2002 Ford Ranger Instrument Cluster on 2040-parts.com

New Mercedes A Class: 90,000 orders and counting

Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche has revealed that Mercedes already has 90,000 orders for the new A-Class just months after its reveal. It’s a credible, good looking and clever car that’s a serious offering in the premium compact market and, if the order book for 70,000 A-Class Mercedes already had by the end of October is anything to go by, it’s going to be a roaring success. That sales figure has now jumped to 90,000 A-Class – according to Mercedes boss, Dieter Zetsche – and stands at double the order book Volkswagen has for the new MK 7 Golf.

2014 Subaru Outback Facelift gets new engine and gearbox combo

2014 Subaru Outback Facelift gets new engine and gearbox combo But with the world getting used to crossovers, Subaru think now’s the time to make the Outback look a little more glossy, so they’ve decided to paint what was plastic cladding for the 2014 model year. Other exterior titivations include some new colour choices - Deep Sea Blue Pearl and Dark Grey Metallic – with bigger fog lights and gloss black finish to the headlamps and a gunmetal finish for the alloys. Inside, the Outback gets new, more modern, instruments with an LCD cluster and some new material choices for the dashboard elements with black metallic panels making things seem a bit more modern.

BMW takes the Active Tourer Outdoor outdoors this weekend

This weekend BMW will be taking its BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor to the annual OutDoor fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany. We first saw the concept last September, noting that it was a departure for BMW in more ways than one -- with the German automaker stretching itself into segments in which it previously had no foothold. The BMW Active Tourer is meant to preview a whole new generation of small cars from BMW, but one of the biggest changes underneath is a transverse layout of the engine -- a setup that BMW has traditionally shunned in favor of a longitudinal layout.