2006 Audi A3 A4 A4 Avant A6 A6 S4 Avant Tt Roadster Tt Coupe Allroad Quattro on 2040-parts.com

Video: Jaguar's Wayne Burgess and his design credos

Jaguar production studio director Wayne Burgess discusses his design credos and offers advice to aspiring car designers in a video from our friends at Jalopnik. He describes his design process as "creating order from chaos", channeling a burst of eclectic ideas down into a simple, pure form. "Design is an iterative process where it's all about throwing it out there, getting a load pinned up to a board and then looking to see what is working best.

Toyota NS4 Advanced Plug-in Hybrid Concept

The Toyota NS4 Advanced Plug-in Hybrid Concept marks another step in the recent revival of the company's design direction. Its silhouette is almost identical to the FCV-R concept unveiled in Tokyo, with a soft transition through hood, screen and roof, through to the high rear deck. This has become the visual identifier for hybrid cars of late.

Mazda SkyActiv technology goes on offer to raise funds

Mazda is looking to license their SkyActiv Technology to raise capital (CX-5 with SkyActiv pictured) Mazda are predicting losses for the current financial year of £750 million and are looking to sell their SkyActiv technology to raise cash. Mazda isn’t having the best of times at the moment, despite an impressive range of cars that are getting more interesting with Mazda’s SkyActiv technology, and are predicting that they will post a loss of around £750 million for the current financial year. There are a variety of reasons for Mazda’s financial predicament – including the strength of the Yen and the production problems after the Japanese Tsunami – but this is the fourth year in a row Mazda has posted losses.