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Ford's NA Design Director aims to shorten product lifecycles

Peter Horbury, Ford Motor Company North America Design Director, has told Automotive News he intends to shorten product lifecycles at the ailing company from an average five years to three years starting this decade. "We feel there is no value in minor changes but a huge value in major changes," Horbury told the industry weekly. Ford needs to ensure that buyers continue visiting showrooms as the giant automaker struggles to retain market share.

Volvo plans to polish its image with styling, high-tech engines

Volvo's brand image is stuck somewhere between "premium" and "luxury," but the Swedish automaker aims to move further upscale with a fresh design language and a new generation of vehicles powered by more fuel-efficient engines. New mid-sized and large models will begin arriving in 2014 based on Volvo's lightweight SPA platform. The vehicles will use Volvo's coming generation of smaller four-cylinder engines.

Chinese brands are narrowing the quality gap with foreign automakers

When it comes to vehicle quality, domestic Chinese brands are catching up to their global peers, according to the 2010 China Initial Quality Study published by J.D. Power and Associates. The consultancy found that the quality gap between domestic and foreign brands has reached its narrowest margin in the survey's 11-year history.