Mazda design chief Ikuo Maeda brings new meaning to zoom-zoom

Ikuo Maeda, the new design chief at Mazda Motor Corp., earned the nickname "Speedy" for his lead-footed driving on the race course and off. He may be the only standing auto executive to have had his license revoked--twice. It's only natural then that Maeda, who took the design reins last April, views himself as the rightful guardian of Mazda's zoom-zoom brand heritage.

Jason Castriota to head Saab Design

When Car Design News spoke to Jason Castriota about the new design consultancy he had set up in New York and Turin back in March, the designer told us he was working on a very exciting automotive project that he couldn't talk about at the time. It turns out that automotive project was for Saab, as last week the Swedish automaker announced it had hired Jason Castriota Design to oversee the development of a new generation of Saab products – the first to be completed under the tenure of its new owners, Spyker. Castriota's new appointment marks the shift from Saab's former position – where the brand was an integrated company within GM – to its newfound placement as an independent automaker, with Castriota essentially filling the role previously occupied by Mark Adams, GM Europe's Vice President of Design.

Toyota Recall Update: Half of UK cars now fixed

Toyota has fixed half of the 180k cars recalled over the sticky throttle problems It seems like forever ago that we revealed the enormous problems Toyota had with a mass worldwide recall on a  chunk of the cars they’ve produced in the last few years, but it’s actually only a little over a month – even less since we reported on the Prius recall. But having reported the negatives about Toyota – deservedly so – it’s only fair to report the positives. The Toyota Recall for the sticky accelerator affected a rather significant 180,965 cars in the UK alone.