Brembo 59.e114.37 on 2040-parts.com

2012 Kia Soul Facelift arrives in the UK

2012 Kia Soul Facelift arrives in the UK Earlier this year, at the New York Motor Show, we reported on what we called the 2011 Facelift for the Kia Soul. But as it’s now October, and the titivated Soul is only just arriving in the UK, we really ought to rename the latest Kia Soul the 2012 Facelift. But whatever year we append to the facelifted Soul, it’s still good to see Kia’s funky little Marmite car get some decent tweaks to move it forward.

UK new car average CO2 now under 140g/km

UK motor industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) claims 56% of new cars sold in the UK during 2010 boasted carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions figures below 140g/km. New car emissions of CO2 continued to fall at an increased rate year-on-year, dropping 3.5% over 2009’s figures and representing a cumulative drop in new car CO2 emissions of 20.3% since 2000.  The data comes from the release of the SMMT’s annual New Car Carbon Dioxide (CO2) report for 2011, out today. UK vehicle fleet CO2 continues to fall The presence of lower-polluting new vehicles in the overall UK vehicle parc (the total fleet of new and existing vehicles on the roads) has driven parcwide CO2 levels down 7.8% since 2000, and 2.7% since 2009.  This is partly thanks to new vehicles, and also due to reduction of higher-polluting vehicles via legislation and scrappage incentive schemes. The overall reduction also comes in spite of an increased number of vehicles on the road, and greater average distances travelled compared to 2000. Diesel’s rise continues One notable trend has been market penetration of diesel-powered cars. In 2000 petrol powered cars held 85.9% of the market, with 14.1% diesels.

BMW 2 Series Active Tourer (2014) - the new BMW MPV

The phrase ‘jumping the shark’ has fallen out of use in recent times, but we’d like to bring it back for one final, special, 2014 celebratory appearance as just about the perfect way to introduce the new BMW 2 Series Active Tourer. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. BMW has built itself an MPV.