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2014 Subaru XV – less choice, more refinement

The 2014 Subaru XV (pictured) gets a bit of a tweak The Subaru XV arrived in the UK in 2012, and it’s a perfectly able and reasonably-priced compact crossover from Subaru. But within a year of launching the XV Subaru decided to inject a bit more appeal in to the XV with a price cut of £2,300 across the range and now, not more than six months later, they’re fiddling with the XV range again. The 2.0 litre petrol XV gets new valve-train components to cut engine noise and revised suspension, with extra soundproofing improving NVH levels across the range, a revised power steering system for added stability and feel  and thicker and reshaped suspension lower arm and extra reinforcement around the base of the A-Pillar for better crash performance.

2012 Ford Focus to get 1.0 litre 3-pot Ecoboost engine

2012 Ford Focus to get 1.0 Litre Ecoboost 3-pot We’re getting used to car makers downsizing engines to cope with the ever increasing regulations on emissions and economy; v10s become V8s and V8s become V6s. And now we’re about to see a Ford Focus forsake its traditional 4-pot lump for a 1.0 litre 3-pot Ecoboost lump. Ford has revealed plans to offer the new Focus with their latest 1.0 litre, 3-cylinder Ecoboost engine, starting in 2012.

Volkswagen Golf Economy Range launched

Volkswagen has released a range of Eco cars - The VW Golf Economy Range With the obsession by car makers with CO2 emissions (but only because Governments structure their targets on CO2 levels) the aim of these Eco Golfs is to trim CO2 levels down, and they’ve succeeded in getting the whole Golf Economy Range under 120g/km, and the Golf BlueMotion down to 107g/km. Three versions of the 1.6 TDi are offered – a 90PS version, a 105PS version and a 105PS BlueMotion version. VW has achieved the lower emissions with aerodynamic tweaks, longer gear ratios and regenerative braking.