News watch Feb 2010: today's auto industry news

Tuesday 2 February 2010• Spyker has outlined its plans for Saab, which include a new 'all Saab' 9-3 to be launched in 2012. Read the full story here (Saab)• EuroNCAP has named the VW Golf as 'Safest Car of 2009' after ranking all the 33 models it crashed last year (Volkswagen) • Toyota's massive recall to fix fault accelerator pedals could cost the company £1.25bn in lost output and sales (BBC)• Ford will unveil an Edge SUV at next week's Chicago auto show with a turbocharged four-cylinder Ecoboost engine, but the extensive visual mid-life facelift has been made economically possible thanks to Ford's worldwide consolidation of its model ranges (Detroit News) • Toyota has denied that it ignored warnings and acted slowly over reports of unintended acceleration in its vehicles (Detroit News) Monday 1 February 2010• Lotus's vehicle engineering director Roger Becker announced his retirement today. Becker, 64, joined Lotus in 1966, worked alongside Colin Chapman and helped develop every single model since (Group Lotus)• Tata Motors' total sales last month hit 65,478 vehicles – a rise of 77% over January 2009.

New Mercedes BLS leaks

Mercedes BLS - Leaked image from a Mercedes plant in Hungary There is no doubt that the 2011 Mercedes B-Class will arrive at Frankfurt next month. We’ve had a raft of details from Mercedes and even a set of interior photos of the new B-Class to tease its imminent arrival. What we don’t know is just how extensive the debut at Frankfurt is going to be.

Crazy Skoda concept set to wow crowds

TAKE ONE Skoda Citigo, chop its roof off, install some neon lighting under the chassis and you get the Skoda apprentices’ dream car, apparently. The CitiJet is the madcap brainchild of 16 budding Skoda designers, who were tasked with creating their ideal car out of an existing Skoda model. Effectively, a Citigo Sport has been turned into an open-top city slicker, but don’t ask how the roof closes because there isn’t one.