New 1.0-litre turbo for Vauxhall Adam

A frugal new 1.0-litre SIDI three-cylinder turbo petrol engine will go on sale in the Vauxhall Adam city car in 2014, following its debut at next month’s 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. The new low-emissions unit – a rival to Ford’s 1.0 Ecoboost engine in the Fiesta and Focus – will deliver “impressive fuel economy and CO2 emissions significantly lower than 100g/km”, according to Vauxhall. On Bing: see pictures of the Vauxhall Adam Find out how much a used Vauxhall Adam costs on Auto Trader The current Adam range is powered by 1.2- and 1.4-litre petrols.

Ford to take Sync global

Ford Motor Co. will expand its voice-activated Sync information service globally beginning in Europe in 2010. Ford CEO Alan Mulally on Thursday revealed the new plans for Sync at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Online driving licence to reduce insurance costs

First the tax disc, now your driving licence, as government plans to put driving records online are set to make the paper counterpart licence obsolete – reducing your car insurance premium in the process. By creating an online record that insurance companies can easily check, ministers and the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) expect insurance costs to fall, as insurers will be able to exactly analyse risk rather than hedging their bets. On Bing: see pictures of the counterpart driving licence Tax disc to be scrapped after 93 years At present it’s tediously time consuming for car insurance companies to check motorists’ driving records with the DVLA, which means most take people at their word about the number of penalty points they have.