2004 Chrysler Sebring Floor Center Console Gray 2452495 on 2040-parts.com

News watch May 2011: today's auto industry news

Come to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hourTuesday 31 May 2011 • Canada will look to sell their 1.7% share in Chrysler to Fiat, but will be biding their time to see what the US goervment obtain for their own share first.  (autonews.com)• Nissan's St Petersburg, Russia assembly plant will shut down for five days due to lack of engines. The plant, which builds the X-Trail, Murano and Teana midsize saloon models, receives its engines from Japan.

Jaguar Land Rover to create ANOTHER 1700 jobs

1700 new jobs created by JLR to build new smaller Jaguars like the Jaguar Crossover (pictured) We’ve reported on the creation of more and more jobs in recent years by Jaguar Land Rover as Land Rover’s products, in particular, drive forward. But Jaguar is soon to undergo a transformation as a new, smaller range of cars and crossovers join the current lineup of F-Type, XF, XJ and XK to emulate the sales success Land Rover is enjoying, particularly with the Range Rover Evoque. That means yet more new jobs at Land Rover – 1,700 at Solihull – taking the new jobs Jaguar has created in the last few years to 11,000 and an additional  £1.5 billion product creation investment.

Bentley uses 3D printing to prototype new designs [w/Video]

3D printing is changing the way the world makes things by helping people of all disciplines to enhance and refine their ideas cheaply, quickly and effectively.  Bentley is the latest carmaker to utilize the technology to fabricate and prototype different parts to see how they'll look and work on the finished design. Using 3D printers, designers can produce parts from the exterior and interior such as the grille, tires, headlamps and door handles as well as combine different types of contrasting materials, ranging from hard plastics to rubbers of different tensile strengths.  The technology allows the user to create a solid 3D object straight from a digital model by printing layers of material on top of each other. This process rapidly decreases the delivery time, as parts can be printed overnight, and allows designers to be more creative in their ideas because of the reduced cost. Bentley isn't the first carmaker to use 3D printing technology. Audi announced last year it was beginning to prototype vehicle parts using 3D printers.