Centric Parts 210.66015 Flywheel on 2040-parts.com

Apple Carplay vs Android: the smartphone hits the road

By Damion Smy Motor Industry 11 June 2014 07:18 The days of frustrating in-car interfaces and clunky touchscreens are ending, as computing giants Apple and Google start unleashing the full power of smartphone technology in your car.  Apple has fired the opening salvo in the war on wheels with its ‘CarPlay’ system launched at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show and offered by Ferrari, Mercedes and Volvo, and at least 15 other car brands. If you own an iPhone, you’ll find CarPlay natural and intuitive – it’s this type of familiarity that car companies and Apple are banking on to win you over. Cars have been able to play your iTunes library and read texts for a while, but CarPlay takes this functionality to a whole new level.

Nissan Qashqai: UK 2011 changes

The Nissan Qashqai n-tec 2011 with its posh new alloys We reported last week on the changes revealed for the 2011 Nissan Qashqai in Japan (the Nissan Dualis), and speculated that some of these, and perhaps others, would spill over to the Nissan Qashqai in the UK and Europe. So it was no huge surprise to get an email from Nissan this morning detailing changes to the Qashqai for 2011 in the UK. Stop/Start turns up as an option for the first time on the 1.6 litre petrol Qashqais (for £200) which, if you can get in to the habit of sticking the car in neutral and foot off the clutch every time you grind to a halt in traffic, can yield decent fuel savings.

Chevrolet six-month global sales highest in a century

Chevrolet saw 2.35 million global sales in the first six months of 2011--its best first-half mark in 100 years. The automaker credits the success of new small-car models for much of the growth, namely the Cruze compact, the Spark minicar, the Aveo/Sonic small car and the Orlando MPV. Chevrolet sales increased 14 percent in the United States from the same half-year period in 2010, with 286,499 more units sold.