Ebc 3gd Series Sport Rotors Gd7252 on 2040-parts.com

Smart Forspeed Concept reveled

Smart Forspeed Concept - and the electric bike and scooter that will make production You’ve got to wonder if Smart is just a game for Mercedes. A bit like Maybach, except they keep churning out endless cars and concepts and editions and sales seem to go nowhere, instead of the Maybach way of keeping the same cars for a decade – and sales go nowhere. Last year in the UK Smart sales were down nearly 9% at a time you would expect sales of eco-focused small cars to boom.

Crunch watch Jan 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Gareth Evans Motor Industry 30 January 2009 12:39 Friday 30 January 2009• Honda is about to close the Swindon factory for four months when Friday's shifts are finished; the shutdown will affect 2500 of the 3700 staff, who will receive full pay for two months and then 60% pay for the next eight weeks (BBC News)• Porsche has announced a sharp drop in sales and likely profits. It forecasts a 27% drop in 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne sales to around 34,000 units in the six months to the end of January 2009 (Financial Times, subscription required)• Ford wants Washington to do more to stimulate car sales, after posting a record loss of nearly $14.6 billion earlier this week (Detroit News)• Honda's quarterly profit has crashed by 90% – forcing the Japanese car maker to halve its annual profit target (Detroit Free Press)Thursday 29 January 2009• Ford of Europe is a bright spot in the Blue Oval's quarterly results today, making $1.06 billion pre-tax profit in 2008 (up from $997m in 2007). It's the first profit of more than $1bn since 1989 (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Volvo suffered a 'disastrous 2008' with a pre-tax loss of $1.46bn.

Fifth Gear Tonight: Skoda Fabia vRS, BMW M6, DIY Servicing & best small cars

Fifth Gear tonight sees Vicki in the Skoda Fabia vRS, Tiff testing best small cars, Jason with the BMW M6 and Jonny on DIY car servicing. With no Top Gear on TV now the latest series has ended (well, apart from the ‘Best of’ Sky+ insists on recording) it’s Fifth Gear for your TV petrolhead fix, with tonight’s episode – episode 6 – offering old-fashioned consumer advice as well as a bit of blasting and blatting in something interesting. Vicki Butler-Henderson is off for a performance motoring triathlon in the company of Norwegian rally star Andreas Mikkelsen, with fun in a pair of single-seat race cars, a race against the clock in a 200bhp off-road buggy and a proper play and test of the appealing Skoda Fabia vRS (you can see a clip of the Fabia vRS test in the video below).