Volkswagen Polo Starter Motor on 2040-parts.com

New car sales hit ten year high – Toyota Yaris breaks in to top 10

The Toyota Yaris accounted for over 20% of hybrid sales in March 2014 We’ve got used to new car sales (well, new car registrations) hitting new highs month after month, but March 2014 managed to top even the recent levels with the highest monthly registrations in a decade. March is normally the year’s highest new car month with the ‘year’ plate change coming in, with almost 20 per cent of cars registered in that month alone (it used to be August when  there was just one plate change a year) and 2014 saw a jump of nearly 18 per cent over 2013, and the highest total since March 2014. Still sitting atop the list is the Ford Fiesta (25,753) with more than 50 per cent more sales than the second place Ford Focus (16,860), with the usual suspects taking up the rest of the top ten (full top ten sales for March 2014 below).

Audi shows S3 Sportback (2013) – but is a used S3 a better buy?

Here’s Audi’s S3 Sportback, the five-door version of the 296bhp Quattro hot hatch unveiled last year. The S3 Sportback takes 5sec flat to accelerate from 0 to 62mph, that’s one-tenth of a second quicker than Audi’s official figure for its three-door stablemate. That’s because the initial 5.1sec S3 time was only an estimate, and Audi’s subsequent tests have shown the three-door S3 actually dipping below five seconds in the 0-62mph sprint.

Ford Fiesta Titanium Individual and revised Fiesta range launched

The new top of the range Ford Fiesta Titanium Individual Despite the success – or perhaps because of it – Ford are having a play around with the Fiesta range and adding a new model at the top – the Fiesta Titanium Individual. The new Fiesta lineup now consists of Studio, Edge, ECOnetic, Zetec, Titanium and Zetec S, with the Individual standing at the top. The Studio now comes as either a three or five doors and gets electric windows thrown in; the new Edge range gets AirCon as standard as does the ECOnetic (something we asked for when we did the Fiesta ECOnetic review – Ford must have been listening again?