Walker 35715 Hardware Hanger on 2040-parts.com

Microsoft demos Apple CarPlay rival

The battle between Microsoft and Apple is being fought on the desktop, on the smartphone and now in the car. At its Build 2014 developer conference, held earlier this month in San Francisco, Microsoft demoed an early version of Windows In The Car, its response to Apple's CarPlay system we saw at the Geneva Show back in March. As you'd expect, In The Car's design follows the look of Microsoft's latest Windows and Window Phone operating system pretty closely.

Mercedes A 45 AMG goes off-road in the Desert (video)

The Mercedes A 45 AMG struts its stuff in the desert The Mercedes A 45 AMG is now starting to appear in small numbers on UK roads after buyers have been tempted to shell out nearly £40k for the quickest Mercedes A-Class there’s ever been. But it seems Mercedes don’t want us to think of the A 45 AMG as just a very hot hatch for the roads, but as a little hot hatch with some proper off-road pretensions. So they’ve taken the A 45 AMG off to West Africa to show it at play on the dirt tracks and sand dunes, and we have to say that Mercedes 4MATIC four wheel drive does seem to make a decent fist of coping with what’s thrown at it.

Ford celebrates 65 years of the F-series

On the heels of this week's reveal of the Ford Atlas concept pickup, a preview of the next-generation F-150, Wednesday marks the 65th anniversary of the venerable Ford F-series. The first F-series truck was introduced to the public on Jan. 16, 1948.