Yamaha F1c-u2899-00-00 F1c-u2899-00-00 Bracket,hatch Suppor on 2040-parts.com

It's (almost) alive: General Motors and NASA develop a humanlike robot for the International Space Station

General Motors and NASA have teamed up to develop Robonaut 2, which will be the first humanlike robot to take up permanent residence on the International Space Station. Known as R2, the 300-pound robot will use its “hands” and “arms” to utilize the tools of the station. It will assist astronauts, which GM says has parallels with helping its workers in factories.

2014 BMW X3 Facelift and more efficient engines

The 2014 BMW X3 (pictured) gets a facelift and new engines The current version of the BMW X3 SUV has been with us for more than three years, so BMW are giving it a bit of a mid-cycle facelift and more frugal engines to keep the X3 on top of its – very successful – game. Engines on offer for the 2014 X3 include the 2.0 litre diesel in the sDrive18d which offers 148bhp and 56.8mpg and the 187bhp in the X3 xDrive20d which returns 52.3mpg, the xDrive30d – which gets the 3.0 litre diesel unit – with 254bhp and 47.9mpg and the X3 xDrive35 which has an impressive 309bhp but still manages official economy of 47.1mpg. When it comes to the cosmetic facelift bits, BMW hasn’t really pushed the boat out, but the new X3 does get a new headlight design which is sleeker, new front and rear bumpers and a new surround for the kidney grill, which all contrive to make the new X3 look even more like a baby X5.

Volkswagen Golf R Cabriolet price cut – down by £5,600

The VW Golf R Cabriolet (pictured) drops in price by £5,600 We’ve long wondered why Volkswagen hadn’t built a Golf R Cabriolet. But when they did finally bite the bullet and take the top of the Golf R for a production run, it was a bit of a let down. It was a let down because it seemed so cynical.