Austin Healey 3000 Bj8 1st-2nd Shift Fork on 2040-parts.com

CDN-GM Interactive Design Competition - interior phase finalists announced

July 19 saw the CDN-GM competition judging and mentoring teams meet at GM's world HQ in Warren, Michigan, to cast judgment over the 99 entries to the interior phase of the competition. The competition asked design students to develop concepts in response to briefs set by each of GM's four brands – Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick. The judges nominated three finalists for each brand, who will be invited to attend the 2012 NAIAS in Detroit.

Now the Germans say no to Volvo

As we’ve reported in the last few weeks, Ford has been trying its best to offload Volvo, the last of its ‘Prestige’ Euro marques. The Chinese looked to be the best bet, but it seems that that is going nowhere at the moment (the Chinese are probably waiting for Ford to get in to an even deeper mess with the hope of picking up Volvo for peanuts) and now its seems that Ford’s fire-sale has drawn more blanks. Now the Germans turn down the chance to own Volvo Der Spiegel reports that Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) boss Dieter Zetsche has revealed that Daimler has turned down the chance to buy Volvo, and has also revealed that BMW has had a good look, and reached the same decision.

Ford Figo – Cool for India

The Ford Figo - made in India For has spent a few bob – around £300 million – expanding its car making facilities in India at Chennai to make the plant capable of producing 200,000 cars a year which, as Alan Mullaly, Ford’s CEO said, does show how serious Ford are about the Indian market. The Figo – which is apparently colloquial Italian for ‘Cool’ – shares Ford’s small car platform, which means that under the skin it’s a Fiesta. It looks like a Ford too, with the usual ford ‘Kinetic’ design cues written all over it.