Blog on 2040Parts

2013 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car teased in video

Porsche is teasing the 2013 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car on YouTube. It's the first dedicated track car of the 991 generation. The company reportedly will reveal the whole car to the public on Saturday.

Italian firm buys stake in Aston Martin

The former owner of Italian motorcycle maker Ducati has bought a 37.5-percent stake in financially strapped British car maker Aston Martin. The move means future Astons could use modern drivelines and electric architectures from Mercedes-Benz's AMG division, insiders with knowledge of the deal suggest. Private equity fund Investindustrial has signed a memorandum of understanding with current Aston Martin owner Investment Dar of Kuwait that will see it pay $240 million (150 million pounds) for the ownership stake.

Holiday car deals from Audi, Honda, Lexus and more

Thinking about a gift with four wheels and a motor for the holidays? Automakers would be happy to grant your request with the 2013 model-year new car you've been wishing for with some substantial discounts. Check out these hot car deals that run through the holidays and beyond.

New Honda Fit to have three body styles

Honda Motor Co. plans to build three variants of its Fit compact, including a sedan version, at its Mexican plant currently under construction. The two other variants are the standard hatchback and a Fit-based crossover, said an executive familiar with the plans.

Saleen S351 Mustang being prepped

After a tumultuous and sometimes litigious couple of years (which included Steve Saleen the man suing Saleen the company for calling itself Saleen!), Saleen the man, the car and the company with the man again in the driver's seat are back, still in Southern California and still in the bustling Inland Empire burg of Corona to which they all ensconced a few years ago. So what's new? First up is a Saleen 351 Mustang, which was announced at the LA auto show last week.

2013 Ford Fusion recalled for faulty headlight lens

The redesigned 2013 Ford Fusion, recalled earlier this week for potential fires in the 1.6-liter engine, is now being recalled for a headlight fix. The headlights don’t meet the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that an improperly cured projector coating will become hazy, reducing the brightness of the low-beam lamp.

Toyota, Scion models see slight price increase for 2013

Toyota and Scion will be charging slightly more for certain models in 2013. And we mean slightly—the greatest change is a $500 bump up on the Scion xB and Toyota Sequoia SUV. The Camry sedan, Prius C hybrid subcompact and Scion xB utility vehicle all offer new features for 2013, causing the price increase.

Nissan Juke Nismo: Price from £19,995

Nissan has announced that their sport take on the Juke – the Nissan Juke Nismo – will cost from £19,995 and is the first of a new Nismo range. For your £20k you’ll get a new sporty Juke with an extra 10 horses thanks to a tweak or three to the 1.6 litre petrol engine in the Juke DIG-T, which means a total of 197bhp, 0-62mph in 7.8 seconds and 135mph. Not exactly up there with the Juke R, but more than enough to blat properly round an urban landscape.

Hyundai: Changing lives through football (video)

Hyundai, with Team Hyundai Ambassador Daniel Sturridge, are supporting the young unemployed through the streetfootballworld programme in the UK. We know that Hyundai has made great strides in transforming the public’s perception of the Hyundai brand, and that’s down to great product and great PR. But good companies aim to put something back in to societies they profit from, and Hyundai is doing exactly that through football.

Investindustrial take 37.5 per cent stake in Aston Martin

InvestIndustrial – former owners of Ducati – have taken a 37.5 per cent stake in Aston Martin for £150 million. We’ve been proclaiming for more than a year that Aston Martin needs new investment, and AML finally confirmed as much a few weeks ago. And just yesterday we revealed a deal for Aston Martin was now a one horse race.

Hyundai i30 hits a million

Hyundai has revealed it has now built more than a million i30s with European sales accounting for 500,000 of those sales. Get over the latent badge snoberry and the Hyundai i30 is a family car that can be considered a real alternative to the leading cars in its sector – the VW Golf and Ford Focus – with a good combination of style, equipment, decent driving dynamics and cost. Set aside that badge snobbery and any buyer looking for a family car should really have these three – the i30, Golf and Focus - on their top three list; the rest is down to a subjective judgement.

