Daihatsu's funky Cube rival on the way

By Ben Whitworth Motor Industry 29 September 2006 08:01 Daihatsu is on the verge of giving its boxy Materia supermini – which made its European debut in Paris - the green light for UK imports. If given the green light the spacious five-seater, which is already on sale in Japan, would arrive here next spring as a stand-alone topend model. The Materia is very similar to Nissan's does-it-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin Cube, which has been super popular with Japanese kids.

Volvo V40 Cross Country arrives

Volvo has revealed the 2013 V40 Cross Country, a new variant on the new V40, offering a more rugged option for the V40 range. We thought it was going to be the Volvo XC40 – denoting an SUV come crossover version of the new V40 – but Volvo has decided that their more rugged version of the V40 will take the Cross Country name - first used on the V70 in 1997 – and so we get the new Volvo V40 Cross Country. Following on from the new V40 R-Design, revealed last week, Volvo now offers a V40 they say is for ‘those who want a sense of adventure in their everyday life‘ – in other words, this is a slightly more rufty-tufty V40.

Whos Where: Hakan Saracoglu appointed design director of Chery's Shanghai studio

Hakan Saracoglu has been appointed director of Chery Motor's Shanghai design facility. He will work alongside director of corporate design James Hope who continues in his role overseeing Chery design. Turkish-born Saracoglu joins the Chinese state-owned manufacturer from Porsche where he worked from April 1998.