The first UK production of a class leading, state of the art, automotive hybrid transmission for prestige and high-performance vehicles will begin early in 2020. The initial £28M engineering program, part funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), has been running for nine months and is already entering the hardware test stage and hofer powertrain UK Ltd is leading a consortium, which … [Read more...]
Newslines 18 February
Councils want part of the fuel duty ring-fenced to pay for pothole repairs, which they have blamed on the rise in larger lorries. The RAC has been campaigning for this for several years but disputes the LGA assumption the damage is due to bigger vehicles and says it's an historic problem and the alternative would be smaller but more lorries leading to further congestion and pollution. Audi … [Read more...]
Giving the Audi R8 a blast
Owners have always been able to make an impression with the Audi R8, but now they can also make their mark on one thanks to a new Audi-developed process for the partial matting of painted surfaces that enables virtually any lettering or graphics to be precisely ‘blasted’ into the painted surface of the car’s distinctive side-blades. A special powder roughens the clear lacquer on the surface to … [Read more...]
Weekend review: 2016 in the mirror
The relentless rise of Sports Utility Vehicles seems to have dominated discussions among motoring writers, drivers and the industry during 2016 but it was a more familiar family-car which impressed just before the dawn of 2017. Looking back at our testing diary for the year and also the brief opportunities for some first drives in a host of cars, we picked out about 20 which were memorable and … [Read more...]
Newslines 23 December
The wraps will come off an Audi Q8 concept at the Detroit motor show in January. The very wide and long coupe styled four-seater SUV has elements from a 1980s Audi concept but this new model will go into production against the forthcoming BMW X7 and it’s thought to share components with the sister-company Bentley SUV. Honda Motor has reached the 100 million-unit milestone in cumulative … [Read more...]
Best selling Audi A3 emissions probed
The latest best selling Audi A3 released excessive toxic diesel emissions in results from lab tests run by the European Commission and seen by Reuters, raising suspicions of wrongdoing at Volkswagen Group's luxury division. The results may embroil Audi, the main contributor to VW Group profit, further in the scandal that has engulfed the company since it admitted cheating US emissions tests … [Read more...]
“Right” & “wrong” cars curb house sales
If you're browsing the Sunday papers housing pages today, you could be a victim of a little appreciated fact that over a third of Brits would be put off a property by the cars parked outside. School catchment areas and transport links often come high on the list of factors when choosing a property, but new research shows that over a third (36%) of us would be but put off renting or buying a … [Read more...]
Newslines 18 November
Roads around Aberystwyth have been blocked by fallen trees after strong winds battered the area yesterday. Some roads in the town and surrounding villages were also affected by fallen roof tiles, power lines and masonry after what some termed a freak tornado. Car parking charges and penalties made Welsh councils a profit of £13.8m in 2015/16, says the RAC Foundation. Of 22 councils, 19 … [Read more...]
Tradelines 16 November
Automatic transmissions used in Audi models have come under US scrutiny by investigators looking into emissions software programmes. The Audi automatic boxes may act differently and emit more pollutants in dynamic mode although they were designed to suit drivers’ performance desires for several years and this characteristic is thought to be similar in other manufacturers’ models using mode … [Read more...]
Volkswagen agree US repair programme
Volkswagen Group has reached an agreement with U.S. environmental regulators to fix or buy back around 80,000 Audi, VW and Porsche vehicles with tainted 3.0-liter diesel engines. Working with the Environmental Protection Agency and California’s Air Resources Board, Volkswagen would get the go-ahead to fix some 60,000 vehicles and offer to repurchase about 19,000 older models that would be too … [Read more...]