New Range Rover (2013) wins Top Gear Luxury Car of the Year

The 2013 Range Rover – Land Rover’s new Flagship SUV – has won its first major award as Top Gear Luxury car of the year. Interestingly, it seems Land Rover are as sceptical as we were about the proclamation by the Sunday Times in October that the 2013 Range Rover was their luxury SUV of the year, despite never even driving it. Not that anyone is doubting the new Range Rover’s right to such a gong, just that it seemed odd to award it to a car that was still too new to judge.

Aston Martin sells 38% stake to Italians to raise cash

Aston Martin today announced a deal with Italian private equity fund Investindustrial, securing a £150m investment to own a 37.5% stake in the business. Aston Martin hopes this should secure the long-term future of the beloved but hitherto financially wobbly sports car maker. Together with the new owners, it announced a £500m investment in future product.

Drayson Racing and RCA launch EV racing car contest

Drayson Racing has launched a contest with the Royal College of Art's Vehicle Design program to design electric racing car concepts for the FIA's new Formula E series, which is set to start in 2014. The RCA's students are asked to present designs that explore new themes within the technical constraints as part of this course's curriculum. The previous Drayson Formula E concept was developed by Sergio Rinland who will be part of a series of workshops and lectures on aerodynamics, engineering packaging, production engineering and materials, giving students the technical knowledge to develop their designs.

Nissan and Fiat marketing heads trade insults over 'visual pollution'

A war of words has erupted between Fiat and Nissan's marketing departments over their electric vehicle designs, the Leaf and the 500e. Matt Davis, head of Fiat product marketing, told Bloomberg News before the launch of its all-electric 500e at the Los Angeles show last week that "ugliness is probably one of the worst forms of pollution," seen as an indirect attack on Nissan's electric offering. The then 500e came under attack with Nissan criticizing the fact that it was created only to meet Californian emissions requirements.

This guy is making Chrysler's interiors cool again

In any roomful of Detroit auto executives, the man most responsible for the dramatic interior improvements of Chrysler Group's vehicles stands out dramatically. Klaus Busse is tall and lanky with giant hands and an outsized smile. His standard attire is a light-gray windbreaker worn over a faded T-shirt and jeans.

Spyker, Youngman agree on joint venture

Dutch supercar maker Spyker and the Chinese Youngman Group have agreed on a joint venture to build a new super sport utility vehicle and a group of sedans based on Saab's Phoenix platform. The SUV is scheduled to hit the market by the end of 2014, while no dates for the Phoenix-based sedan were announced. Youngman will invest 10 million euros in Spyker, 7 million of which will be for stock shares constituting 29.9 percent of the supercar company.

Vygor Opera shows off in teaser photos

Teaser photos of the production-spec Vygor Opera were revealed today by the Italian carmaker. We have a good shot of the nose and the trunk, as well as a few darkened detail shots. We know what you're thinking.

Fiat demonstrates (for us prudes) how to sell cars, the Italian way

Italians are nothing if not imbued with salaciousness. At the Los Angeles Auto Show last week, Fiat leapt upon this fact with a seemingly undiscovered gusto, like a high-school kid who just had his first beer and is—as we speak—rushing to his friends to tell them all about it. You can watch the thing here in its entirety.

Aston Martin Sale: InvestIndustrial (& AMG) look to have won

It looks like the sale of a chunk of Aston Martin is going to InvestIndustrial, promising Mercedes AMG technology for AML. Just last week, Aston Martin finally confirmed the the Kuwait Investment Dar was looking to off-load a chunk of its shareholding in AML. And now it looks like a deal is done.

UK Car Sales up again in November (2012)

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has revealed that new car sales grew again in the UK in November – up by 11.3 per cent. At some point, new car sales in the UK must surely start to ease as the economic pressure bite, but so far in 2012 we’ve had an inexorable rise in numbers. The latest figures for November show new car sales (well, to be precise, new car registrations – which include Pre-Reg cars) up by an impressive 11.3 per cent, following on from a rise of 12.1 per cent in October, with private buyers driving sales rather than fleet.

Top Hyundai UK Dealers honoured

Hyundai’s top UK dealers have been honoured with awards at an event in Frankfurt. Bristol Street Motors, Monaghan Brothers, Sandon Road Hyundai and J T Hughes won awards. There are lots of threads to making a brand succeed, and Hyundai’s stellar rise from budget ‘dofor’ to mainstream beating has meant weaving those threads together like a seamstress on a fine tapestry. From advertising to PR to product to showcase, the brand will only work if all the elements combine properly to convince car buyers there’s substance to the product.

