Petri Prospekt Banjo Steering Wheel Horn Button Vw Heb Porsche 356 Hupenknopf on 2040-parts.com

Aston Martin make Nissan’s Andy Palmer their new CEO

Andy Palmer (pictured) is taking the reins at Aston Martin Lagonda Aston Martin has effectively been without a boss since Ulrich Bez stepped down from the role last year, but that changes with the announcement that Andrew Palmer – until now, Chief Planning Officer of Nissan – is to step in to the role. There’s no specific start date for Andy Palmer at Aston, but Nissan has announced that Philippe Klein will take up Palmer’s role at Nissan on 15 September, so it shouldn’t be long before Palmer holds the reins at Aston Martin. But what exactly has persuaded Andy Palmer to jump from a big corporate behemoth like Nissan to a struggling luxury car maker with owners who either want to tug the operating strings (the Kuwaitis) or are looking for a quick return (Investindustrial)?

Webinars: 3D sketching technology with CATIA for Creative Designers

Adding to our successful series, Car Design News today hosted a new webinar in collaboration with Dassault Systèmes. Today's webinar presented the latest workflows available in CATIA V6 for Creative Designers - a unified industrial design workflow solution to imagine, create, share and experience virtual product design - and introduced the program's new 3D sketching technology, CATIA Natural Sketch. Presented by Xavier Melkonian, Director of CATIA Shape at Dassault Systèmes, and Pierre Maheut, Creative Designer and Product Expert, the complimentary webinar showcased the wealth of possibilities available to creative designers and outlined innovative workflows based on 3D sketching, virtual clay modeling and visualization with interactive raytracing. The software aims to appeal to those looking to boost their design innovation, creativity and expression of 3D sketching and sculpting.

Mercedes-Benz future products: Small cars to drive growth

Mercedes-Benz's U.S. executives expect to add volume with a new range of front-wheel-drive compact cars that arrive starting in 2013 and new derivatives of the redesigned C class due in 2014 or 2015. Around the world, Mercedes will introduce at least 10 new models by 2020 as part of a plan to become the world's top-selling luxury-vehicle brand by then.