1960-66 Chevy Truck Front Bed Panel - Fleetside on 2040-parts.com

Ex Ford, Mazda designer to head styling at Renault

Former Ford Motor and Mazda designer Laurens van den Acker will succeed Patrick le Quement as head of design at French automaker Renault. Van den Acker, 43, quit as head of design at Mazda earlier this month. He will join Renault on May 15 and assume le Quement's full responsibilities starting on Nov.

Kia goes (dark) green

By Jesse Crosse Motor Industry 23 September 2008 11:00 Kia has unveiled a portfolio of new environmental technologies, including a 1.4-litre Ceed with stop-start (due in the UK in 2009), a Ceed hybrid and the latest version of its fuel cell-powered Sportage. The Korean manufacturer is investing heavily in research and development and will increase its spend on R&D from £2.2 billion this year to £2.6 billion by 2010, combined with a 40 percent increase in manpower at its research centres around the globe. The money is being spent on developing downsized, turbocharged engines, efficiency improvements to conventional engines such as friction reduction and the separation of accessories like water pumps from the engine.

GM to build new pickups in Missouri, 2 midsize models in Tennessee

General Motors plans to build its next-generation mid-sized pickup in Missouri and will reopen its former Saturn assembly plant in Tennessee to build two new mid-sized vehicles, according to details released Tuesday of its tentative pact with the UAW. GM has been tight-lipped about whether it planned U.S. production of the next iteration of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, its small pickups.