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A younger, sportier look for Mercedes-Benz pays off with U.S. customers

When it comes to design, Mercedes-Benz was long the conservative grande dame of luxury-car makers. Styling was understated and aimed at middle-aged buyers. But a shift toward sportier and more youthful styling, partly driven by U.S.

Volkswagen designer gets 2011 lifetime achievement award

Volkswagen Group designer Walter de'Silva was chosen for this year's Lifetime Design Achievement Award at EyesOn Design, which ran over Father's Day weekend in the Detroit area. About 260 invitation-only vehicles were in attendance at Sunday's car show on the grounds of the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores. They were chosen based on this year's theme of "Designing for the Future." Only car designers who have previously won the Lifetime Design Achievement Award were allowed to vote on a winner for 2011.

Aston Martin One-77 – in the flesh

The completed Aston Martin One-77 revealed at the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este But as we told you the other day, Aston Martin decided that the perfect place to show an ostensibly finished One-77 was the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este. Which, if it hadn’t rained (which thankfully it didn’t the whole time) would have been idyllic (actually, we had heard on the grapevine that Aston Martin had agreed that the first showing would be at this year’s Salon Prive at the Hurlingham Club in Fulham – glad we didn’t run that as a story!). I have to say the Aston Martin One-77 does look as glorious in the flesh as we hoped.