Harley Davidson 2003 100th Anniversary Edition Tank Emblems on 2040-parts.com

Volkswagen Passat Alltrack: The VW Allroad arrives

The VW Passat Alltrack - debuts in Tokyo Volkswagen has jumped on to the Allroad bandwagon with its own take on Audi’s faux off-roader, with the reveal of the 2012 VW Passat Alltrack. As you would expect, the Passat Alltrack is a butched-up Passat Estate with a raised ride height, extra bits of plastic round the bumpers, skid plates, flared side sills and 4WD – VW’s 4MOTION – for more traction in boot sale car parks. But when you don’t need the 4WD, around 90 poer cent of the drive is through the front wheels – saving fuel – with the rear wheel drive only coming in to play when you start to slip and slide.

The scramble for scarce tires

North American automakers are struggling with a nagging shortage of tires, caused in part by tire plant closings and rising demand for low-volume specialty tires. Automakers are paying much higher prices -- double-digit percentage increases from a year ago -- as tire makers gain pricing power. "We have been bombarded from every side for additional tires, and we can't keep up," said David O'Donnell, Continental Tire's vice president of original equipment in the Americas.

Citroen C1 gets a facelift for 2012 too

2012 Citroen C1 Facelift Citroen has given the C1 a facelift for 2012 to match the one given to the Peugeot 107, with better economy and emissions and cosmetic tweaks. The 2012 Citroen C1 Facelift pretty much follows the same pattern as sister PSA sibling the 2012 Peugeot 107, with tweaks to improve emissions and economy and some cosmetic updates to keep things fresh. The updates to the C1′s 3-cylinder 1.0 litre ptrol engine has resulted in economy improving to 65.7mpg and emissions dropping below the magic 100g/km (yep, they are a very unsurprising 99g/km.