Kx85 Yellow Rear Fender on 2040-parts.com

Exclusive: Laurens van den Acker to replace Patrick le Quément at Renault

The wheels of change are continuing to turn within the automotive design industry, with yet another new appointment being made at the director level. According to industry insiders, Laurens van den Acker is set become the new Design Director at Renault when Patrick le Quément retires later this year. One of the most pre-eminent car designers in the world, Patrick le Quément began his design career at Simca, worked at Ford for 17 years and did a brief stint at Volkswagen before taking the top design job at Renault.

Jaguar ads 'too focussed on speed'

ADVERTS for Jaguar have been banned for focusing on the cars' speed and encouraging dangerous driving. The four video ads on Jaguar's website showed a car driving at speed through a tunnel and crossing over the single white lines in the middle of a road, before driving across a mountain road at night. Another scene showed a car driving on open land at high speed, while voice-overs said: "The adaptive dynamics technology reacts 20 times faster than the human eye.

Ford warms up new era of car-guy leaders

A minor temblor shook Dearborn, Mich., today with the announcement that Mark Fields, president of the Americas, climbed the golden corporate ladder to grab the chief operating officer ring, setting him up to succeed Alan Mulally in a couple of years. The move did not come as a shock-it only confirmed the whispers of auto industry Royal Watchers. The biggest news for those who care about cars, however, is two-fold: Jim Farley, Ford's global marketing boss, also takes the helm of Lincoln.