Jeep Oem 5116129ac Exterior Moldings-rocker Molding on 2040-parts.com

Lada 'ready to sell in Western Europe by 2013'

Lada is set to relaunch in western Europe - including the UK - by 2012-2013 to counter the threat of Chinese car makers, senior sources admitted last night. Renault's global marketing senior vice president, Stephen Norman, told CAR that Renault-Nissan's stake in Russian firm AvtoVaz would help bring about the return of Lada to Britain. 'The UK is one of the few markets where Lada was a success,' said Norman.

Audi designer to head VW's design center

Volkswagen AG has picked Stefan Sielaff, its current head of Audi design, to lead the VW design center in Potsdam, Germany. Sielaff, 49, will replace Thomas Ingenlath, who is leaving the company. The change will be effective Feb.

Bentley uses 3D printing to prototype new designs [w/Video]

3D printing is changing the way the world makes things by helping people of all disciplines to enhance and refine their ideas cheaply, quickly and effectively.  Bentley is the latest carmaker to utilize the technology to fabricate and prototype different parts to see how they'll look and work on the finished design. Using 3D printers, designers can produce parts from the exterior and interior such as the grille, tires, headlamps and door handles as well as combine different types of contrasting materials, ranging from hard plastics to rubbers of different tensile strengths.  The technology allows the user to create a solid 3D object straight from a digital model by printing layers of material on top of each other. This process rapidly decreases the delivery time, as parts can be printed overnight, and allows designers to be more creative in their ideas because of the reduced cost. Bentley isn't the first carmaker to use 3D printing technology. Audi announced last year it was beginning to prototype vehicle parts using 3D printers.