Vintage 3 Speed Wooden Shifter Knob. Wood & Chrome on 2040-parts.com

Hyundai developing new test centre at Nurburgring

Hyundai has revealed they are building a new test centre at the Nurburgring to help develop driving dynamics for their European cars. We already know that Hyundai are going to make 2012 a brand building exercise, with much effort going in to raising the experience and profile of the Hyundai of today. Part of that is entering WRC rallying with the i20 for the sprinkle of performance dust it will cover Hyundai’s product range with and, hopefully, point towards a serious intent to develop more extreme versions of their performance models.

Jaguar XJ 4WD tackles the coldest town on earth (video)

Jaguar XJ 4WD (pictured) tackles the coldest town on earth If you’ve ever driven a Jaguar XJ in any amount of snow, you’ll know it’s pretty useless. You need a handy supply of snow socks and winter tyres too if you’re going to make any length of journey in seriously cold and snowy conditions without stopping to dig yourself out at regular intervals. But Jaguar now has an XJ that can tackle poor and snowy conditions in the AWD XJ (although, sadly, it’s not on sale in the UK) so they’ve headed out on a 2,000 mile round trip in temperatures down to -50 degrees to show that the 4WD XJ just keeps on going.

Nissan offers interactive shopping for smartphone users on sales lots

Nissan is putting Quick Response codes on its vehicle price stickers so shoppers can use smartphones to read up on cars as they peruse dealership lots. With the "On Vehicle Graphics" system, QR codes are available to provide extra decision-making information that is easily accessible via popular mobile devices. The codes are available to act as a "silent salesperson," starting with vehicles for the 2012 model year.