Ferrari Logo Sticker Decal Plastic Shield on 2040-parts.com

Hot Octavia now with diesel power

By Phil McNamara Motor Industry 18 August 2006 09:01 A grunty, 170bhp diesel engine will join Skoda's high performance vRS range in September. The engine will be available in the Octavia hatch and estate, priced at £18,370 and £19,200 respectively. The 2.0-litre TDI kicks out 258lb ft, more twist action than a BMW 330i.

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.

Vauxhall / Opel Adam spied undisguised

The GM rival for the MINI and Fiat 500 – the Vauxhall and Opel Adam – has been caught undisguised on a photo shoot in Spain. The last news we had of what we thought was going to be the Opel Junior was GM’s announcement that it would actually be the Opel Adam – named after Opel’s founder – and, oddly, also the Vauxhall Adam. So far we’ve only seen the usually prototypes with swirly camouflage floating around Europe’s roads, but now we get the first shots of the Adam grabbed undisguised on a photoshoot in Spain.