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General Motors Europe opens new Design Center

Being a car designer is often percieved as a glamourous occupation, but few people realise that this typically means working in some of the least inspiring places. Wolfsburg, Detroit and Birmingham are just a few of the locations that are home to some of the largest populations of car designers around the world. GM Europe's location in Russelsheim, Germany is also one of the less glamourous locations but the new design center building opened this week aims to redress the otherwise rather industrial feel of the place where tomorrow's Opels and Saabs are created.

Jaguar readying SUV for Frankfurt motor show

While the next new Jaguar model slated for dealerships is a BMW 3-series fighter rumored to be called the XS, Autoweek sources have confirmed the company will also be showing an SUV at the Frankfurt motor show in September. Likely to be named XQ or Q-type, the Jaguar SUV is expected to ride on a version of the XS platform (itself a variation on the aluminum XJ architecture) rather than share a platform with a Land Rover product. Slated for 2016 production, the new Jaguar XQ SUV will share some powertrain technology with Land Rover, specifically the Ford I-4 engines from the Evoque.

Once there were Singers, and Jowetts and Rileys, then came the Mini--from the AutoWeek archives

Editor's note: As Mini celebrates its 50th birthday, it's the perfect time to revisit Kevin A. Wilson's insightful look at the fall of the British auto industry. This article was first published on March 8, 1993.