Original Ford Think Instrument Cluster - Untested - Quantity 1 on 2040-parts.com

Vauxhall Corsa gets a 2010 eco facelift

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 19 November 2009 00:01 Blink and you'll miss it – but your accountant won't. The new 2010 model year Vauxhall Corsa has been nipped and tucked, tweaked and polished to produce an impressive average 13% fuel saving across the range.Five out of the six Corsa engines now produce less than 125g/km and the 2010 Corsa Ecoflex diesel now manages up to 76.3mpg (on the Government's not-especially-representative combined figures).How have they made the Corsas so much cleaner?Just good old-fashioned engine tuning, apparently. Most models also come with an eco gearshift indicator to guilt-trip drivers into shifting up at the earliest opportunity.Vauxhall claims it'll sell more sub-125g/km cars than any other model range in the UK in 2010; all manual gearbox Corsas will qualify for free tax discs from next spring when Britain's new VED rates come into force.Anything else new on the 2010 Corsa?It's not just fuel-saving, miser-making tips.

SUV owners to pay more for parking

SUV drivers should get ready to pay more at the parking lot, especially in big cities. MarketWatch reported on Wednesday that parking lots are going the way of airplane luggage: Bigger means more expensive. The report found that Manhattan garages charge $10-$15 more per day for oversized vehicles.

MIT researchers rethink electric-car batteries

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say a new battery design for electric vehicles could be a lightweight and inexpensive alternative. The goal for the team's three-year project, launched in September 2010, is to have a functioning prototype ready to be engineered as a replacement for existing electric-car batteries. At this point in the project, the prototype uses a “semi-solid flow” to separate the two functions of a battery--storing energy and discharging it when needed--into separate physical structures.