Antenna Topper - Flaming Eyeball on 2040-parts.com

Whos Where: Pierre Authier to become Vice President of Design for Opel/Vauxhall

 Pierre Authier is thought to become Vice President of Design for Opel/Vauxhall, leaving his current role as Peugeot Design Director, according to a source from within the PSA design department. The position has been up for grabs since the shock dismissal of Dave Lyon just days before he took up the position in Rüsselsheim, Germany last month. Authier has been at Peugeot since the start of his career in 1998, first working on the 307 model and most recently responsible for the well-received 208 supermini.

Lotus's glimmer of hope: Proton stands by Hethel

After another painful year of sales for Lotus in the UK – down 58% on 2011 - Norfolk's beleagured sports car brand has kicked off the New Year with the grand unveiling of its new flagship Malaysian showroom, and the thumbs-up from senior Proton company suits that Lotus isn't on its last legs. The announcement comes in the same week Lotus’s sales figures were released for 2012. Showing a substantial 58% decrease in sales and selling just 137 vehicles, Lotus Cars was the worst performer in the UK with a woeful 0.01% share of the market.  Are Lotus's Malaysian owners sticking by the company?

Mitsubishi MiEV – Plod-Mobile

The blues and twos on a Mitsubishi MiEV It appears that since Mitsubishi took the MiEV to the National Police Show last month they’ve been inundated with requests from Police Forces around the UK to test the car. With it’s top speed of 81 mph and range of 100 miles we can’t quite see the MiEV being used as a pursuit car. In fact the only place it would be of any use is in town, but for what it’s worth we’d much rather see plod pounding the beat than floating around in a Noddy-Mobile.