Jaguar to drop X-Type

Jaguar is to cease production of the X-Type early by the end of this year, cutting 300 jobs. 

The car was first launched in 2001 and sold a total of 350,000 units, far short of the 100,000 a year which then owner Ford had hoped for the model. 

Jaguar Land Rover was bought by India's Tata Motor last year for €1.7bn but combined losses of £251m by the two brands in the 10 months up to the end of March tipped its new owners into loss for the first time in eight years. 

Motorists risk 'fatigue' accidents

Almost 200,000 Irish motorists might have been in danger of a fatigue-related road accident last year if the results of a recent British survey were replicated here.

According to spare parts and service specialist Kwik-Fit, more than six million (13%) British motorists narrowly escaped adding to the thousands of fatigue-related road accidents that occur each year, after admitting they’d fallen into a slumber while driving in the last 12 months.

The research for the ‘Driving for Better Business’ campaign found that 10% of motorists felt ‘drowsy whilst driving’ and a further 3% said they’d been on the verge of falling asleep behind the wheel.

Drowsy drivers shouldered most of the responsibility for their tiredness themselves - with 41% blaming the monotony of the journey for their stupor. A further 39% cited a general ‘lack of sleep’ and 32% blamed too few breaks on their journey.

According to the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University driver fatigue causes up to 20% of accidents on ‘monotonous’ roads. Worryingly, with a scorching summer now upon us, 15% of drowsy drivers blamed ‘stifling in car temperatures’ for their fug.

This, says Kwik-Fit, is perhaps not surprising, given that the research also found that 89% of motorists had never had their air conditioning unit recharged. Most manufacturers recommend that - in order to cool the car efficiently - air conditioning units should be recharged every two years.

The fresh face of Kia

This is the new face of Kia's very successful cee'd hatchback.



It will be revealed in full at September's Frankfurt Motor Show.

The mid-life upgrade also premieres the new 'face' of Kia cars.

The fresh-faced cee'd will have two brand new Kia models alongside it at Frankfurt.

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Things not to like about the iQ

Y'know, I was prepared not to like this car from the beginning. In general, city cars are not my thing. I'm too tall for most of them, for a start, and while I can temporarily have a fling with one, a long-term relationship just isn't the thing. More

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Sporty hybrid from Honda

Just to show that hybrid doesn't mean middle of the road and staid, Honda has just confirmed that it is to manufacture the CR-Z sports hybrid next year.



The car will be sold in Europe, though the timescale hasn't yet been released.

The coupe is based on the CR-Z concept car which made its world debut at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show in 2007.

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Is silence golden, or dangerous?

We drove the prototype Renault be bop ZE electric car yesterday at a quiet location north of Paris.

As with other EVs we have tried, the silence is the most interesting thing. And we wonder how much quieter our cities will be in the near to medium future?



There are a number of declared concerns about the quietness of EV and hybrid vehicles, which are neatly discussed up in this piece from The New York Times.

We'd plump for keeping them quiet and using a bicycle bell ...

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