Mercedes CLS facelift (2014) first official pics

By Damion Smy First Official Pictures 18 June 2014 12:30 The Mercedes CLS range has been given a facelift as the four-door coupe and ‘shooting brake’ estate are given the goodies fitted to the E-class they’re based on after it was facelifted late last year. The 2014 Mercedes CLS is not a ‘new generation’ as Mercedes may have you believe, but more a nip and tuck. That means the outside has been tweaked with new LED headlamps as standard equipment across the range, as well as a new ‘diamond’ front grille, slightly chunkier front bumper with gaping air intakes, and tail lamps that have been given a darker, smoked look.

Chrysler to build ZF's eight-speed transmission in Indiana

The Chrysler Group plans to spend $300 million to build a new eight-speed automatic transmission licensed from ZF Group, a transmission maker headquartered in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The investment will pay for installation of special tooling and equipment at Chrysler's Transmission Plant 1 and Kokomo Casting Plant in Indiana and help retain 1,200 jobs there, Chrysler said Wednesday. Production will start in 2013.

Finalists announced in Car Design News-Opel/Vauxhall interactive competition exterior design phase

Car Design News is pleased to announce the finalists in the exterior design phase of the Car Design News – Opel/Vauxhall interactive design competition. Pierin Giacomo and Victor Uribe of IED school of design in Turin (who are finalists in the interior phase) are joined by Jadir E Minutti, from IAAD in Turin, Italy and Lina, from Creapole school in Paris, France. The approaches of the students to the exterior design phase differed greatly, and because of this the judges felt that four, rather than three, students merited being invited to Geneva where the winner of the exterior design phase will be announced, together with those for the interior phase which closed in December 2010.