2013 Honda CR-Z Facelift: Price from £20,550

The price for the facelifted 2013 Honda CR-Z has been announced. The CR-Z Sport will start from £20,550 and the CR-Z GT will cost £23,050. So Honda revealed back in September that they’re giving the CR-Z a bit of a facelift for 2013, the main focus is on the running gear where Honda has upped the output of the 1.5 litre i-VTEC engine and attached electric motor to deliver 135bhp and changed the battery pack to a Lithium Ion one instead of the old  Nickel-metal hybrid.

2013 Ford Kuga: Price from £20,895

The 2013 Ford Kuga will cost from £20,895 for the entry-level Kuga 1.6T EcoBoost  150PS Zetec, rising to £29,545 for the Kuga 2.0TDCi  163PS AWD Titanium X. The starting point for entry in to the new Kuga is the  1.6T EcoBoost  150PS Zetec with FWD, which costs £1,000 less than the equivalent outgoing model, rising to the range-topping Kuga 2.0TDCi  163PS AWD Titanium X with all its bells and whistles for a shade under £30k. In fact, Ford say that all the like-for-like models in the new Kuga range actually come in at a lower price than the old model, citing the best-selling 2.0-litre TDCi 163PS model which, at £25,545, is £355 cheaper than in the current Kuga.

BMW 4 Series: The new 3 Series Coupe arrives

The BMW Concept 4 Series Coupe – a two door version of the new 3 Series – has been revealed and will debut at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show. It may be a concept as far as the real extremes are concerned – the butch bumpers, big air intakes and extreme wheels – but in every other way the 4 Series Concept is the production 4 Series we’ll get later in 2014. And it looks good.

Honda CR-Z (2013): boost button, upped power and prices

Honda's hybrid CR-Z coupe has been given a light re-working, gaining extra power and a sporty boost system. There's also the subtlest of visual makeovers, and a price jump to boot: prices are up between £1830 and £2515 across the range. How much faster is the new Honda CR-Z?

Hennessey Venom GT hits 230 mph in less than 20 seconds

The power junkies over at Hennessey have uploaded a YouTube video of the company's Venom GT hypercar. The Lotus-based GT sprints from 0-to-228 mph in 19.96 seconds, or the time it takes to update your Facebook status. Behind the driver of the Venom GT is a Corvette ZR1-sourced LS9 V8.

Corvette icon Duntov added to Bloomington Gold hall

Zora-Arkus Duntov, the first chief engineer for the Chevrolet Corvette, is among 10 people who will be added to the Bloomington Gold Corvettes USA's Great Hall next summer. The Great Hall is a form of hall of fame started by Bloomington Gold, an annual Corvette restoration and car show event that rewards cars for being maintained in original or factory-correct condition. The event is held in late June.

2013 Toyota RAV4: Price from £22,595

Toyota has announced that the new Toyota RAV4 will cost from £22,595 for the RAV4 Active 2WD 2.0 Diesel to £29,295 for the Invincible AWD 2.2 Diesel. The new RAV4 is better looking, bigger, promises better driving dynamics and more equipment than the current RAV4, but Toyota has still conspired to bring in the RAV4 entry point at a lower price than currently, albeit with a new, smaller engine. Trim levels on the new RAV4 are now Active, Icon and Invincible with 4WD available on all trim levels except Active.

New Lexus IS to debut at 2013 Detroit Auto Show

The new Lexus IS - previewed at this year’s Paris Motor Show by the Lexus LF-CC Concept – will debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January 2013. Lexus effectively previewed the new IS with the Lexus LF-CC Concept (above) at the Paris Motor show in September (although that really previews a new Lexus IS Coupe to follow) so we know the new IS is going to follow the current Lexus path of producing good looking cars (like the latest Lexus GS). This time round it looks like Lexus are going to offer a hybrid IS 3000 as the route to the heart of fleet buyers in Europe with a 2.5 litre petrol four-cylinder mated to the usual box of batteries and motor, all running through a CVT ‘box (sadly).