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Toyota iQ concept

By Tim Pollard Motor Shows 11 September 2007 02:53 Toyota iQ: the lowdown The Japanese scored one of the very few surprises of the Frankfurt show this year, with the titchy iQ concept car that previews Toyota’s new sub-Aygo city car. It’s one of our favourite cars at the show, bristling with intelligent new thinking and design flourishes to make small cars interesting again. And the best news is that Toyota has committed to building a production version, probably due in European showrooms by 2009.

The Future Role of the Vehicle Designer

The vehicle design department at the Royal College of Art hosted the second in a series of five lectures looking at the future of the profession last week. Moving on from the previous week's topic of sustainability, this debate explored the future roles and responsibilities of the vehicle designer. Head of department Dale Harrow began by posing the question "Is it time to rethink – do we still need the car?" Although still relevant, Harrow's ultimate answer to this was that the profession was about to see marked change, with the end to an era where "designers are locked behind closed doors in studios".

Ashdown tells of fatal crash escape

LORD ASHDOWN has described his "miraculous" escape from a car crash in which a man died. The former Liberal Democrat leader was being driven home by his wife Jane when they were involved in a three-car pile-up at a notorious accident blackspot. The couple escaped injury but the ex-Marine was unable to do anything to save the life of the driver of another car, 49-year-old Mark Hurford, following the crash on the A356 in Somerset on January 24.