2003 03 Infiniti Fx356 Am Fm Cd Player Radio on 2040-parts.com

50 Years of the BMW 'Neue Klasse'

In a year that sees the celebration of the ever-seductive Jaguar E-Type and the characterful Renault 4, it would be easy to overlook other cars also reaching their half-century, especially a mundane three-box saloon. However, the BMW 1500 isn't any less significant. When launched at the 1961 Frankfurt International Motor Show, intrigued and inquisitive visitors were forced to wait 30 minutes just to catch a glimpse of the car.

Upgraded Ford MyKey blocks explicit satellite radio channels

Teenage radio listeners might have to look somewhere else besides the family Ford for the Playboy channel or Howard Stern. The new generation of Ford's programmable MyKey system will let parents block "explicit" radio channels on the Sirius/XM satellite service in their cars. That would cover Playboy's and Stern's channels, as well as more than a dozen music channels, such as rapper Eminem's Shade 45 and the hard-rock Boneyard.

Aston Martin DB9 4WD Plug-in Hybrid revealed by Bosch (video)

Bosch has built a plug-in hybrid Aston Martin DB9 We’ve always believed one of the best uses for hybrid powertrains is to provide extra performance on high-end cars, something Bosh has demonstrated by fitting the Aston Martin DB9 with a hybrid setup. The hybrid DB9 hasn’t been built to preview a production hybrid DB9 (although it probably should) but to demonstrate what Bosch can do with an existing car. Aston Martin donated the DB9 to Bosch for the hybrid project, and Bosh has fitted the DB9 with three electric motors – one at each front wheel and one next to the Aston’s V12 – which gives the DB9 something in the region of an extra 250bhp to play with.