Mevotech Mk80195 Ball Joint, Lower-ball Joint on 2040-parts.com

45,000 complain about used car buys

USED CARS bought from independent dealers drew the highest number of complaints from disgruntled consumers in the last year, according to new figures. Citizens Advice has called on retailers to display consumer rights information at checkouts after more than half a million people complained about shoddy products worth £3.5 billion in the last year. Figures show 45,000 used car buyers lodged a complaint in the year to February, followed by 12,000 regarding mobile phone contracts and 11,500 about repairs by an independent garage.

A heavy key chain may deactivate the airbags in your Chevy Cobalt or Pontiac G5

GM is recalling 788,000 Cobalt and Pontiac G5 sedans for a potentially deadly problem with the ignition system. When the vehicles' keys are connected to heavy key chains (or, say, key rings laden with a dozen extra keys), a sufficiently extreme jolt or impact could shift the ignition out of the "run" position and into the "off" position. Cuts electrical power to the vehicles' systems, in turn deactivating the airbags.

Rare foreign cars head to Carlisle this weekend

Every spring, Carlisle, Pa., (otherwise known as the Woodstock of the classic-car hobby, a title it now fully shares with Hershey) hosts a weekend event just for foreign cars. Last year, over 1,000 cars gathered in central Pennsylvania, with rare foreign machinery making its way from all over the lower 50 and parts of Canada. The longest-traveled cars we spotted last year wore British Columbia plates, which should give you a clue as to the event's following, though we're still unsure which cars we spent the longest time gawking at.