Wireless Audio Transmitter Fd900x3 on 2040-parts.com

Maserati sales up 4-fold in UK & Europe this year

The Maserati Ghibli (pictured) helped Maserati to strong sales in UK & Europe Maserati are on a mission to revive sales for the marque after years of being just an afterthought for car buyers fancying something interesting and Italian. And it seems to be working. The new Maserati Ghibli (and the Quattroporte) are starting to appeal to car buyers in the UK and Europe so much that sales so far in 2014 are up by 420 per cent on 2013, and although the actual numbers aren’t massive, the progress certainly is.

Motoring April Fool’s 2009: the best and worst

By Tim Pollard Motoring Issues 01 April 2009 00:01 Those crazy car makers have been letting their hair down to present us with an array of April Fool’s Day fodder. We’ve handily collated all the gags and jokes that’ve landed in our intray today – and you can name and shame the best and worst in our CAR Magazine poll below. So read and weep – and then vote!

Vauxhall launches speed limit detectors on Insignia (2008)

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 19 June 2008 07:53 Vauxhall's new Insignia will be the first of a wave of cars to have a forward-facing camera that can read road signs. The optional kit will detect speed limit and no overtaking signs – and flash up a reminder to the driver on the dashboard.GM calls the tech, which will be launched in early 2009, Traffic Sign Recognition and it uses a small, wide-angled camera system supplied by Hella. It sits at the top of the windscreen near the rain sensors and rear-view mirror, scanning the road ahead taking 30 photos per second.It's 1984 all over again...With a range of 100 metres, the camera focuses on circular patterns and then interprets the numbers inside by contour comparison; if a match is found on the software's database, that road sign will be flashed up in the driver's binnacle.The front-facing camera is also used as a lane departure warning system, alerting the driver if they unintentionally swerve out of their lane on a motorway.Cars with cameras: a growing trendMore and more manufacturers are fitting cameras to their cars nowadays and you can expect a flood of systems like the Insignia's to be launched in 2009, including the new BMW 5-series.CAR tried out these new systems on Bosch prototypes in 2007.