1996 Ford Mercury T-bird Cougar Transmission 3.8l V6 on 2040-parts.com

Ken Ma appointed VP Design at Chang'an

Former Shanghai Automotive Technical Center (SATC) design director Ken Ma joined Changan Automobile Group as vice president of the firm's Engineering Research Center late last year. Ma's new role puts him in charge of the Group's global design department, reporting directly to Changan group chairman LiuPin Xu on all design matters. But the move also effectively places him in the highest design position at any mainstream automotive company in China – a breakthrough for the country's automotive design industry.

Driven: Lexus GS450h

Lexus' identity is still unclear, even 20 years after it launched. Toyota's premium brand has perpetually failed to establish a clear identity of its own due mainly to a lack of consistency and detail refinement across its products. Can the new GS change these perceptions?

The heartbreak of Jaguar love finally requited

As a young boy in the early 1960s, I would trek solo to our local auto show in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While other boys and their dads would make a beeline to the latest Corvettes and later American muscle cars, I would always head first for the Jaguar stand. I found the combination of different styling, luxurious wood and leather interiors and promise of fast travel through landscapes that were foreign to me to be intoxicating.