1971 72 73 74 75 76 77 Dodge Ram Tradesman Sportsman Van Hood Letters on 2040-parts.com

Gumpert Insolvent

German supercar maker Gumpert has filed for insolvency after a foray in to China failed to realise the expected sales. We’re beginning to wonder if the only garden shed supercar makers actually able to make a go of things are British? Gumpert – German maker of extreme supercars – has instigated insolvency proceedings after its plan to make the newly wealthy Chinese fall in love with its bonkers cars floundered.

Volvo V40 vs Mercedes A Class – Take the Challenge

Volvo are challenging buyers to compare the new V40 Pictured) against the Mercedes A Class Car makers often run a little scared of overt comparisons between their cars and those of rival car makers. But not Volvo. Volvo are throwing down the gauntlet to the new Mercedes A Class by offering buyers considering the new A Class their first month’s payment on the baby Merc if, after test driving a new V40, they still opt for the German.

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.