Pioneer Street Performance Balancer 872020 on 2040-parts.com

First Sight: Skoda Octavia

The new Skoda Octavia was unveiled earlier this week in the Czech brand's museum at its home in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. Car Design News was in attendance to check out the third generation of what the company calls ‘the heart of Skoda'. The new Octavia is the fourth model in the Volkswagen Group to be built on the new MQB (Modularer Querbaukasten) platform.

Driverless Car Project Launched In Land Of The Concrete Cows

MILTON Keynes might already be famous for its concrete cows and numerous roundabouts, but soon it’ll also be known for its driverless cars. In a project aimed at boosting green technologies, a fleet of 20 driver-operated ‘pods’ will run on designated pathways separated from pedestrians. By mid-2017 it is planned that 100 fully autonomous vehicles will run on pathways alongside people, using sensors to avoid collisions with obstacles.

Jaguar Land Rover profits up 34 per cent to £1.5 billion

Just four years after Tata took over what looked like a basket case in Jaguar Land Rover, profits have hit £1.5 billion. It’s become the norm for Jaguar Land Rover to report ever improving profits and sales, but the news that JLR made profits of £1.5 billion in the year to end of March 2012 is still amazing. Ford sold Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata four years ago as it unwound its faltering luxury car brands, and as recently as 2009 JLR were almost begging for government help to keep going.