06-09 Milan Ford Fusion Power Heated Textured Mirror Right Hand Passenger View on 2040-parts.com

Interior Motives Design Awards 2009

Tonight, amidst the turmoil of a recession-struck auto industry, innovation and optimism shone through the work of a talented young group of international student designers at the seventh annual Interior Motives Design Awards. And none more so than that of the overall winner and newly crowned Interior Motives Student Designer of the Year 2009: Philip Woodman from Coventry University. Launched in February 2009 and themed ‘Sustainable and Clever', this year's competition fielded a record number of entries from 32 different countries and culminated this evening in a glamorous awards ceremony at Frankfurt's renowned Cocoon club in Germany.

Seat IBZ concept car at 2009 Frankfurt motor show

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 14 September 2009 20:30 This is our first glimpse of the third member of the Seat Ibiza family – the Ibz concept car. Although compact estate cars are small fry in the UK, they're quite big sellers in parts of continental Europe and Seat is keen to exploit that. The Ibz will spawn a production Ibiza estate in summer 2010, likely to trade closely off the edgy style of this concept.

VW and Chinese ‘in talks to buy Vauxhall/Opel’ from GM

GM is considering selling its loss-making European operations, it emerged tonight. If it goes ahead and severs ties with GM Europe, the General would cede control of Vauxhall and Opel, the second biggest car brand in the UK.And in another extraordinary twist, CAR has confirmed that top-level talks have been taking place between Volkswagen and the German government, which is keen to avoid Opel falling into foreign hands. Chinese car makers are circling but Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has close connections to Volkswagen chief Martin Winterkorn, would prefer VW to step up to the plate as a potential buyer than a Chinese brand.