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Change afoot at Saab as CEO retires: where next?

Click here to see all 2011 Saab articles Saab CEO Jan Åke Jonsson announced his retirement on Friday. It was yet another small but significant news nugget from Saab – the inbox has buzzed with announcements ever since the bankrupt car maker was saved by an independent takeover on 23 February 2010. The news that Saab's veteran CEO is stepping down makes us wonder what life's really like under the bravado of Europe's newest independent car maker.

Design Services: Car Menu launched

Within almost every automotive design department throughout the world, their comes a time when a junior designer is dispatched to find a picture of some new model's tail lamp, the side view of a particular class leading competitor or examples of several new cars' colour and trim packages. Whilst looking at the competition is not necessarily a healthy way of finding ideas, it is often essential to demonstrate what is feasible, check in-house proposals are not too derivative, or show how advanced a design theme is relative to the same type of cars on the market. But even if the particular aspect of a car can be found, press packs and magazines typically show cars in the flattering light of an exotic location or being drifted around a corner on opposite lock; rarely are these images particularly useful.

Toyota FT-1 sports car: How it happened

Editor's note: The inner sanctum of an automaker's design studio is as classified as a top-secret government spy shop. Even many top executives aren't allowed inside, much less civilians or the media. But after months of negotiations, Toyota Motor Corp.