Wix Cabin Air Filter on 2040-parts.com

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Ford Kuga at 2012 Geneva motor show

This is the new Ford Kuga, unveiled on the eve of the 2012 Geneva motor show. The new Ford Kuga was previewed by the Vertrek concept, and we’ve already seen it in production form as the Escape 4x4 for the North American market, but it’s finally here in European guise. So what can you tell me about the new Ford Kuga?

Vauxhall at the Paris motor show 2008

By Guy Bird Motor Shows 02 October 2008 16:31 The Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer bagged its world debut as an Opel-badged vehicle in Paris. Yet another well styled, curvaceous family estate in the vein of the Citroen C5, Ford Mondeo and Honda Accord, it begs the question: is the large boxy load-lugger now officially dead?   The curving roofline – with integrated rear spoiler to visually extend it even further – plus a much more shapely rear end consign the very square old Vectra estate to history. It also results in a decent-for-class 0.30 Cd drag coefficient.