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MOT test gets tougher for diesels

THE MOT TEST for cars with diesel engines is set to become much tougher from February 2014 due to new rules about exhaust filters. Diesel-engined cars fitted with an exhaust filter as standard when new will now be checked to make sure it is still present. Any car found to have had the filter removed will be automatically failed and required to have a new filter fitted.

RAC to carry universal spare wheel

The RAC believes call outs to cars with punctures but no spare wheel will reach 250,000 a year by 2015, so has decided to roll out its own universal spare wheel as a hassle-reducing solution. The universal spare wheel, which has already been successfully trialled, should become standard equipment for all RAC breakdown patrols by early February 2014. On Bing: see pictures of universal spare wheels Spare wheel solution from the RAC The RAC has taken this step as increasingly few modern cars are sold with a factory-fitted spare wheel as standard.

Who's Where: Karim Habib joins Mercedes-Benz

Karim Habib, former Team Leader for Advanced Design at BMW, joined Mercedes-Benz earlier this month, becoming Head of Advanced Design at the German automaker's Stuttgart studio. Habib will work under newly appointed Mercedes-Benz Head of Design, Gorden Wagener. Habib, who celebrates his 38th birthday today, was born in Beirut, Lebanon and attended elementary school in Iran, France and Greece before moving to Montreal, Canada in 1982.