the deadline, said the Saab suit (Automotive News, subscription required)• GM is offering massive discounts on Pontiac and Saturn cars, as it seeks to get rid of the remaining stock from these terminated brands.

Toyota readies dealer fix for faulty pedals

Toyota Motor Corp. is fine-tuning a dealer remedy for faulty accelerator pedals in 2.3 million recalled vehicles and aims to announce the fix as early as next week, a person familiar with the matter said. The procedure involves inserting a metal shim into a gap in the friction lever of the pedal.