Cardone Industries 79-6195v Remanufactured Electronic Control Unit on 2040-parts.com

Electric cars amped up with £500 million boost

THE GOVERNMENT is to extend the £5,000 grant scheme open to anyone who buys a car with plug-in electric power. It is part of a £500 million move to encourage car owners – and city authorities – to take up the electric car baton and run with it. The initiative will give cities a chance to win government funding to further the sales of electric cars in their areas, for example by allowing them to use bus lanes or park for free.

New BMW 2-Series Active Tourer arrives as BMW’s first front-wheel-drive car (+video)

The new BMW 2-Series Active Tourer (pictured) arrives in the UK September 2014 Many will see it as sacrilege that the new BMW 2-Series Active Tourer MPV is front-wheel-drive, but pragmatists will see it as a sensible move to extend BMW’s depth of offerings. Whichever side you come down on, the BMW 2-Series Active Tourer – previewed by the BMW Concept Active Tourer at Paris in 2012 – is a production reality and does look like it will fill very well the space in BMW’s range for a compact MPV. Despite looks that are almost the opposite of what you’d expect from a BMW – stubby nose and a high roof line; a proper BMW take on the Mercedes B-Class – the 2-Series Active Tourer still manages to exude BMW style, albeit in a more practical way to the rest of the range.

2012 Saab 9-5 & 9-5 SportWagon prices and models

Saab 9-5 SportWagon arrives in the UK in the Autumn. Possibly Is it just us, or does it strike you as a bit odd that Saab are sending us information on the 2012 Saab 9-5 revisions and on the yet-to-actually-launch Saab 9-5 SportWagon, when Saab doesn’t even know if it will survive beyond tomorrow? True, it’s always best to be optimistic and plan for success not failure, but wouldn’t it have been pragmatic to wait until Uncle Tom Cobley and all have had their say on whether Saab can take the Chinese Shilling to survive.