00-04 Volvo S40 1.9t Engine Control Unit Brain Box on 2040-parts.com

New design boss for Alfa

By Jack Rix Motor Industry 14 June 2007 11:42 Frank Stephenson, the man credited with designing the new Mini and Fiat's retro 500, has been appointed to head up Alfa Romeo's design centre. He replaces Wolfgang Egger, responsible for the swooping 8C Competizione, who left earlier this year to join Audi. Stephenson joins Alfa at a crucial time, prior to its re-entry into the US market.

Car April Fool Stuff: From Chips Away to BMW

Chips Away’s new APP removes dents in cars The car news on April 1st always includes a chunk of April Fools, and this year is no different with some good, some bad and some quite lame. The people that take the everyday knocks out of your car at home – Chips Away – have come up with a DentsAway App – in conjunction with ALA – that will uses a Smartphone’s electro-magnetic pulses to ionise the metal on a car dent and pull it back in to shape. Chips Away and ALA have used their April 1st announcement as the chance for a giveway, with three winners getting a pair of tickets for the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year if they share the video (below) on Facebook or Twitter.

New Nissan Note production starts in Sunderland

The New Nissan Note goes in to production The new Nissan Note arrived at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and has turned in to a proper compact hatch – with plenty of kerbside appeal – instead of the rather bland small MPV it used to be. With better looks, some nice styling detail and lots of technology on offer – like Blind Spot Monitoring, Lane Departure Warning and Moving Object Detection, the new Note looks set to have much more impact when it arrive’s in Nissan’s showrooms than the old Note ever did. That point of view is given extra credence by the 14,000 orders Nissan has received for the new Note in Europe since it went on sale in July, and now the first Notes are ready to start rolling off the production line at Nissan’s plant in Sunderland.