Mercedes Benz S 550 Night View Infrared Camera (front Bumper) on 2040-parts.com

Mazda appoints Brit Kevin Rice as new European design chief

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 18 August 2014 10:13 Mazda has appointed Kevin Rice as its new European design director to replace the retiring Peter Birtwhistle. Rice joins at a key time for Mazda, which is replacing its model range at a rate of knots. It will show the new 2 supermini at the Paris motor show in October 2014, following the 3 mid-sized hatch and 6 family car which are both less than two years old.

Ford tops Scrappage Scheme

Ford have made 14,000 sales under the Scrappage Sheme Ford – who are the biggest car seller in the UK anyway – are, not surprisingly, coming out on top in the Scrappage wars. They’ve managed to shift over 14,000 cars under the Scrappage Scheme in the last few months, and orders are coming in at the rate of 300 a day. Top seller is the new Ford Fiesta, with a healthy dose of Fiesta sales being the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic.

Mercedes-Benz introduces nine-speed automatic gearbox

Mercedes-Benz has quietly slipped a new nine-speed automatic into its lineup as standard equipment on the European market E350 BlueTec. The new in-house produced unit, known internally under the name 9G-Tronic, has long been slated for selected Mercedes-Benz models. However, its existence was officially denied until the weekend, when Mercedes-Benz's German language website configurator went live with various updates for the E-class lineup -- including an entry signaling the 9G-Tronic is now available on the standard rear-wheel drive E350 BlueTec in place of the older seven-speed.