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Exclusive: The Designers Pt1 – Gorden Wagener, Mercedes-Benz

Car Design News launched its first ever Car Design Review yearbook at the Geneva motor show, featuring the award-winning Production Car and Concept Car Designs of 2013. Over the next three months we'll be publishing – in their own words – world-exclusive interviews with the 12 professional design judges involved in these awards, featuring their individual votes, their views on the year just gone plus their hopes for the year ahead. Kicking off the series is vice-president of design for Mercedes-Benz, Gorden Wagener, talking up the global recovery, exciting new Mercedes design studios and why a certain Pininfarina coupé was his favorite concept of 2013...

VW to intro Passat BlueMotion Concept at Detroit auto show

While performance heads are anxiously awaiting the North American debut of the hot-heat Mk VII Golf R at the Detroit auto show, Volkswagen's Passat BlueMotion Concept offers never-before technology in the Yank/Canuck family sedan segment: a four-pot motor with cylinder deactivation. Based on the EA211 1.4L turbo motor we sampled last year in the Euro-market Audi A3 sedan, the Passat BlueMotion Concept's engine is capable of shutting down the middle two cylinders during cruise, and features the Jetta Hybrid's gearbox, a twin-clutch unit capable of decoupling from the engine during off-throttle coasting. In the Passat's application, the 1.4 puts out 150 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque; VW suggests its highway fuel economy will stand at 42 mpg.

VW may add small car or SUV to U.S. plant

Volkswagen may build a small car or an SUV at its new U.S. plant in Tennessee, in addition to the mid-sized sedan that goes into production there next year. VW is considering options for the plant's second product even before it has begun building its first, Tom Loafman, the company's purchasing director, said here last week at the CAR Management Briefing Seminars.