Dorman 125-004 Brake Yoke on 2040-parts.com

Fiat 500 Abarth USA: A sexy little number

Fiat 500 Abarth USA - Seduction Fiat had high hopes for the Fiat 500 in the US, hoping to emulate the success MINI has enjoyed by tickling the trendy button in US car buyers’ brains. But that plan hasn’t been an unmitigated success. Talk to car lovers in California and they’ll say there’s a Fiat 500 outside every coffee shop; same in New York.

Car makers to be forced to disclaim ‘Official’ economy figures

We’ve banged on for a long time about the futility of official economy figures, especially as car makers get better and better at ‘gaming’ the official economy tests to produce the results they want. Much of the impetus to create the best headline economy figure for a car is driven by taxation, with car makers well aware that the better the official economy results are, the lower their CO2 will be (CO2 isn’t tested for – it’s just extrapolated from the official mpg) and the more appealing the car will be to buyers, particularly fleet buyers. But a ruling by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) against Audi could at least see car makers having to admit in their adverts that the ‘official’ economy figure bears no relation to what owners can expect to achieve in the real world.

New Audi A1 Sportback: The Five-Door A1 arrives for 2012

Audi reveals the new A1 Sportback 5 Door With almost two years of sales of the ‘Only Premium Car in its Class’ (Audi’s assertion), Audi has revealed the more practical version of its smallest car – the five-door Audi A1 Sportback. Visually, the five-door A1 looks just the same as the three-door A1 – with the obvious addition of a pair of back doors – but Audi has managed to 6mm in height and width which, they say, improves room in the back. Which it may, but as the length and wheelbase remain the same it won’t do anything for legroom.