1977 Yamaha Yz125 Clutch Cable on 2040-parts.com

Cash for clunkers plan revives trade fight

Import brand automakers and dealers warned on Thursday that a vehicle scrappage proposal before the Senate would violate trade agreements and could weaken the economy. The Senate could vote on the plan on Thursday, which would offer $10,000 to any moderate- or low-income consumer who trades in a car or truck that is at least 10 years old and buys a new one that is more fuel-efficient and "assembled in the United States." The trade-ins would be scrapped rather than resold. The U.S.-made mandate "smacks of the protectionism that led to the Great Depression," said Barbara Nocera, the top Washington lobbyist for Mazda North American Operations.

Ram introduces CNG-powered pickup

Aside from the Honda Civic Natural Gas, compressed-natural-gas-powered vehicles have usually been converted after the fact, generally for fleet use. Chrysler is hoping to carve out a niche in the corporate-pickup segment by selling a factory-built CNG Ram 2500 that can seamlessly switch over to gasoline operation when the natural-gas tanks run dry. The twin 4.6-cubic-foot CNG tanks (which store the equivalent of 18.2 gallons of gas) take up a section of the bed, while an eight-gallon gasoline tank provides fuel during start-up and then reserve capacity when the compressed tanks are tapped out, allowing the bruiser a measure of operational flexibility.

Jaguar C-X16 gets a name today (and it won’t be Jaguar XE)

The Jaguar C-X16 gets a production name today Jaguar will reveal the name for the C-X16 to day at the New York Auto Show  - and it won’t be XE - signalling the way forward for Jaguar nomenclature. Update: It’s the Jaguar F-Type! Last week Jaguar told us they had some exciting news to reveal at the New York Motor Show and, although we’d hope for a nice new Jaguar reveal, it looks like the news will be the production name for the Jaguar C-X16 and the news it will arrive in showrooms in 2013 first of all as a roadster.