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Opel leaving China, but planning a car for the US

General Motors' Opel is withdrawing from China after several years of declining sales, with the last vehicles slated to be exported from Germany in January 2015. Opel managed to sell only 4,365 cars in China in all of 2013, compared to a staggering 810,000 Buicks, GM's most popular division in China. The lackluster sales and the planned withdrawal from China highlighted the unique demands of the Chinese domestic market, where Buick now offers almost twice the number of models as in the U.S.

CCS Ford Model T project

This past semester, eleven junior-level College for Creative Studies (CCS) Transportation Design students were asked to reinterpret an automotive icon: the Ford Model T. Over the course of the 16-week semester the students created 11 different concepts for a Model T for the future without forgetting the underlying principle - creating an icon that would have equal significance and social impact like the 100 year old original.   On April 30 each of the students presented their research, sketches, renderings and one- quarter scale models judged by Peter Horbury, Ford Executive Director of Design, The Americas and Pat Schiavone, Ford's Design Director for North America Trucks and CUVs. The winning concept, which the judges thought best embodied the spirit, innovation and sociological impact equal to that of the original Model T, was created by Dong Tran, of Cicero, New York.

Ashdown tells of fatal crash escape

LORD ASHDOWN has described his "miraculous" escape from a car crash in which a man died. The former Liberal Democrat leader was being driven home by his wife Jane when they were involved in a three-car pile-up at a notorious accident blackspot. The couple escaped injury but the ex-Marine was unable to do anything to save the life of the driver of another car, 49-year-old Mark Hurford, following the crash on the A356 in Somerset on January 24.