Quarter Midget Nervo Medium on 2040-parts.com

Audi hike prices for UK Cars

It was always going to happen. The current weakness of Sterling against the Euro was always going to end up with Euro car makers putting up prices, and Audi has now decided to bite the bullet and push up prices by an average of 2% from 23rd February. Audi will, however, honour all existing orders and will not be seeking a surcharge.

Volvo S60 L plug-in petrol hybrid heading for Beijing Motor Show

The Volvo S60L Plug-in (pictured) heading for Beijing The Volvo V60 Plug-in is already doing good business for Volvo – despite a price tag of £50k – but the V60 plug-in is a diesel hybrid which doesn’t suit all markets. So Volvo are ploughing ahead with a petrol engine based plug-in hybrid with the debut at the Beijing Motor Show next week of the Volvo S60 L Plug-in, a petrol hybrid version of the long wheelbase S60. At first glance the S60 Plug-in looks just like its regular ICE sibling, but under the skin sits a 2.0 litre Drive-E petrol engine with 238bhp and 258lb/ft of torque – which drives the front wheels – and a 68bhp electric motor with 147lb/ft of torque that can drive the rear wheels, which can be recharged in 4.5 hours.

The future of headlamp techonology – see it on video

By Richard Yarrow Motor Industry 27 May 2009 10:12 Cars of the future will drive at night with main-beam headlamps on all the time, but never dazzle another vehicle. That’s the vision of American component firm Gentex, which already makes the auto-dipping lights on the current BMW 7-series. Its engineers are working on a new technology called Dynamic Forward Lighting (DFL) which features a single main beam that floods the road with light.