2003 2004 Honda Cbr600rr Oem Right Lower Fairing Plastic Belly Cowl  on 2040-parts.com

The scramble for scarce tires

North American automakers are struggling with a nagging shortage of tires, caused in part by tire plant closings and rising demand for low-volume specialty tires. Automakers are paying much higher prices -- double-digit percentage increases from a year ago -- as tire makers gain pricing power. "We have been bombarded from every side for additional tires, and we can't keep up," said David O'Donnell, Continental Tire's vice president of original equipment in the Americas.

Toyota Winglet concept (2008): first pictures

By Tom Richards First Official Pictures 04 August 2008 14:33 Toyota has just unveiled the ‘Winglet’, one of its ‘people-assisting Partner Robots’.  It isn’t exactly a car per se, but it has wheels, a motor, and it is a valid alternative to walking. It even has its own ‘trim’ levels – ‘S’, ‘M’ and ‘L’ (from left to right in our pictures). These range from ‘practical’ (with the long handle) to ‘hands-free sporty’.

BMW X4 confirmed – one more time

It was always going to be on the cards after the unexpected success of the X6, but the birth of the BMW X4 – a coupé version of the new X3 – has been the subject of endless rumours, almost since the X6 started to sell in unexpected numbers. We reported as far back as April 2010 that BMW were close to deciding an X4 was a no brainer; after all, with a lot of the world ‘downsizing’ their transport, a smaller X6 should be a seller. By this time last year we heard that BMW had already made the decision and we had it on good authority that the X4 was confirmed and signed-off and would be heading to showrooms by 2013.